Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1888-06-25

p;eoge not mine own self. 4. For I know nothing
ss udgS e1 m ann Is nG se oeS Srs
Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come
darkness and make manifest the counsels OF the
from God.
The words of these verses have q more
special and also more general Significance,
They tell us what the writer thought of his
own life and work as connected with the Pc
cnliar circumstances inMRhich he was placed,
and at the same time they suggest to us what
he regarded as the true idea of human living
and working which should be in the minds
OF all right thinking men, In our consider
alton of the lessons which they teacht as we
are assembled on this most interesting day,
4 it becomes as of course to turn to the more
general meaning and application. Il is our
own lives in the present, and not the lives of
Paul and his associates in the far distant age,
which rise before our thoughts at this hour,
and our questioning is as to what our lives
are and ought to be.
The foundation thought of life az present.
ed by the apostle in this passage is that of a
stewardship. The steward, or the person
designated BY the Greek term for which this
English equivalent is given by our transla-
tors, was, In the age when this epistle was
written, q manager of household or other af-
fairs commissioned and employed BY the
head of q house or it's proprietor. He was
generally, though not always, slave, and
was thus under peculiar obligations to his
master. Subordination to another whose
purposes and work he accomplished; and re-
sponsibility to that other for the /fu1fllment
of duty, were essential to the idea of the Of
4, fee which he held. He eeR1d not be. With
propriety, in any true4< ,sHse, worker for
himself or the formeof the great plan of
his living His task was appointed him, and
his duty was t0Faccept it and perform it as it
was made Known to him by the one who as
signed 9lm his place. Such a stewardship
nj !, TN,
conception is suggested by the other figure;
(which is employed. The minister, as the
term is here used, was an under-rower, and
thus subordinate person who gave his as
sistance to his superior and acted under his
direction. The fitness of these figures to set
forth the position of the apostle and the
fellow workers with whom he was comparing
l himself, as they were called. of God to the
special work of preaching the gospel, will at
once be recognized. The mysteries of God
l with which they were intrusted were the
truths respecting the divine plan of saliva
ton, This plan in its every part and rela-
ton belonged wholly to God, and the human
preacher, from the very nature of the case,
could be nothing but servant to carry out
the masters purpose; he could be nothing
but an under servant, who should, in his
measure and station, render his aid to the
great commissioned messenger who had the
divine work in charge. We all readily re-
1 spond to the apostles words when he says:
s.What then is Apollos and what is Pauls
Ministers through whom you believe and
4 each as the Lord gave to him." But it is
perfectly clear from what he says in many
/ places, and from the whole tenor of his wri-
4 tings, that he regarded the particular Office
/ or work which any individual man might
have as an incidental or accidental thing as
| related to the great question of life. The
great matter of life was the same in all cases.
Every man was q steward and servant
The divine allotments which occasioned diff
ferences pertained only to the kind or sphere
of duty which might be best for individual
persons, as they should be made use of for
the accomplishment of the common work.
That this Pauline view OF life is the true
one must be admitted, SO soon we allow
ourselves to believe that there is an all-com-
prehensive and intelligent divine plan in the
world, according to which God is carrying
forward his purposes to their full realization
by means of the union and cooperation of
human forces with his own. If the creator
of men is being possessed of infinite wis
dom, which enables him to form his plan,
and of that fore knowledge by which he can
see the end from the beginning. we cannot
doubt that his wisdom and his power extend
to every life, and that in some wonderful and
mysterious way he brings everyone within
the sphere of his purpose, working all things
according to the oounsels of his own will.
The finite being lives and moves in the inf
mite one. The action of the finite is, and
must ever be, in subordination to the infinite
one and in the movement and order of his
eternal plan.
Now this is the thought of your own lives,
my young friends, which you may well allow
to have an impressive entrance into yo1r
minds to day. Let me say to each one of
you: You are not your own master. You
belong to another. If, as you move away
from this scene of preparation and enter
upon your active work in the world, You
place yourself willingly under the divine
guidance, you will be happily conscious in
the time to come that you have the wonder
full privilege of being co-worzer with God
You will find the elevating influence of this |
more delightfully."- and deeply, and you win
assent, not merely with submission, but with
satisfaction also, to the allotment of place or |
the assignment Of special duty which may
be in the ordering of the infinite wisdom for |
your individual living. But whether you
60 forward with such q willing spirit or not,
the diyine plan win take hold upon you and 1
VIII use you for its own ends. It will
strangely and silently move along the years,
ordering circumstances and directing influ-
ences, and affecting your own inner life
sometimes unconsciously TO yourself, until
ct some distant day in the future, when you
turn your thoughts backward in review of
your history, You will see that power out
side of yourself has had you under its con-
troll and has over-ruled your actions to an
may be q faithful or an unfaithful steward. |
You may be a servant acting of your own
free will, or against your own free will.
But you will be in some way a servant and 1
steward of the divine master, for you will
not pass beyond the limits of his plan, or |
turn aside or defect his great purpose. i
But let us not think of tne unwilling SER
want. The writer of the epistle is not
speaking of him. What a grand thought is 4
that of the willing onel You go forth from
this place of your preparation for your life's
work, my friends, at the Lords cali Forces
have been at work within you and around |
you as the years have passed on, which, in q |
way it may be that you little think of, have
at length wrought You to a decision as to |
what You are to do in the world. The sum-
mons of duty seems to come to you and you |
are ready to yield obedience to it. If your
purpose is right and You have consecrated l
spirit You may go forward, nothing doubt |
ing, for life is stewardship. The great |
Woodwork, in which all lives are included, |
is one, when we think of 1t on all sides and /
as bearing toward the common end. The 4
place and the part in it are appointed for /
each one of rs by the divine master, within |
whose plan 1t is all comprehended. He may /
assign to one the laying of foundations and |
to another the building upon them; but the 1
working of both alike will be in subordina-
ton to him and will be essential to the end. |
You may go forward therefore, nothing
doubling, if wherever you are working and 1
whatever you are doing your desire and de-
sign are to be co-worker with God. The /
ministry in his service may have one duty /
and one sphere of duty, or It may have an
other; but whether one or another, it will be L
q ministry in his service. What an emo
bling and delightful view of the coming
years does this thought give to usi We are i
won't to think at such an hour as this almost L
wholly of the sad and sorrowful separation.
But there Is much more that is not sad and
sorrowful. A little time will pass It is true,
and the men who are together to-day, with
their occupations and interests, and even
their sentiments and feelings SO nearly the /
same, win be far removed from each other.
They viii be engaged in different profess
sions and employments, and will be carrying
forward varied enterprises here and there.
They will have but little knowledge of one
another and win seldom be able to meet to-
gethsr to revive the old recollections or re-
new the old friendships. But as Christian
stewards they will still be one as they were
10 their early days-not one. indeed, in that
which relates to Immediate ends, but one in
The chief aim and object of their long life
lime working. A company like this before
me is never broken asUnder or separated into
te original element when ita rfleunbers COM 4