August 1924
484
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
The Empty Seat Sermon by Rev. John Roach Straton, D. D. Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, New York City This splendid sermon by Dr. Straton is of such exceptional merit,: and we are so deeply desirous that the entire message shall be given to our readers, that we are printing it in two installments, although we do not usually do this. The next installment, will appear in a later issue.
England. Every part of it was finished. Then it was dis assembled, according to the original plan, and thus its several parts were packed, and it was shipped away in small bundles to Africa. There the parts were carried over land more than fifty miles into the interior upon the backs of the natives. And there upon the shore of the lake that vessel that had been built in old England was assembled. It was put back together and launched, and it has done ser vice for many years upon those inland waters. Now there were a great number of parts; and if one single part of that vessel had been missing when they came to assemble it upon the shore, the entire vessel would have been hindered— it would have been useless. If one piston had been away, the engine would not have operated. If one part of it had been lost, the utility and usefulness of the whole would have been marred. And so it is with us in the Lord’s work. The work suf fers if we are not in our appointed place. Yes, if we fail to measure up to the expectations of God, if we do not follow the Divine plan, then the Lord’s work suffers. There was a touch of very great beauty in this incident between Jonathan and David. The friendship of Jonathan and David has become the classic of all time in the realm of friendship. Jonathan in his love for David was saying to him that the feast of the new moon was coming in just a few days. That joyful time once more would come in which the king’s household would assemble, and around the ban quet table they would feast. Then, with a tender note of regret, Jonathan said to David: “And thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.” There would be one place vacant around the king’s table, and because of that the occasion would not be just as joyful as it might have been, not as complete as it should have been. There was a sor row in the heart of Jonathan at the thought that his friend David would not be present upon that happy occasion, and that his seat would be empty. The food would lose its savor, the merriment its charm. Have You “ Carried Your Corner” ? Now, it is to be observed that the absence of David was through the hindrance of the adversary. It was because of the enmity and hatred of Saul. It was because of the folly of the king,— his misunderstanding, his wrong spirit. He had allowed the spirit of evil to come into him, and he was judging David in a wrong way. Because of this antagonism of the adversary, through Saul, David’s place was to be vacant. And may I say1this, that when your place or my place in the great feast of God’s love and service today is empty, it is because of the activity of the adversary. We need td understand that we have a great foe ever seeking to hold us back from fruitfulness in the service of our King, and from the blessedness that goes with it. The hindrances that come to us, therefore, that keep us away from our appointed place of Christian service, are not of God, but of the adversary. An experience during one of my pastorates brought this truth home to my mind and heart. There was a man there who was a distinguished citizen. He had been mayor of the City, a very successful business man, a popular man, and greatly loved. He was stricken down with a malady from
“ Then Jonathan said to David, Tomorrow is the new moon; and thou shalt be missed because thy seat will be empty.”— 1 Samuel 20:18. S we look ou't upon the marvelous world in which we live, there is one thing that must impress the thoughtful mind; and that is, the fact of harmony everywhere. There are no clashes in God’s world. The same stars which looked down upon Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees still look down upon us. The same flaming worlds whose bright faces David saw as he led his sheep to their fold upon the hills of Bethlehem still keep their courses in their appointed way. All is harmony in the universe around us, because there is a design,—-infinite and holy and wise,:— behind it all. And if every minute atom in matter has its appointed place and its designed function, as truly as the flaming worlds in the heavens above our heads, then surely it must also be true that God hqs a place and a mission for every human life. If God has so ordered the world that there is a designed place even for every atom of matter, then it is not conceivable that any life would be allowed to come into this world that God has not planned. We need to understand that- our lives here are under a Divine provi dence; and every man and every woman has a place in God’s order in the world, that was planned and purposed by the wisdom of Heaven. Now it is true that we may not always see just what our place is. When God called out Abraham, He said: “ Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee.” He had not even told him as yet what that land was, nor where it was. But Abraham obeyed, and in the fulness of time the purpose and the planning of God became clear to him. Now, then, we are one body in Christ. Paul tells us, in the epistle to the Corinthians, that we are one body. There are different members in the body; but there is one body, and each has its designed place. “ The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” “ If the whole body were an eye) where were the hearing?” And so Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has made clear that there is a designed place in the work of God for every one; that in the spiritual body of Christ each has a place; and while that place may not be identical with the place of another, nevertheless, under the wisdom and planning of God, it is an important place because it was designed by Him from the beginning. There are some very practical applications of this obvious truth which come to us through nature and the Word of God. One is, that if we do not fill our place, no one else can fill it. The great tragedy of life at last is to fail to fill the place‘that God Almighty has planned and prepared for us-;- because no one else can take that place. God expects from us a service and function that He expects of no one else, in all the world. Our Appointed Place A story has come down to us of a steamship that was constructed in England, but was designed for service on one of the inland lakes in Africa. The ship was completed in
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