Deacon Meeting Devotional

SERVUS SERVORUM

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, September 6th, 1885.

“I am among you as he that serveth.”—.

Luke 22:27 ESV

27 For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

If we are to imitate Christ, it will involve, dear friends, that we who are saved by him should joyfully undertake the very lowest service. If there is a door to be kept, if there is a path to be swept, let us aspire to that dignity.

If there is a class of men more degraded than another, let us wish to go to them. If there is a rank of women more fallen than another, let us pray and labour specially for them. If there are any members of the church that are more neglected and despised than others, let us be most attentive to them. If there is somebody who really is quite a worry when we visit her, let us visit her.

If there is a person who really is so exceedingly poor, and, perhaps, so very dirty that it takes a good deal of self-denial to go and sit by her bedside when she is sick, let us go. If we are to be like Christ, we shall all be eager for the lowest work, we shall all be seeking which can take the lowest room.

If you want this pulpit, dear friends, you can have it if you can fill the position better than I do; but then, perhaps, you might not; but there will not be much competition for the lowest place.

If you become a candidate for that position, you will get it. There are not likely to be too many applicants for the post, and by degrees one and another will edge out; so I recommend you, if you really want the place that Christ would have you take, that is, the very lowest position in the Church of God, to go in for it, for you will get it.

Now, Christian people, look out for opportunities of doing good to others. “I do not know,” says one, “that I get much good out of the church.” But that is not the point; the question for you to ask is, “How much good have I done to the church?” for, after all, our being here is not with a view of getting so much out of it, but putting so much into it. The Christian man’s way of living is by giving out, for he realizes that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Go through the world with the full conviction that there are some good people in it; and that, if there are not, it is time that you should be one, and should help to increase the number by yourself exhibiting a holy, humble, gentle, gracious spirit. If you have this mind in you, your Lord will be glorified, and men will say, “Is this a Christian? Then let me be a Christian, too.”

God help you so to do, for Christ’s sake! Amen.