The great itinerant

‘Who went about doing good.’ Acts 10:38

Suggested Further Reading: 1 Peter 2:12–21

God give us to rest implicitly upon the Lord Jesus Christ by a living faith, and so to be cleansed in his precious blood, and then we may resolve to go forth and live for him. Have we any work to do now that we can set about at once? If we have, whatsoever our hand finds to do, let us do it. Let us not be asking for greater abilities than we have. If we can get them, let us do so; but meanwhile let us use what we have. Go, housewife, to your house, and from the lowest chamber to the top, go about doing good: here is range enough for you. Go, teacher, to your little school, and among those boys and girls, let your example tell, and there is range enough for you. Go, worker, to your shop, and amongst your fellow workmen, let fall here and there a word for Christ; above all, let your example shine, and there is work for you. You domestic servants, the kitchen is sphere enough for you. You shall go about doing good from the dresser to the fireplace, and you shall have width enough and verge enough to make it a kingdom consecrated to God. Without leaving your position any one of you, without giving up the plough, or the cobbler’s lapstone, or the needle, or the plane, or the saw, without leaving business, without any of you good sisters wanting to be nuns, or any of us putting on the serge and becoming monks, in our own calling let us go about doing good. The best preparation for it will be, renew your dedication to Christ, be much in earnest prayer, seek the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit, and then go forth in your Master’s strength with this as your resolve—that as portraits of Jesus Christ it shall be said of you, ‘He went about doing good.’

For meditation: Consider the text ‘Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven’ (Matthew 6:10)—‘Thy will’ is God’s purpose; ‘be done’ is our part; ‘on earth’ is our place, and ‘as it is in heaven’ is our pattern. Do you, like David, delight to do God’s will (Psalm 40:8)? Will you join him in praying ‘Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God’ (Psalm 143:10)?

Sermon no. 655
22 October (1865)