The Labor of Love

"In all labor there is profit," wrote Solomon. We prove it in the affairs of this life, and it is no less true in those concerning eternal life. " Your labor is not in vain in the Lord," wrote the apostle.

The "labor of love" has the other life in view, not this alone, whatever be its sphere of activity. It is not mere philanthropy, though the truest philanthropy. Though bestowed on man here, it has Christ linked with it. " For Christ's sake" is our plea with God in all our needs and our motive in all Christian labor. The "labor of love" is no more confined to one line of things than the labor of this world. There is an endless variety of needs in the world we are passing through, and an endless variety of gifts among the children of God to minister to them. All that is required is love in exercise.

Labor implies toil, self-renunciation, a measure of suffering. If we travel for pleasure we choose the road that pleases us, but if for labor and business we submit to whatever road leads to it, though it be rough and painful.

There is one kind of labor of love we are perhaps most prone to neglect. It is prayer. We pray earnestly, perhaps, when we ourselves are in need, but our love is so limited we cannot summon spiritual energy to pray for others. " Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring fervently in prayers for you that ye might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God," wrote the apostle to the Colossians. Oh that every Christian assembly had such a laborer among them! Brother, sister, will you be that laborer ? Will you throw your energies in a labor which may bring you little notice from men, but from which you will surely reap ?

20th Century Charlatanism

There was recently left at our door a newspaper sheet advertising "Pastor Russell." Its two pages contained no less than five pictures of himself. They were labeled, "-Characteristic Attitudes of the Venerable Pastor Russell of London, Brooklyn and Washington."

We had thought that "attitudes" belonged to the stage, and that vanity and bombast were no part of the Christian character, but as " Pastor Russell" is one of the "saintly few" who are being prepared for gigantic work in the coming age of the progress of man, we must have been mistaken.

He tells us on that sheet that by spending six days in Japan and twenty-three in India, he and his six associates were enabled to give a fair report of the mission fields of those countries. They had examined the converts as one would examine students in French and, as one would judge the work of the French teachers by the way the students spoke the French, so had they judged the work of the missionaries.

It does not seem to have occurred to the "Venerable Pastor of London, Brooklyn and Washington " that if men ignorant of the French language should set themselves at examining students in French their report might not be of much weight. And who that knows in his soul what Christianity is, and possesses the light of it from the word of God, could credit "Pastor Russell " and his associates with knowing it ? There may be much that is unchristian in the mission field, as elsewhere, but it takes a brazen face for such a man as " Pastor Russell" to offer himself as judge of it.

He tells us also on that newspaper sheet that "our hallucinations respecting eternal torment, which the Bible, rightly translated and properly understood, does not teach-as every scholar in the world will agree," etc. Come then, ye humble, patient, godly scholars of every age and every land-come and sit at the feet of " Pastor Russell." He probably could not face a Princeton freshman with a Greek or Hebrew Grammar, yet he will teach you how to translate the Bible. Only remember that if you fail to agree with him, you certainly are no scholar.

Is this the kind of character that God is going to use to form the coming age ? Alas for the millennium which it will produce! We have seen plenty of suffering people in search of health giving heed to the clatter of quacks. The deception was not serious. It was only for time. The "Pastor Russell" deception is for eternity. It is frightful. By teaching, by pleadings, by tears, by all means, one would fain deliver his dupes from it. Elijah even mocked the prophets of Baal if he might but deliver Israel from their deceptions. But alas, it is easier for the bird to fall into the snare than, once in, to get free. Doctrines as pleasing to the natural man as "Pastor Russell's " have roots deep down in the paradise of fools.

Interested souls will find excellent literature at our publishers' on the subject, and at very small cost. We are even assured that none would find themselves denied if they could not pay for them.