Chapter XLII: True Idea of Service

NOW, my dear girls, if there be any grumblers among you, I am not going to leave you a single word to say. I don’t care how many complaints you have to make, or what troubles you have to endure. If you are under the most disagreeable and hardest foreman in the factory, or have the crossest old woman for a mistress that ever lived, or ever so hard work to do, or low wages, or poor fare, and no thanks, I don’t care: I am determined to make you own up that it is all first-rate, and could not be better.

I am going to shut your mouths. And how shall I go to work to do it, particularly as there are some whose mouths it is not easy to shut? In the same way that they shut up a child’s mouth: by putting a big sugar-plum in it. I am going to show you the sweetest and most heart-cheering words, spoken by the Holy Ghost, about your service: words which ought to make the tears start to your eyes when you read them, and your hearts leap with joy.

Listen to these words: “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not serving to the eye as pleasing men, but in simplicity of heart, fearing God. Whatsoever you do, do it from the heart, as to the Lord and not to men” (Col. iii. 22).

Understand well the meaning of these words. All your service is here taken by the Lord as if it were His own service. How happy you must think those holy women were who went around with our Lord Jesus Christ, ministering to His wants, and following Him wherever He went, to prepare His food and lodging; but you see by these words that you can do the same thing for our Lord Jesus Christ, if in simplicity of heart and a pure intention you weave cloth in the factory, stand behind the counter to sell goods, do any other kind of work for your employer, or do the cooking and make the beds for the family in which you live.

In the last day, if you do your duties with this spirit of doing all for the Lord and not for men, the Lord will say to you: “Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me to drink,” etc. (St. Matt. xxv. 35). Then you will say: “Lord, when did we ever see Thee hungry and feed Thee, thirsty and give Thee drink?” and the Lord shall reply: “Did I not tell you to perform all your duties in simplicity of heart as to Me, and not as to men? You have done so, and I reckon it all as done to Myself.”

When the work comes hard, and you are tired out standing all day at the loom or running your sewing-machine, or scrubbing the floors, or washing the clothes or the dishes, think, “I am doing all this for my Lord Jesus Christ.” Not a single drop of sweat, not a single pain or ache is without his notice. Do such work with cheerfulness, as being glad to suffer something in Christ’s service, and all your heartache, at least, will disappear. You will be wonderfully sustained and supported, no matter what may be your trial.

The Lord Jesus Christ knew well that a poor girl who has to earn her living would have a good deal to suffer, and a good deal to put up with. His heart was filled with compassion, and He determined to raise her condition so high as to be above and beyond all its sorrows and miseries, just as a high mountain in the clear blue air is above all the smoke and filthy fogs of the low swamps.

How has He done this? By raising her service to the dignity and greatness of a service done to Himself. Kings and queens cannot be more than servants of the Most High. You, then, are raised to the level of kings and queens and more, for the Lord has never so lovingly promised to accept their service as He has yours.