IT is far more difficult rightly to command, than dutifully to obey. To be a master and a Christian at the same time, in the direction of worldly affairs, requires more grace than men usually imagine. The master may soon be acted, and people are commonly very fond of acting this; from the lust of power which rages in corrupted nature: But to command, under a sense of God’s authority, the things which are just and equal, and not to be lifted up with the pride and passion of pre-eminence; this is to give a proof, that the heart indeed lives as in God’s presence, and that worldly superiority, which generally begets insolence, can be maintained with true meekness and humility. But how can he, whom grace hath not made master of his own corruptions, expect obedience from others with all readiness and sincerity?
As in a higher case, so in this it may be asked of every Christian master, “Who maketh thee to differ from another?” Surely God’s providence never raised men into power, that they might show their pride only, but to do good, and to carry on, as far as their power may extend, the welfare of society. If any people act otherwise, they must one day be deeply convinced, that all the little distinctions of men have no natural reality in them, and that there is one common Master in heaven, with whom there is no such thing as respect of persons.
Many professing masters are exceedingly deficient in one great duty to their servants. They give them perhaps plenty of bread, and furnish them well in earthly things; but they neglect to hold out the best of all subsistence, the bread of life, to their souls. The omission of family worship cannot be excused on any account. This, as one said, like the hem of a garment, keeps all things together, and prevents other duties and affairs from ravelling out. Servants cannot have grace indeed, but by God’s mercy; but they can easily see if their masters do not live graciously, and will readily notice it too; nay, sometimes make from their failures an apology, though a bad apology, for themselves. If masters would live and demean themselves like Christians indeed, and walk in the fear of God; their servants would mend their manners, if nothing more, and we should have fewer complaints than we have, to the disgrace of religion, and the discomfort of our lives. The wickedness of superiors, like a contaminating disease, infects the ranks beneath them, and hath often brought a whole society or nation to the pitch of destruction.
A professing servant should get by heart the following rule of the apostle, and in all his business keep it in mind: “Servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ: Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good-will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.” Our proud hearts do not naturally love obedience. We would all be masters, and set up for ourselves; and if God suffered this, corrupt as we now are, we should soon be undone.
Is the master a man of the world? The Christian servant’s light should so shine before him, that, though he might hate him for his religion, he must respect him for his diligence, dutifulness, uprightness, and truth. Some masters have been won to God by the gracious and upright conduct and conversation of their servants; and how do those servants live who say, that they shall not be so blessed? If the master be harsh, it is not likely that a servant’s sauciness should reclaim his mind, or do good to himself, or bring honour to the cause of God. Let all be done which can be done, without murmurings and disputings; and if there be no other remedy, it is better to part than to commit the sins of impertinence, or to live in the sins of anger and strife.
Is the master a real Christian? The faithful servant will render him double honour, and rejoice to obey him on a double account; both because Providence hath made such a one his master, and grace his brother and friend. If he take any unhandsome liberties on that account, forgetting his own place and duty, he breaks the order and disposal of God, and lays for his own mind a foundation of much uneasiness. It is a sad mistake of their duty, when truly serious servants imagine that by the grace of God they are to take up a new sort of natural boldness, and that, instead of putting on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, they have from grace a privilege to be insolent, froward, rough, and disobedient. What a wretched thing is it to be said in the world, as it too often is—”I had rather have any kind of servants than professors of religion, because they are always lazy or unruly:” or, “I had rather have any one for my master or mistress than those who talk about godliness; they are always so gloomy, humoursome, and perverse: In their places of worship they seem saints; but at home they are wolves, and bears, and very devils.” O this is a sad light indeed before men; or rather an unshining taper, that reeks only in a smoke and a stink.
The laws of this country, above all others, are so much in favour of servants and the poor, that the Christian servant is obliged, in gratitude both to God and man, to conduct himself with the more zeal in his service to both. Servants here are considered by the laws as equally free in person with their masters, and are not to be defrauded or abused. How then should the Christian bless God, that He hath placed him in such a country as this, where the gospel is freely preached and freely heard, and where he can enjoy his conscience with comfort and liberty? If he hath more work than his master, though that is not always the case, he has less care, fewer distractions, and is more out of the way of many deceitful and dangerous temptations.—Tract.
TOO LITTLE OF THE NEW MAN.
A young minister wrote to the Rev. John Murker, Banff, a letter of reproof, trying to put the old man right in a few things, in rather a presumptuous manner. He received a reply by return of post with this sentence in it:—”Yours has just arrived, and I perceive it has in it a great deal of the young man, too much of the old man, and far too little of the new man.”