or why am I engaged in this trade or profession?" In most
instances, so far as my experience goes, which I have gathered in my
service among the saints during the last fifty-one years and a half,
I believe the answer would be: "I am engaged in my earthly calling,
that I may earn the means of obtaining the necessaries of life for
myself and family." Here is the chief error from which almost all the
rest of the errors, which are entertained by children of God,
relative to their calling, spring. It is no right and Scriptural
motive, to be engaged in a trade, or business, or profession, merely
in order to earn the means for the obtaining of the necessaries of
life for ourselves and family; but us should work, because it is the
Lord's will concerning us. This is plain from the following passages;
I Thess. iv. 11, 12; II Thess. iii. 10-12; Eph. iv. 28. It is quite
true that, in general, the Lord provides the necessaries of life by
means of our ordinary calling; but that that is not THE REASON why we
should work, is plain enough from the consideration, that if our
possessing the necessaries of life depended upon our ability of
working, we could never have freedom from anxiety, for we should
always have to say to ourselves, and what shall I do when I am too
old to work I or when by reason of sickness I am unable to earn my
bread? But if on the other hand, we are engaged in our earthly
calling, because it is the will of time Lord concerning us that we
should work, and that thus labouring we may provide for our families
and also be able to support the weak, the sick, the aged, and the
needy, then we have good and scriptural reason to say to ourselves:
should it please the Lord to lay me on a bed of sickness, or keep me
otherwise by reason of infirmity or old age, or want of employment,
from earning my bread by means of the labour of my hands, or my
business, or my profession, He will yet provide for me. Because we
who believe are servants of Jesus Christ, who has bought us with His
own precious blood, and are not our own, and because this our
precious Lord and Master has commanded us to work, therefore we work;
and in doing so our Lord will provide for us; but whether in this way
or any other way, He is sure to provide for us; for we labour in
obedience to Him; and if even a just earthly master give wages to his
servants, the Lord will surely see to it that we have our wages, if
in obedience to Him we are engaged in our calling, a