Business of the Saint (Pearls, Points & Parables)

"Follow thou Me" (John 21:22).

Tradition tells of an old minister in Scotland, who, in discoursing on the word "follow," which was in his text, informed his hearers that he would speak of four kinds of followers.

"First," said he, "there are followers behind; secondly, there are followers before ; thirdly, there are followers abreast, and side by side ; and last o' all', there are followers that stand-still."

We smile at the old man's ignorance, in speaking of followers as before, beside, and standing still ; but I am not sure whether he was not right after all, for we have known professed followers of the Lord Jesus who have run before their Lord, like Peter, when he cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest without his Lord's direc- tion (Luke 22:49)

There are also followers of the Lord who presume in placing themselves beside Him as if they were His equal, like the man in the parable who took the uppermost seat, and was placed in the lowest for his presumption(Luke 14:9);

and there are followers who stand still when they should be following in the steps of their Lord, like Peter, when he wanted to know what John was to do, instead of obeying Christ's "Follow Me" (John 21:22)

To follow Christ means
To imitate His example (1 Pet. 2:2l),
To obey His Word (Matt. 4:20),
To take up His cross (Matt. 16:24),
To deny the self-life (John 12:26),
And to be used in His service (John 1:37) -

The Best Business of heaven is to serve the Lord in the business of  earth. Earth's occupations are Heaven's opportunities to defeat Hell's machinations.