Servants and service

I have made no attempt to define the duties of any special household department, or to suggest what share of work should fall to each servant. Details must vary a good deal according to the number employed, and the habits and rules of each family.

My object in writing has been to offer such advice to servants, and particularly to young ones, as may help them to take a higher view of their position, its trusts and responsibilities. To show them first how great is the influence they possess, and, secondly, how they may use it for good.

Such little word-pictures as I have drawn, by way of illustrating my meaning, are all from real life and personal experience. I trust they may serve either as examples or warnings to those who look on them with an understanding eye.

I have wished to show girls in service that the very simplest household work may be performed in such a manner as not only to please your earthly employers, but to glorify your Master in heaven.

What must you be in order to do this? Faithful, obedient, honest, and upright, true in word and deed; forbearing, kind, ready to forgive; unselfish in your dealings with your fellow-servants, loving to the little ones of the household; merciful to the dumb animals which depend on human care, careful of the property committed to your keeping; doing whatever you find to do in a large-hearted, loving spirit, so that those who see you will acknowledge that thus you are striving to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things.

Not in great things only. To do great things is the lot of but few. It is the doing well the work belonging to our own place in the world which alone is required from us. Remember the words used by Jesus in the parable of the talents. To the servant who had received but two, yet had turned them to the best account in his power, they were spoken, the same as to him who had received five:—

‘Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’

I fancy I hear some young voices addressing me thus:—‘You set before us a high standard; how shall we reach it? You own that we have difficulties to struggle with; that we have many things to hinder us, and so much both to learn and to unlearn. Some of us come from poor homes at first, and have had very little training to fit us for service. We have idle and careless habits to amend, self-indulgent ones to fight against.

‘Many of us have been little used to think before speaking, or to fight against hasty tempers.

‘Perhaps we do not think as kindly of our mistresses as we ought; but consider them more our enemies than friends, and that their object is to get as much work out of us as they can, and return us as little.

‘We have heard people talk of servants as domestic plagues, and the “servants’ question” is often discussed as though we had no feelings at all, or else all the bad ones.

‘No doubt we often try the patience of our mistresses by our mishaps and mistakes. But if only they would not expect us who have not had half their advantages to be perfect, to begin with, we should not get disheartened and careless about pleasing, as we often do. We want to do right, but——’

And the speakers pause, as travellers sometimes do at the foot of some lofty mountain, in doubt whether it will be worth their while to toil onward and upwards to the summit. Ah! the climber may not be sure whether, after all his weary steps, the view will repay him. He may reach the top, and find himself wrapped in a veil of fleecy mist, through which his eyes cannot pierce, and he descends sorrowful and disappointed.

But those who are toiling heavenward, no matter how rough the path by which they follow Jesus, can never be disappointed. Each step made sure renders the next easier; each fault conquered makes the victory over another a something to be counted upon. Was the path of Jesus a smooth one? Had He no cross to carry before He won the victory over sin, Satan, death, and the grave, and returned in triumph to take again the crown eternally His own?

What was our Master’s source of strength? Was it not found in frequent prayer, in communion with God, in being armed with the sword of the Spirit, even the revealed Word of God, and ever ready to use it?

Again I think I hear some of you say, ‘We have very little time or opportunity for private prayer. We seldom have even a bedroom entirely to ourselves. At night we are often up late; we must rise before the rest of the family to prepare what is needed for their comfort. We feel too tired to rise earlier still, in order to get the time for prayer. During the day, if we think we will get a spare half-hour, we are liable to many interruptions, and the sound of a bell may call us from our knees almost as soon as we have bent them at our Father’s footstool. Much cannot be expected from us—the time we have for prayer is so short.’

True; and what a comfort to think that we can always count on being judged according to our opportunities by Him to whom all hearts are open and all desires known! And how sweet to remember that it is not only our prayers which find utterance, but the very desires of our hearts which are known to God! So the longing, earnest wish to be His child, and to do His will, can be read as plainly as the expressed petition can be heard by Him.

Let me ask you: Have you used all the opportunities you have had? If you have only been able to call a few moments your own, have you spent them in asking for the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, who will lead you to see your need, sinfulness, helplessness, and weakness; who will reveal to you that dear Saviour in whom your wants will be supplied, your sins pardoned, and strength given you for every good word and work? Your hands may be busy, but you may lift up your heart in prayer. You may be working for an earthly employer, yet holding sweet communion with your Heavenly Father, God, and King.

