THE CHURCH AT WORK.

"To every man his work."- ST. MARK Xiii. 34.

"To each

YES, and also to every woman. one his work;" so it reads in the Revised Version.

There is no excuse for idleness in the kingdom of God. So much is to be done that every hand is needed; and so various are the kinds of work that every sort of ability can find full occupation. The cry of the unemployed comes up in these days out of the market-places, where men stand with no man to hire them; but there is no lack of religious opportunity: God has work for all. Every Christian in the parish ought to be doing something. There ought not to be any unemployed Christians.

Sometimes we fail to recognize the divine character of the task. We do not see that it is something which we do for God.

Thus, the very hardest task that God gives a human soul may be just to lie still and do nothing. Apparently the time is wasted; the

empty days go by without accomplishment. The soul, eager to be of service, is fast bound by the chain of the body and imprisoned in the dungeon of the sick-room. Under such difficult conditions people regret their uselessness, account themselves as good for nothing, and fret and grieve because they are not able to do anything. But we may not choose among tasks. It is God who apportions the labor, "to each one his work ;" and what we are to do is just that, and nothing else. If God wished you to move mountains, he would put a lever in your hand and set you down at the foot of the hill. Just now he wishes you to undertake this other burden, to carry a great load of pain; to be sick patiently for his sake. That is your work. Take the day exactly as it is, as God's own wise assignment of duty, and meet it in that spirit.

Some people think that they are not doing any work for God because they are simply attending to their own business. They are occupied every day, and every minute of the day, with those industrial tasks which have to do with human livelihood. One goes to the shop, another to the nursery, another to the kitchen, another to the mill. It may be

that these suspicions are well-founded.

Not

But

all work is work for God. It may be done for self; it may be done for the devil. all work may be done for God. "Whether we eat or drink," the apostle says, mentioning our commonest occupation, the remotest from the sphere of conventional religion "Whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do," we may "do all to the glory of God." Service is described as a duty owed not alone to an employer, but to God himself: "not with eyeservice, as men please, but as the servants of God." That is what we ought to be in all our tasks the servants of God.

Accordingly, the honest fulfilment of any duty, however humble, may be as genuine an act of religion as the offering of prayer. To sell a yard of cloth, to sweep a room, to cook a dinner, to build a house, to keep a ledger, to work in a factory, and to do the duty well, with diligence, with carefulness, and with a conscience, is to do that which God desires of us. It is just that which he expects from us. For the present, for to-day, that is our mission; and when we fulfil it we serve God as acceptably as ever Paul did when he preached on Mars Hill.

It is a mistake to think that all religious work is done in direct connection with the church. The purpose of the church is not to persuade people into loyalty to her institutions, to induce them to build and support and attend her sanctuaries, to enroll their names upon the lists of her parochial societies, but to get them to try to serve God everywhere, and every day, and in every occupation in life. That church is most genuinely at work which can point to the largest number of members engaged in honest industry, giving a full day's work for a day's wage, faithful physicians, honorable lawyers, good housekeepers, good citizens, men and women whose lives are of value to the neighborhood. All good work is, in the best sense, church work.

My present concern, however, is especially with that kind of service which is undertaken with the parish house for a workshop. The wheels of parochial industry revolve; the parish rooms are filled with diligent companies of busy people. Societies meet; committees confer; the drayman hauls out heavy boxes packed with many comforts and addressed to far-off missionaries; the petitions of the hospitals get generous answers; the needs of the poor are

abundantly and fraternally supplied; the days are full of errands of beneficence. The church has never been so busy. It is worth thinking about. It implies most serious responsibilities.

The Christian who is sick, the Christian whose full strength and time must go into the other tasks of the day, may be excused from parish work. God has already set those servants their sufficient duties. To neglect them, to evade them, to put some other duties in their place, would be a disobedience to him. Nobody who is sick or weak, or who needs to guard against the perils of over-burdening the body, is called upon to do church work. The laws of the body are the laws of God, and are not to be broken unless some higher law of God comes evidently in conflict with them. Overworked, tired people are not wanted at the missionary society. Tired people ought to be at home getting rested for the next duty. Mothers with the care of households have usually enough to do without adding to their work. What they need is recreation, that they may be refreshed for their delicate and difficult service. Unless they find such recreation in church work they have no call from that direction.

The same division of service applies also to