28 What Is My Business?
What Is My Business? This is a question of importance. It requires consideration. It deserves an answer. Unless we know our business — we cannot attend to it; and unless we attend to our proper business — we cannot gain a good character. Certainly we were not intended to live in idleness. We were created for activity. We are placed in the world to get good and do good.
What, then, is my proper business as MAN?
It is to ascertain God’s will — and do it. To learn what will glorify God — and aim at it. To live as in God’s sight. To work for God’s honor. To seek God’s company. To reverence God’s majesty. To prefer God’s will to everything beside.
It is my business to serve my generation, to try and benefit all around me, and to prove that I do not love anyone less than I love myself. In one word, my business is to do all the good I can — and prevent all the evil that I can.
Now, have I learned my business? Do I love my business? Do I follow my business?
Am I a good hand at my business?
Alas! few consider this their business — and the few that do, often lose sight of it. We have all sinned, and in so doing, have come short of the glory of God.
What, then, is my proper business as a SINNER? It is to confess my sins to God, and seek pardon from God. Reconciliation to God, acceptance with God, and restoration to the image of God — should daily occupy our thoughts, engage our minds, and be the end of our pursuits. Our business is, to ascertain how man can be just with God, and obtain that privilege; how man can enjoy peace with God, and enjoy that blessing; how man can be fitted for the presence and service of God, and be prepared for the same. Our business as sinners is neglected or unfinished — until we receive the atonement, have access to God with confidence, walk with God in holy fellowship, and find the presence of God our chief joy. Have we attended to this business? Have we learned it? Are we reaping the fruit of it? If so, we are saints — we are the children of God — we are heirs of immortal life.
What, then, is my proper business as a SAINT? It is to admire, adore, and adorn the free and sovereign grace of God, which has distinguished me from so many around me. All are sinners. Only a few become saints. And all saints do not learn and follow their proper business as they should. What should a saint do?
He should carefully copy the example of his Savior, for Jesus has said, "I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done." His example is bright, beautiful, and perfect. It is just what God requires, and what the saint in his best moments desires to be.
He should go about doing good. He should sympathize with human misery in every form and wherever discovered. He should aim to spread the knowledge of Christ, and endeavor to make everyone happy, by leading him to Christ. Every talent should be employed. Every opportunity for doing good, even upon the smallest scale, should be embraced. It is our business to "teach every one his neighbor, and every one his brother, saying, Know the Lord." To oppose sin, to banish ignorance, to relieve indigence, and to endeavor to introduce happiness into every circle and every place. Every morning we should ask, Can I do good to any one today? Can I make anyone happy? Can I spread the knowledge of Jesus? Can I lead a soul to God? Shall I not try? Ought I not to attempt it? May not God honor any feeble, well-meant endeavor to accomplish so glorious a work? But we are mortal, we shall soon die, we must exchange time — for eternity.
What, then, is my proper business as a traveler to eternity? It is daily to keep my end in view — to live as one that must give an account, and who may be called very soon, very suddenly, to do so. My business is to keep short accounts, putting off nothing until tomorrow which I can do today; and daily getting my sins blotted out in the precious blood of Jesus. Never let me lie down at night with guilt on my conscience, or carry the guilt of today into the business of tomorrow. I ought to keep my loins girt, my lamp clean, my vessel full of oil, my evidences bright, and my affairs all in readiness for the sudden coming of the Lord.
Dying will be found quite work enough for the last day, without leaving anything to finish then. Let us, therefore, "die daily;" let us do every day’s work in the day; and "so an entrance shall be ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior."
Beloved, let us ask, "What is my business?" And let us attend to it carefully, cheerfully, and constantly; that so, when the Master comes, he may say, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord." For What End Have I Lived?
We are all living for some end, either right or wrong; and the end for which we live is decided by the course we pursue. If we live in the gratification of our passions, in the practice of sin, and indulging wicked propensities — we are only living to dishonor God, degrade our natures, and eternally ruin our souls! Many men never ask, "What should I have in view in my conduct?" They live in a careless, thoughtless, indifferent state. One would think that the only end of life with them was to eat, drink, work, take a little carnal pleasure — and then die. They seem seldom to raise their thoughts higher. They lose sight of the capabilities of their nature. They never reflect on the greatness and glory of God. They drive from them all thoughts of eternity. They satisfy themselves with the idea, "I dare say I shall fare as well as thousands of my fellows." Or, perhaps, they indulge the vague hope, that because God is merciful — therefore all will be well with them at last. Whereas, nothing can be more fallacious. No course of conduct can display greater folly.
Reader, what have you been living for? Do you know? Have you been living as an immortal, intelligent being — or like the beasts that perish? Have you ever steadily fixed your eye on eternity, and asked, with due seriousness: "What shall I be — when time is no more? What will be my employment in the eternal world?"
If not, it is quite time that you did. You must live eternally — whether you will or not. You have no choice as to existence. You are destined to live forever. Your soul can never die. Is it not a serious thought, "I must exist, I must live forever!" Will you not dwell upon it, and ask, "Where shall I exist? In what state shall I be? In what company shall I dwell? How will God treat me?"
Oh, if you should be fixed in a state of unchangeable woe! If you should be doomed to dwell with devils and lost souls forever! If you should, at death, be plunged into black despair — where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth! But if you are — it will be your own fault. Just think over this idea, "If I go to Hell — it will be my own fault!" God sends no one to Hell, but for sin. Christ dooms no one to suffer eternal punishment — but those who refuse to be saved by his merit and mercy. If you, therefore, go to Hell, it will be because you love sin, and live in the practice of it, and because you refuse to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you, then, should perish, will you not richly deserve it? Can you blame anyone but yourself? You have a bible — or you may have one if you desire. You hear the gospel — or you can hear it if you please. In the gospel, the gate of life is set wide open, and anyone may enter it; the road to glory is plainly marked out — and you are invited to walk in it; the way to Hell is clearly set forth, and you are warned to forsake it, and go in the way to everlasting life.
What, then, are you living for? What end do you propose to yourself in your daily walk? What do you aim at? If you wrong your own soul by losing sight of its best interests — if you perish in your sins by neglecting the great salvation — if you are condemned at last for rejecting the Lord Jesus — whom can you blame? What excuse can you make? How will you bear your own bitter reflections, or endure the endless lashings of an honest but guilty conscience? My dear friend, do listen to one who wishes you well; to one who desires to see you happy in this world, and happy in that which is to come. Do reflect upon the life you are living, the course you are pursuing, and the end that you are likely to make. To you a Savior is made known — to you his invitation is given — for you his blood will avail — by you all the blessings of salvation may be enjoyed — and on you endless glory may yet be conferred! And you must be either happy beyond description, as the result of receiving Christ; or be miserable beyond conception, as the consequence of rejecting him! There is no alternative — one or the other it must be.