Basic HTML Version
Satisfying Employment, December 8
My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
John 5:17
.
Heaven is a place of interested activity; yet to the weary and heavy
laden, to those who have fought the good fight of faith, it will be a glorious
rest; for the youth and vigor of immortality will be theirs, and against sin
and Satan they will no longer have to contend. To these energetic workers a
state of eternal indolence would be irksome. It would be no heaven to them.
To the dwellers in Eden was committed the care of the garden, “to dress
it and to keep it.” Their occupation was not wearisome, but pleasant and
invigorating. God appointed labor as a blessing to man, to occupy his mind,
to strengthen his body, and to develop his faculties. In mental and physical
activity Adam found one of the highest pleasures of his holy existence....
Those who regard work as a curse, attended though it be with weariness
and pain, are cherishing an error. The rich often look down with contempt
upon the working classes, but this is wholly at variance with God’s purpose
in creating man. What are the possessions of even the most wealthy in
comparison with the heritage given to the lordly Adam? Yet Adam was
not to be idle. Our Creator, who understands what is for man’s happiness,
appointed Adam his work. The true joy of life is found only by the working
men and women.
Work is constantly being done in heaven. There are no idlers there. “My
Father worketh hitherto,” said Christ, “and I work.” We cannot suppose that
when the final triumph shall come, and we have the mansions prepared for
us, idleness will be our portion—that we shall rest in a blissful, do-nothing
state.
God designs that all shall be workers. The toiling beast of burden
answers the purpose of its creation better than does the indolent man. God
is a constant worker. The angels are workers; they are ministers of God
to the children of men. Those who look forward to a heaven of inactivity
will be disappointed, for the economy of heaven provides no place for
the gratification of indolence. But to the weary and heavy-laden rest is
promised. It is the faithful servant who will be welcomed from his labors to
the joy of his Lord.
[351]
363