Staff meeting – Service

We know how difficult it is to have any friendly feeling towards a crowd. We often speak of a crowd with a certain amount of sneer. We enjoy watching a crowd and its behaviour, but it never awakens in us any sentiment. But to the poetic eye of Jesus the multitude was a group of white sheep on a hillside having no shepherd. He looked upon the mob as he would look upon a field of corn ripe for the harvest. In ancient days a man’s wealth was measured by his flock and fields. They were a man’s gold and silver – his treasure. What was to the ordinary man a mere crowd or a mob was to Jesus a flock of sheep or a field of corn – something to be valued as a treasure. Dr. Thomas Guthrie of Edinburgh tells a delightful story about Dr. Chalmers. Thomas Guthrie was a parson in a beautiful seaside parish in Scotland, from where he went to Edinburgh to work in a slum parish. There was a big contrast between the new parish and the one he had left. The new parish was filthy and the people were living miserable lives. Everything was foul, loathsome and revolting and the whole atmosphere in the parish was depressing. Soon after his arrival in the new parish, Guthrie caught himself, one gloomy afternoon, standing on a bridge, looking down on the filth and misery of his parish. He felt homesick for his old parish. While he was thus depressed Dr. Chalmers came that way. The old doctor knew of the task that the younger man had undertaken and guessed the thoughts that were surging in his heart. Laying his hand on the young man’s shoulder, Dr. Chalmers exclaimed, “A beautiful field Sir; a very fine field of operation!” A beautiful field! A very fine field! Guthrie had never thought of it in that light. His eyes were opened. The scene before him was completely changed. He saw the mob as Chalmers saw it. He saw it as Jesus saw it. The mob was a field that somebody must reap! From that hour Guthrie ministered to the mob in those Edinburgh slums with new eyes and a tender heart and great success. Jesus had compassion on the multitude. Literally, the word ‘compassion’ means ‘to move towards with an outstretched hand! It is therefore a stronger word than ‘love’. It is ‘love in action’, love expressing itself in service. Everything depends on our ability to feel. Sometimes we have felt for those whom God has placed under our care, but the feeling did not find expression in action and therefore in time the feeling vanished. If we feel as Jesus felt we should do as he did. The more we do the more we feel. Unless love finds expression in service it dies away. We must consider it a great privilege to be engaged in work of this nature. It is such a luxury to be actually doing something for the redemption of the world. “Reap those fields, he said, “for the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few.” The labourers are few! That is the trouble. We have plenty of dreamers and visionaries and talkers, but the labourers are few. We are short of men who actually do things.

When Martin Luther set out upon the work that shook the world he opened his heart to his friend Myconius, and told him of his intentions. Myconius expressed the deepest interest and sympathy. “But,” he said, “I can best help you where I am. I will remain here in the monastery, and amidst its quiet seclusion, will pray for you Brother Martin, as you toil out in the great world. And so they parted. In the silence of his cloister, Myconius prayed day by day for his old friend; but as he prayed he began to feel uncomfortable. His mind was ill at ease. And, one night having thrown himself on his bed in this restless mood, he dreamt a strange dream. He thought that the Saviour himself approached and showed him his hands and his feet. He saw the fountain in which he had been cleansed from all sin and all uncleanness. Then looking earnestly into his eyes, the Saviour said, “Follow me!” Myconius followed. Jesus took him to the summit of a lofty mountain. From that eminence he pointed to the East. Looking in that direction Myconius saw a vast plain stretching away to the horizon. It was dotted with white sheep – thousands upon thousands of them! And one man was trying to shepherd them all! Myconius looked carefully and saw that the solitary shepherd was Martin Luther. Then the Saviour pointed to the West. Looking in that direction, Myconius saw a great field of standing corn stretching away to the world’s end. And one reaper was trying to harvest it all. That lonely labourer was exhausted and spent, but he still persisted in his task. Myconius looked again, and he recognized in the solitary reaper, his old friend, Martin Luther. “Shepherd, those sheep the Saviour had saved in his compassion. Reap those fields,” he too said in his great concern for those whom he loved. “It is not enough,” cried Myconius, when he awoke. “It is not enough that I should pray in my quiet cloister. The sheep must be shepherded. The field must be reaped. Here am I; send me.” And he went out into the world and shared his old friend’s labour.