El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-02-28
BAPTIST CHURCH.
DUTY of the Servant to His Mas.
ter"

Rev. w. o. MiIlican preached Sum-
day night on 'Relation and obligation
OF servant to his MASTER" text. Ephe.
VI:5-8. ''Secvants, BE- obedient to them
that are your m asters according to the
feb Not with eye service.
but from the heart; with good
will doing service as to the Lord. .....
Knowing that whatsoever good thing
any man doeth, the same shall he re-
ceive OF the Lord whether he be bond
or Free
The sermon was in part as follows:
The word rendered servant here
means bOnd-servant, or slave. This
class of persons were very numerous
in the days of Paul; and, rs was often
the case, they looked with no friendly
eye on the relation that held them
bound to their master. Consequently
there were many petty rebellious feel
ings that led to serious disobedience.
and some times to such outbreaks as
was wit lessed in the case of Spartacu 8
and his 10000 followers. A far
more prevalent fault. however. If
fault this other be, was steal
thy disobedience which found its worst
form of expression in what Paul terms
"eye-service." That is, hypocritical
service; service vigorously and care
fully given so long as the eye OF the
master was oo the servant; service
that would lead the master to believe
that the servant as Obedient and in
dustrious at all times, when really he
was disobediept, rebel lous and a
thief, stealing his masters good will
when the masters eye was on him, and
robbing him of valuable time when
from under his eye.
Such service was grievously wrong
in the case of q slave: much more then
must it be wrong in the case of the SER
want of today. The day of bond-servants,
of slavery, has passed away in our
"blest land of liberty" but the prin-
ciple of service found in our
text will never pass away. In the case
of the slave, he was thrown involun-
tarily into his position, entered no
covenant; accepted no reward from
men; while in the case of the servant
or lsborer of today, the position is gen.
orally sought, entered into without
coercion, is based on covenant be
tween the master and the servant, and
offers for faithful service an agreed
reward. To render mere eye-service to-
day then, whether in kitchen, nursery,
shop, on the farm, or on the road,
renders the servant false to himse
and to his fe low; justly merits the re-
buke of God and also discharge from
service by his master.
The divinely appointed obligation
resting on every servant or laborer,
bond or free, is that he render faithful
service to his master, or employer.
But to do this the heart as we'll as the
hand must be enlisted in the service,
"With good will doing service. 80.
from the heart" The heart is the
source of our greatest accomplishment.
Hesrtless service can hardly amount to
anything. Heart service scarcely
knows bond. I have
read some where of chain
weighing two ounces which cost 1913, 900
times as much as the original bit of
iron of which the chain WAS made.
is found in the heart-service that was
put into it. Once the mind had con-
ceived the possibility of such a chain,
like the steam in the engine chest
drives the piston that moves the
mighty machinery, the heart moved
the hand day after day and month af-
ter month which welded the nipple
ments that forged the marvellous chain.
When boy it was my lot to lead
force OF small boys in daily farm work.
recall wildly the tendency on the
part of the boys to get sick. Headache
and nausea were, for time, daily oc-
currences. But / soon discovered that
hardly any Of the boys got sick when
his heart was really in the work. So
my greatest task was, through prizes
and enthusiastic songs and acts. to get
the heart enlisted in the work. This
done the small boy performed an
amount of work Incredible even to the
eye.
1 know that many persons feel dis
Outraged on account of the lowliness
of their position and the meagre re
muneration they receive: and so refuse
hearty service. But this constitutes
no excuse and is wrong. In the first
place, God is our master and he is
kind. If our earthly parents do the
best they can for US. much more would
"Our Father in heaven do what is
best for US. II he has given US a lowly