Psalms 104:23

Psalms 104:23

It has been pretended by some teachers that works were only required under the Law, and grace comes instead under the Gospel; but the true account of the matter is this, that the Law enjoined works, and the grace of the Gospel fulfils them. The Law commanded, but gave no power; the Gospel bestows the power. Thus the Gospel is the counterpart of the Law. The Gospel does not abrogate works, but provides for them. "Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour" from the morning of the world to its evening.

I. But here an objection may be drawn from the parable of the labourers, which requires notice. It may be said that the labourers, who represent the Jews, complain that those who were called in the evening that is, Christians had worked but a short time, and in the cool of the day. Hence it may be argued that Christians have no irksome or continued toil, but are saved, without their trouble, by grace. What is meant by the "burden and heat of the day "? It means that religion pressed heavily on the Jews as a burden, because they were unequal to it; and it was as the midday heat, overpowering them with its intensity, because they had no protection against it. But for us, Christ hath redeemed us from the burden and heat, and the curse of the Law, by being made a curse for us.

II. Nor, secondly, can we argue that our work is shorter from the labourer's complaint, "These have wrought but one hour." For we are called in the world's evening, not in our own. By the eleventh hour is not meant that Christians have little to do, but that the time is short. Earth and sky are ever failing, Christ is ever coming, Christians are ever lifting up their heads and looking out; and therefore it is the evening.

III. "Until the evening." Not in the daytime only, lest we begin to run well, but fall away before our course is ended. The endis the proof of the matter. When the sun shines, this earth pleases; but let us look towards that eventide and the cool of the day when the Lord of the vineyard will walk amid the trees of the garden, and say unto His steward, "Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first." That evening will be the trial, when the heat, and fever, and noise of the noontide are over, and the light fades, and the prospect saddens, and the shades lengthen, and the busy world is still. May that day and that hour ever be in our thoughts.

J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day,p. 1.

I. Man goeth forth. Without any doubt, we wake up in a world of work. Work is a Divine sacrament. It is a sacrament of life, or it should be. (1) We are cultivated by work. Very plainly has God put us into such a universe that He can only shape us by work. All that reduces us to experience, all that stirs within us the sense of knowledge, partakes of the nature of work. (2) Work never ends with the act; it has a great beyond. (3) In the kingdom of grace there is still the kingdom of labour. Go forth; watch for Christ; work, labour, for Him: and when He comes, you may win His smile.

II. I turn from the thought of the work as a fact to the spirit in which it should be engaged in. (1) A nobleness of soul looks out from the words, Go forth. Man goeth forth; it means that he calls to patience, courage, perseverance, and good-temper to wait upon him. Toil, pain, doubt, terror, difficulty these retreat before the recognition of a great life purpose. (2) Life may be purposeful; and there are comfortable views, most comfortable perspectives. Thou art a thought of God; thou art a man; thou art a soul with Divine intuitions and intentions Divine forces working in thee: from them we gather the spirit which overlooks failure, for "what is failure here but a triumph's evidence for the fulness of the days? "Hasten on, then, to the evening; to the sharpest pain there comes a close, to the roughest voyage an end.

E. Paxton Hood, Dark Sayings on a Harp,p. 69.

References: Psalms 104:23. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons,1st series, p. 19.