Half-Hours With The Saints and Servants of God/Part 1: 8. On the Service of God
8.— On the Service of God.
"My yoke is sweet, and my burden light."
[Henri Marie Boudon, Archdeacon of Evreux, was born in 1624, and died in the year 1702. This holy servant of God was the author of many pious works. The seventh volume of the Library of Religious Biography, edited by Edward Healy Thompson, contains an excellent biography of this distinguished ecclesiastic]
WHAT an honour, and how glorious it is to be in the service of so great, so good a Master!
The condition of the least of His servants is incomparably greater than that of the kings of the earth; for their greatness and prosperity finish with their lives, but the servants of God finish with their lives the pains and trials they have had to suffer in His service, and after that they find an eternal happiness and immortal crowns awaiting them.
It is then reasonable what the royal prophet assures us, that one day spent in His house and in His service, is better than a thousand days spent elsewhere.
It is true that all men esteem and love to be great, but they do not think wherein true greatness is. They deem it to be a great honour to be in the service of royalty; they pay heavy sums to be deemed the head of a firm; but they take but little pains to be a servant of God, and, what is more grievous, they often blush at the idea of fulfilling the duties of His service.
The great Apostle was elated at a time when the Christians were looked upon as scavengers of the world, Tanquant purgamenta hujus mundi; and we often are confused when called upon to practise the duties of His service, and this, too, at the time when the Christian religion is dominant, and when many powerful monarchs have willingly professed it.
Happy are the Christians who feel the honour and acknowledge the grace which God has bestowed upon them when He has received them as His servants! Oh! what a good Master we have! how magnificent are His promises! how faithful He is to carry them out! how liberal are His rewards!
How happy is he who serves Him! and thrice happy is the choice he has made! Oh! if all men knew what it was to be a servant of God, they would have no more ardent wish or aspire to a higher honour than to be reckoned among the number of His faithful servants.
O my Lord and my God! my heart is filled with bitter grief when I call to mind the years of my past life. Alas! far from having employed them in Thy service, I am one of those unfaithful servants who have had my own self-interest in view.
However, as You are my Lord and King, I this day take an oath of allegiance, and from henceforth, swear that my wish is to live and die in Thy service.
The service of God is not only our most important, but our sole work. This is so obvious that it requires only to be stated. Time and words would alike be wasted in the attempt to prove it. Yet, alas! even spiritual persons need to be reminded of this elementary truth. Let us subject ourselves to a brief examination upon it. Are we thoroughly convinced it is true? Has our past life shown proof of it? Is our present life modelled upon it? Are we taking pains that our future life shall be so?
What is the result when we compare our worldly promptitude and industry with our preference of the service of God over all other things? Are we in any way on the look out for His greater glory, or our own greater union with Him? Is it plain at first sight that we have no object or pursuit so engrossing and so decidedly paramount as the service of God?
The spirit in which we serve Him should be entirely without reserve. Need I prove this? What is to be reserved? Can there be reserves with God? Can His sovereignty be limited, or our love of Him ever reach the measure of enough? But have no reserve with Him now? Is there really no corner of our heart over which He is not absolute Lord? Does He ask of us freely what He wills, and do we do our best to give Him all He asks? Have we no implicit condition with Him that He is only so far with us and no further? Is our outward life utterly and unconditionally dependent on Him? And if it is, is the kingdom of our inward intentions reposing peaceably beneath His unquestioned sceptre?
It is of importance not to allow ourselves to rest in any pursuit except the service of God. By resting I mean feeling at home, reposing on what we do, forgetting it is a mere means even when we do not err so far as to mistake it for an end, being contented with what we are, not pushing on, nor being conscious that we are fighting a battle and climbing a hill. Nothing can excuse the neglect of the duties of the position in life which God has conferred upon us. All is delusive where these are not attended to and made much of. They are as it were private sacraments to each one of us. They are our chief, often our sole, way of becoming saints.
But while we perform them with all the peaceful diligence which the presence of God inspires, we must jealously realise that they are means, not ends, subordinate and subservient to the great work of our souls. No amount of external work, not the unsleeping universal heroism of a St. Vincent de Paul, can make up for the want of attention to our own souls, such as resting in our external work would imply.
Hence we should be jealous of any great pleasure in our pursuits, even when they are works of Christian mercy and love. It is always a pleasure to do good, yet it must be watched, moderated, and kept in check, or it will do us a mischief before we are aware. The thought of eternity is a good help to this. It brings down the pride of external work, and takes the brightness and colour out of our successes; and this is well, for such brightness and colour are nothing more than the reflection of ourselves and our own activity.