1 Chronicles 22:14 Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold… So David encourages Solomon to arise and build the temple. The king had done his best to facilitate the building, and now he urges the young prince to come forth and do his part. It may be appropriate to reflect a little upon the fellowship of service, to remember our mutual limitations and responsibilities, and to encourage. one another in service. I. Let us observe the CIRCUMSCRIPTIONS of human service. David could not take in hand the whole business, and build the temple independently of Solomon and everybody else. He soon discovered his limitations, and knew that if the great enterprise were to be carried out he would have to take Solomon into partnership, and Solomon would have to take the nation into, partnership. 1. We are subject to personal, constitutional circumscriptions from which we cannot escape. We have a certain gift and susceptibility, and within the lines prescribed by our special endowment we can work happily and effectively, but we make sorry work when we attempt anything beyond those lines. We have all heard of the mathematician who, on hearing "Paradise Lost" read, wished to know what it proved. Well, it proved that a cell was wanting in his brain, and that he soon gave himself away when he got off his own proper ground. We talk of "all-round" men, but strictly speaking such men do not exist. All have the defects of their qualities with strange work. We may easily get into a place that we do not fit; easily attempt work for which we have no faculty. 2. We are subject to circumscriptions of circumstance. We see this in the case of David. He had gifts and aspirations which the trend of events did not permit him to exercise and develop. The sword was thrust into his hand when he would have preferred the harp; he was condemned to deal with politics when he longed to write poetry; he was shut up to empire-building when he felt the passion strong to temple-building. We possess faculties that our life does not permit us to cultivate, aspirations that we may not gratify. Some birds have little or no song in the wild state, although they have highly developed song muscles which they can turn to excellent account in other and favourable circumstances. Our environment is often too strong for us, and we must coerce ourselves into the performance of duties for which we have little or no inclination. 3. And then we all suffer from the circumscription of time. "David prepared before his death." We have only life's little day for our large, manifold, and strenuous speculations. "We are strangers and pilgrims, as all our fathers were." And this is just as true of the higher service of the race as it is true of intellectual, political, and material service. We are restricted to narrow bounds, and can do only here a little and there a little. II. Let us, however, observe to our encouragement the CONTINUITY of human service. What David could do he did, and what he could not do he passed on with confidence to Solomon. There is wonderful continuity and coherence in the action of man. Leo Grindon says: "Nothing so plainly distinguishes between man and brutes as the absolute nothingness of effect in the work of the latter. Unless the coral isles be esteemed an exception, of all the past labours of all the animals that ever existed, there is not a trace extant." No; the irrational creatures have been sagacious in an extreme degree, they have been active and energetic from the beginning, powerful, clever, but there is no conservation of their work, no perpetuation, no accumulation. It ceases with the life of the individual or with the existence of the special community. Myriads of bees, birds, ants, and beavers, curious, restless workers, but nothing of their creations and fabrications survive. But it is strangely different with man. Frail and fugitive as the individual may be, we have the ability to bequeath our small personal contribution to the general and increasing wealth of the race. There is a physical law in the animal world which economises the experience of the individual for the benefit of the species, but we have the immense advantage of a social law which preserves and perpetuates in an extraordinary degree the services and sacrifices of the humblest individual. We see this in the intellectual world. Our glorious things in literature and art are the legacies of our gifted ancestors. The architecture of Assyria, the astronomy of Chaldea, the pottery of Etruria, the science of Egypt, the art of Greece, the jurisprudence of Rome, the moral science of Palestine, have come down to us corrected, enlarged, perfected by successive generations. Bees have been making comb for ages, and yet there is nothing to show for it to-day; but swarms of golden bees from Homer to Tennyson have filled a million cells in the British Museum with immortal sweetness. No phonograph has caught and preserved the music of the birds, although they have piped from the morning of time; but the songs and symphonies of ancient minstrels stir our souls with deep thoughts and passions. And once again we see this continuity of service in the national life. Our fathers bequeathed us this great empire. Your toils and sacrifices will be conserved, they will be added to the general stock, they will survive for ages. Here is our grand comfort and encouragement. Real work is wealth that moth and rust do not corrupt. III. Observe, lastly, to your encouragement, the COMPLEMENTARINESS Of human service. What David could not do Solomon could do. What is missing in one man is found in another; what is lacking in one man's service is supplied by the service of another. We see at a glance that men are wonderfully different from each other. Living things and creatures have always an individuality more or less sharp. Artificial things are uniform. The roses on my drawing-room paper are surprisingly alike — exactly the same size, the same colour, the same number of leaves, the flowers grow at precisely the same distance from each other, grow at the same angle, are identical in form and colour whether they grow at the top of the room or the bottom, whether they get the sun or the shade, and they never vary with the seasons; but the garden outside has no uniformity. The roses are all sizes and colours, grow at all angles, and not the roses only but other flowers of a thousand shapes and dyes and perfumes. So in society. David has a character of his own, so has Solomon. And this individuality becomes the sharper with education. Culture intensifies individuality, civilisation spells differentiation, godliness means individual distinction. And because we are different we often think severely of one another. The multitude of teachers utterly unlike each other unconsciously conspire to bring out the whole truth. "Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas," and yet the threefold, the thousandfold, ministry is necessary to bring out the infinite truth. Amongst the great company of preachers, each with his singular appreciation of truth and righteousness and grace, the world gets the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. And so the multitude of workers, utterly unlike each other, cover the whole field of service. As geologists, astronomers, chemists, and many other workers in nature complete the circle of the sciences, so the various servants of Christ and humanity, guided by the sovereign, universal Spirit, take up all kinds of gracious work so that all needs may be ministered unto and the whole race be visited and blessed. "Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work." "Thou mayest add thereto." It is a matter of obligation. Are we to receive all and do nothing? Some people add very little to anything. But we all feel how ignoble are such parasitic souls. Solomon felt that it was an obligation to build, and we are awfully guilty if we shirk the work which God has so manifestly committed to us. "Thou mayest add thereto." It is a privilege to do so. When God built the world He did it altogether without our intervention. We were not there when He laid the foundations of the earth. We had no hand in piling the Alps. We did not dig a trench for the Atlantic. We did not adorn the firmament with golden star and silver crescent and crimson cloud. We did not plant the oaks of Bashan or the cedars of Lebanon. The rainbow owes nothing to our paint-pot. God did it all. "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands." But God has granted to us the glorious privilege of being His fellow-workers in building up a regenerated humanity. Our thoughts, gifts, sympathies, prayers, tears may go into this new creation whose glory shall eclipse that of sun or star. "See that no man take thy crown" — that is, see that no man does thy work. (W. L. Watkinson.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto. |
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