It is not a long prayer that is needed. But in asking, you must want also; in coming to God, you must believe in His will and His power to hear, answer, and save to the uttermost all who approach Him in the name of Jesus.

A short time since, I read the following anecdote:

‘At the battle of Edgehill, brave Lord Lindsay, with his son, Lord Willoughby, headed the royal foot-guards. Immediately before charging, he prayed aloud in these words, “O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me.” Then turning to his men, he said, “March on, boys.”’ I cannot tell you how often this little story has come into my mind since I read it, or how frequently I have repeated, from my heart, the substance of that short prayer, ‘If I forget Thee, O Lord, do not Thou forget me.’

And though you and I are placed in very different circumstances from those in which the brave old soldier who uttered it found himself, we also must march to battle every day and hour of our lives—the world, the sinful desires of our own hearts, and the temptations of Satan, being the foes we have to face, and, in God’s strength and by His grace, to overcome.

We can go to the Bible for samples of short prayers, which obtained sufficient and speedy answers. ‘God be merciful to me a sinner,’ gained one with enough of comfort to send home justified the penitent publican. At the cry, ‘Lord, save, or we perish,’ Jesus arose, rebuked the winds and waves, and there was a great calm. ‘Lord, remember me when Thou comest to Thy kingdom,’ called back the assurance from the dying Saviour to the sinner, enduring a punishment which he owned to be the just reward of his deeds, ‘This day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.’ Short petition, and what a brief reply! but enough to take away the load of guilt, the dread of coming judgment, and the sting of death itself from the thief upon the cross.

Let these examples cheer and comfort you when, amid the daily occupations of a life of service, you lament that you have so little time for prayer or quiet communion with God. If you are in earnest in wishing for them, you will find more opportunities for both than you at first imagined to be within your reach.

I remember being much struck with a prayer of which I can only recall a few words, but these always remain and often recur to my mind: ‘O God, when Thou comest to number up Thy jewels, do not forget that I cost Thee as dear as any.’

Surely if we think what a price has been paid to redeem a sinner from death, we shall have boldness to ask that, with His dear Son, God will also, for His sake, freely give you all other good things. Do not be cast down: the way is open, the invitation is for you, the welcome is certain, and none need be discouraged. Come in heart, though your hands may be busy and your feet running to and fro. Lift up your voice, or your thoughts only, in prayer to God, though you cannot bend the knee. You will never come to the Source of strength and be sent away without a supply, for the fountain of God’s love is alike eternal and inexhaustible.

Before I finish this chapter, let me suggest a few short prayers for your use. We are told ‘in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,’ to make our requests known unto God. We can bring the little matters as well as the great things of our daily life, and these words encourage us not only to ask but to supplicate, or beg in earnest, that God will undertake for us. Also in asking for new mercies, to remember past blessings, and to thank God for them, whether spiritual or temporal ones.

When we are dressing in the morning, we may say,—

‘O God, I thank Thee for quiet sleep and rest; for health, strength, safety, friends, food and shelter; but most of all for the gift of Thy dear Son, my Saviour.’

When commencing our daily work,—

‘O Lord, help me to do everything as for Thee.

‘To take everything as from Thee.

‘To use all I have for Thy glory.’

Through the day, and when in company with others,—

‘Help me to act as remembering that Thou God seest me.

‘To speak as knowing that Thou hearest every word.

‘Create in me a clean heart, O God, for Thou knowest my inmost thoughts and desires.’

In time of temptation,—

‘Help me, O God, to be true and just in all my dealings, not forgetting that for all my actions I must give an account unto Thee.’

If unjustly blamed or provoked,—

‘O blessed Saviour, help Thy servant to copy Thy example, and to be like Thee, meek, lowly, patient under provocation, kind and ready to forgive.’

If feeling helpless and ignorant,—

‘What I know not, teach Thou me.’

If disheartened at the commonness of the work we have to do,—

‘O my Father, if I can do but little, help me to do that little well. If I have but one talent, enable me to use it for the good of others, the welfare of my own soul, and, above all, for Thy glory.’

Then we should not only pray for ourselves, but as members of the family we live in, for the parents, children, our fellow-servants and absent friends, and as God’s children for all His family everywhere.

However weary we may be at night, we may say these few words,—

‘O God, for Jesus’ sake forgive all I have done wrong during this day. I thank Thee for all Thy good gifts, and pray that Thou wilt keep me and all dear to me in peace and safety, through the hours of the darkness.’

As a last thought, I would suggest that if the mistress will kneel with her maid, and offer their united requests to God, incalculable benefits would result to themselves and to the household in which they rule or serve.