Sit still, my daughter.
Wailing upon Providence
1. When lawful means are rightly used, then should we wait upon God for the end. The care of the means belongs to us, but the care of the end belongs to God. We must commit ourselves in all well-doing to the Lord (Psalms 37:5; 1 Peter 4:19).”Until thou know how the matter shall fall.”
2. All matters concerning mankind are appointed by a Divine decree in heaven, before they be accomplished by a Divine Providence upon earth. Even all matches and marriages are made in heaven, before ever they come to be solemnised on earth (Psalms 55:22). It is our work to cast care, and it is God’s work to take care (1 Peter 5:7). We must let God alone with His own work, which is then only well done, when it is done by Himself. The man will not be at rest.
3. Conscientious persons should be restless until they make good payment of their promises. Alas, how few Boaz’s are in the world, who pay what they promise! (C. Ness.)
Avoid over-haste in the plans of life
I want to give you old Naomi’s advice. Listen, let older heads speak to you, even let God, speak to you: “He who was, and is, and is to come,” the Almighty God, speak a word like this: “Do not get fretful; do not get desponding; do not get over-eager; do not lag behind, but do not run too far forward; take care of taking things too much into your own hands.” You are only in the middle of things. Life is a plan; there is a purpose giving shape, aye, and blessedness to it all. Have you seen and understood? There is a clue to the maze, and that is the Man on the field, to whom all belongs, the mighty man of wealth. Do you know Him, and is His arm working for you? Well, don’t rush now; just go on steadily; sit still, my daughter. Sit still, nay heart, wait on thy God, leave God to order all thy ways, and trust in Him whate’er betide. Be sure of it that He who has begun, in the way of infinite wisdom, has not done yet. Your days are only in the beginning, you are not at the end--wait on God. “Be of good courage, he shall strengthen your heart--wait, I say, on the Lord.” ”He who has begun a good work will carry it on until the day of Jesus Christ.” Look back and see what He has done already; strengthen, and calm, and steady your hot and feverish soul; and let me say this for your encouragement, what Naomi said to Ruth: “Ah,”she as good as said, “I know this man.” Are you a little eager? Does your soul, sometimes in spite of yourself, haste forward to the consummation? Much more does His. He has set His mighty heart upon you; He loves you with an everlasting love; He is weary to get you, and He is shaping and controlling all things in heaven and earth for just one thing--to finish His redeeming work, and to get you home with rejoicing to be with Himself for ever and ever. (J. McNeill.)
The man will not be in rest.
Duty done at the right time
I. If this is to be our characteristic and habit, there are certain rules the observance of which is indispensable. We must not undertake more work, or ambitiously grasp at more engagements, than there is a fair and reasonable likelihood of our being able to accomplish. We must endeavour, by plan and forethought, so to dispose of our time as to make the most of every hour that is given us to work in. Then there must be no indolent procrastination, or giving way before little difficulties, or sitting down or turning aside because we think we see lions in the way; but rather the putting forth of vigorous effort in order to realise our plans and to keep ourselves master of our circumstances, instead of allowing our circumstances to master us. The benefits which grow out of this ordering of our time, and doing the work of each day in the day, are various and great. It helps to secure that whatever we undertake to do shall be well done, by our having abundance of time in which to do it. It saves our consciences from the reproach and our characters from the shame of promise-breaking; for when the work of to-day is thrown over upon to-morrow, it is likely that much will fail to be done at all, according to the old Spanish proverb that “the street of By-and-By leads to the house of Never.” It preserves us from that fretting of the temper which is the certain effect of hurry, and enables us to maintain more tranquillity of mind, and self-control, and self-respect.
II. next let us apply the principle in these words to some things in detail. There is especially one direction in which it is pre-eminently applicable. Suppose a man to have the consciousness awakened in him that he has never given earnest attention to the matter of his personal salvation; that he is under the displeasure of God, with a life of unforgiven sins accusing him; and that the near and solemn eternity is all unprovided for. This ought surely to become his immediate and paramount concern. “The man should not be in rest until he hath finished the thing this day.” Who would sing songs to a man that was sinking and perishing in the fearful pit and the miry clay? Get him out of the pit first. He would be a fool who should propose to paint his ship while it was toiling and straining in the storm. Bring it first into calm waters and the safe harbour. But let us assume that the supreme interest has been cared for; and there are two observations which it is natural to connect with these suggestive words of Naomi.
1. There are certain duties which regularly fall to be performed by us, and which may be described as the work of every day. There are, for example, the duties of our stated secular vocation, whether they consist in headwork or in handiwork, or in both combined. In these we are daily summoned anew to serve God; and very much of the Christian’s everyday religion consists in his discharging these common services in a Christian spirit. And daily mingling with these, and shedding down hallowed influences upon them, there are the more direct exercises of religion, especially those of secret devotion, on the morning and evening of every day. And scarcely less congenial with the tastes of his new nature will be his daily perusal of some chosen portion of Holy Scripture. And must we not further claim from the Christian heads of families that domestic devotion shall form an essential part of each day’s round of service, in which every day’s wants shall be turned to prayer, and every day’s mercies to praise; in which family affection shall be nurtured and sanctified; in which the parents shall become more venerable and the children more endeared, and home become as one of the gates of heaven?
2. There is another large class of duties of a more special kind, which are not of daily recurrence, but are rather appropriate to particular times and circumstances, and may be said to grow out of them.
(1) Observation of the weekly day of rest.
(2) Making your will.
(3) Making up quarrels.
(4) Speaking words in season.
Do not withhold yourself from doing good because your sphere of beneficent action is narrow. If you cannot do a prophet’s work, yet give a cup of cold water to one of Christ’s little ones. If you have not the means of founding or endowing a hospital, you can take a flower, perchance, and give it to some sister or brother who is pining in one of its wards, and you can give kind words and sunny looks along with it. The world around is full of opportunities of usefulness, if we would but seize them. We can scarcely stretch forth our hand without touching some form of human misery which we could mitigate or relieve. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it.”(A. Thomson, D. D.).