Good Workmanship - Ourselves and Our Tools
W. Clarkson Ecclesiastes 10:9, 10 Whoever removes stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that splits wood shall be endangered thereby.… This much-debated passage may suggest to us some lessons which may not have been in the mind of the Preacher, but which are appropriate to our time and our circumstances. The question of how much work a man can do is one that depends on two things - on his own strength and skill, and on the quality of the tools he is using. A weak and untried man with poor tools will not do half as much as a strong experienced man with good ones in his hand. I. THE FIELD OF WORK. This is very broad; it includes not only: 1. All manual labor, to which the passage more immediately applies; but: 2. All business transactions, all household activities, all matters of government in which men are often "the tools" with which work is done. And it includes that to which our attention may be especially directed: 3. All Christian work. This is a great field of its own, with a vast amount of work demanding to be done. Here is work (1) of vast magnitude; (2) of great delicacy; (3) of extreme difficulty, for it means nothing less than that change of condition which results from a change of heart and life. In view of this particular field we regard - II. THE CONDITIONS OF GOOD WORKMANSHIP. And these are: 1. Good tools. Of these tools are: (1) Divine truth; and to be really good for the great purpose we have at heart we need to hold and to utter this truth in (a) its integrity, not presenting or exaggerating one or two aspects only, but offering it in its fullness and symmetry; (b) its purity, uncorrupted by the imaginations and accretions of our own mind; (c) its adaptation to the special spiritual needs of those to whom we minister. (2) An elastic organization; not such as will not admit of suiting the necessities of men as they arise, but one that is flexible, and that will lend itself to the ever-varying conditions, spiritual and temporal, in which men are found, and in which they have to be helped and healed. 2. Good workmen. Those that have: (1) Wisdom "profitable to direct," that have tools, skill, discretion, a sound judgment, a comprehensive view. (2) Strength; those who can use bad tools if good ones are not at hand, who can work on with sustained energy, who can "bear the burden and heat of the day," who can stand criticism and censoriousness, who will not be daunted by apparent failure or by occasional desertion, who can wait "with long patience" for the day of harvest. 1. Seek to be supplied with the most perfect tools in Christian work; for not only will good tools do much more work than poor ones, but bad tools will result in mischief to the workman. "He that cleaveth... is endangered." Half-truths, or truth unbalanced by its complement, or a badly constructed organization, may do real and serious harm to those who preach the one or work through the other. 2. Put your whole strength - physical, mental, spiritual - into the work of the Lord. With the very best tools we can wield, we shall wish we had done more than we shall have accomplished, when our last blow has been struck for the Master and for mankind. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby. WEB: Whoever carves out stones may be injured by them. Whoever splits wood may be endangered thereby.