1 Chronicles 23:28

"Handfuls of Purpose,"

For All Gleaners

"... their office was to wait on..." 1 Chronicles 23:28 .

That is enough, if it be accepted in the right spirit. The men themselves might have complained, saying, We are as good as the sons of Aaron: why should they not wait upon us? But they recognised a divine appointment and not a human arrangement in all this ministry of the house of God. The man who opens the door might complain that he is not in the highest places in the church, but in so far as he is a wise man he will say that he too is indispensable to the happy execution of the offices of the sanctuary. To wait may be an office. Who shall say that those who wait on us are not necessary to the completeness of our ministry? Thus the servant in the household may have an indirect place even in the pulpit; thus the wife may be the true co-pastor of her husband; by patience, by sympathy, by foresight, by dealing with many cases as she only can deal with them, the wife may double the pastor's usefulness. We think of a man being great who is at the front or on the highest seat, but he himself will be the first to acknowledge that he could not have been where he is, and could not do the work that is expected of him, but for many minor people, assistances, co-operations at home, little attentions and sweet benedictions which find no place in public record. "They also serve who only stand and wait." Our character is tested by the way in which we accept office. If we are petulant and resentful, ungrateful and negligent, we show that we do not deserve any status in the house of the Lord; if we are faithful over a few things we shall be made ruler over many things. Let us prove our fitness for the highest office by doing well the things which pertain to the lowest.