l processes, and who thus become labourers together
with God, and enable Christ to be to single souls, in blessed
reality, what He is potentially to the world, and has been ever
since. He died upon the Cross. 'It is finished.' Yes--because it is
finished, our work begins.

Let me remind you of the profound symbolism in that incident where
our Lord for once appeared conspicuously, and almost ostentatiously,
before Israel as its true King. He had need--as He Himself said--of
the meek beast on which He rode. He cannot pass, in His coronation
procession, through the world unless He has us, by whom He may be
carried into every corner of the earth. So 'the Lord has need' of us,
and we are 'fellow-labourers with Him.'

But this same thought suggests another point. We have here a solemn
call addressed to every Christian man and woman.

Do not let us run away with the idea that, because here the Apostle
is speaking in regard to himself and Apollos, he is enunciating a
truth which applies only to Apostles and evangelists. It is true of
all Christians. My knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ as my own
personal Saviour impose upon me the obligation, in so far as my
opportunities and capacities extend, thus to co-operate with Him in
spreading His great Name. Every Christian man, just because he is a
Christian, is invested with the power--and power to its last particle
is duty--and is, therefore, burdened with the honourable obligation
to work for God. There is such a thing as 'coming to the help of the
Lord,' though that phrase seems to reverse altogether the true
relation. It is the duty of every Christian, partly because of
loyalty to Jesus, and partly because of the responsibility which the
very constitution of society lays upon every one of us, to diffuse
what he possesses, and to be a distributing agent for the life that
he himself enjoys. Brethren! there is no possibility of Christian men
or women being fully faithful to the Saviour, unless they recognise
that the duty of being a fellow-labourer with God inevitably follows
on being a possessor of Christ's salvation; and that no Apostle, no
official, no minister, no missionary, has any more necessity laid
upon him to preach the Gospel, nor pulls down any heavier woe on
himself if he is unfaithful, than has and does each one of Christ's
servants.

So 'we are fellow-labourers with God.' Alas! alas! how poorly the
average Christian realises--I do not say discharges, but
re