|
8. As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.
Instinct teaches the bird, that the nest is the only place of safety or repose. Here God has provided her special cover. (Deuteronomy 22:6, 7.) Nothing therefore but danger awaits her in her wanderings. And seldom does she return without some injury to herself or her nestlings. Perhaps her nest is cold and inconvenient. But her wanderings make her more restless and dissatisfied. She is safe and happy only while she keeps her nest.
Not less senseless and dangerous is it lightly to leave the place, society, or calling, which Divine Providence has marked out. Here man is ‘in God's precincts, and so under God's protection;’† and if he will be content to remain in his place, God will bless him with the rich gain of “godly contentment.” (1 Timothy 6:6.) But the man wandering from his place is ‘the rolling stone, that gathers no moss.’ ‘He is always restless, as if he had a wind-mill in his head. Every new crotchet puts him into a new course.’† His want of fixed principles and employment exposes him to perpetual temptation. (Chapter 21:16.) Always wanting to be something or somewhere different to what and where he is, he only changes imaginary for real troubles. Full of wisdom is it to know and keep our place. The soul, the body, the family, society — all have a claim upon us. This feverish excitement of idleness is the symptom of disease, wholly opposed to religion, the bane both of our comfort and usefulness.
The plain rule cannot ordinarily be broken without sin — “Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.” (1 Corinthians 7:24.) Would we then abide in fellowship with God? We must “abide in our calling.” Every step of departure, without a clear Scriptural warrant, is departure from God. We are safe in following Providence. But to go before it; much more to break away from its guidance (Jonah 1:1-4) — a man thus wanders from his place to his own cost. Never can we put our foot out of God's ways, but we shall tread the path back with a cross.
It is often the wayward impulse of idle pleasure; but always with the same fruit. Dinah was safe in the bosom of her family, as the bird in her nest. But when she “went out to see the daughters of the land” (Genesis 34:1, 2), the fowler's snare soon entangled the unsuspecting wanderer.
Let us look at this spirit in the Church. The “idler wandereth about from house to house” (1 Timothy 5:13), neglecting his own duties, and therefore with plenty of time upon his hands to “meddle with what doth not belong to him.” (Chapter 26:17.) So busy is the enemy in finding his own work for those, who have no heart to work for God! The discontented professor unhappily is shut up in so obscure a corner, that he will die, before the world knows his worth. He wants a larger sphere. The world is scarcely wide enough for him. Thus he wandereth from his place, “seeking rest, and finding none.” The gifted professor is full of zeal for God and his church. His gifts were not intended to run to waste. What he can do, he thinks he ought to do. He sees the minister of God neglecting his flock — Why should not he, as he deems himself well able, step into his room? But is not the man wandering from his place? Our Master's charge is — “Give an account of thy,” not thy neighbor's, “stewardship.” (Luke 16:2.)
If grace gives the desire for usefulness, Providence must open the path. Our “wisdom is to understand our own way” (Chapter 14:8); our duty, to “do our own business.” (1 Thessalonians 4:11.) Not a single talent need be wasted. Every Christian has his own field, large enough for the exercise of his measure of gifts, without “removing the ancient landmark,” that separates the sacred office, as the Lord's consecrated service. Many might be found to perform competently the ambassador's office; but who would venture upon it without the accredited authority of his sovereign? The unsteady professor has no spiritual home. No church is sound enough for him; none wholly molded to his taste. Like the wandering bird, he is always on the wing. Any one place is too strait for him. The accustomed food, even though coming down from heaven, is “loathed as light bread.” (Numbers 21:5) His vitiated appetite leaves him often on the Sabbath morning undecided whom to hear, his own will being his only guide. He is anxious to hear from all; and, as the sure result, he learns from none. (2 Timothy 3:7.) In this self-willed delusion the form and substance of the Church is destroyed. It is not a few wandering sheep, but a fold and a shepherd; not a heap of loose scattered stones, but stones cemented, fitted into their several places; and “the building thus fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” (Ephesians 2:21, 22.) The Church is “terrible” not in her single members, but “as an army with banners” (Song of Solomon 6:10); close in rank, where each soldier keeps his own place. The individual profession, in the stead of collective unity, is a purely schismatical spirit, the essence of pride and selfishness.
And is not this spiritual vagrancy the history of many, who under the pretense of conscience have separated from the Church, which had “nourished and brought them up as children”? After their own lusts “they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” The end of this wandering from their place, like that of the bird from her nest, is the loss of everything valuable — “They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2 Timothy 4:3, 4.)
Christian professor! Beware of this tampering with simplicity and godly steadfastness. This wandering spirit proves, not expansive love, but latitudinarian indifference; freedom, not from prejudices, but from settled principles. Our Lord restrained his disciples from “forbidding” the man, “who was doing a good work.” But he did not direct them to wander from their own place, and follow him. (Mark 9:38-40.) The rule to “prove all things” is coupled with — “Hold fast that which is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21.) Christian establishment is the result of a scriptural balance. “Order and Steadfastness” — “Beauty and Bands” — are the two staves of the Good Shepherd; the strength of the Church, the “joy” of her ministers. (Colossians 2:5. Zechariah 11:7.) If the “order” be broken, “the steadfastness” soon fails. Confusion reigns, instead of peace and unity. The enemy's watchword prevails — ‘Divide and conquer.’ Let every man therefore be in his own place in the Church; not weakening his minister's hands to please his own fancy; but marking carefully “the footsteps of the flock;” and seeking to find “him whom his soul loveth,” by “feeding beside the shepherds’ tents.” (Song of Solomon 1:7, 8.)
|