“OTHERS HAVE LABOURED”

E. O. P. Mutton

Acts 20: 38 (to “face”); John 4: 38 (from “others have laboured”) There is a natural sadness at the loss of a beloved saint; there was a natural sadness as those at Miletus thought that they would not see Paul again. But I would like to apply this scripture in the sense that, that in a certain way, what has been formed of the work of God in our brother, in its exact detail, will not be seen again amongst us. There is something distinctive about the work of God in each brother and sister, and in our brother it has been distinctive.

As was referred to in prayer, and in our brother’s word, what has perhaps been most distinctive has been his committal to the truth in his local meeting. His was a long life of committal, not merely in terms and outward conformity, but committal to the truth that the Lord has given, and committal to it in how it worked out in his local company. I am told that the local brethren here cannot remember a meeting locally that our brother has missed, save in these last few months of ill health. He was a brother who was always at the meetings, always at the fellowship meetings; a brother who could be relied upon to support what was of the Lord as it came out; and I think there is special sorrow in the passing of an aged saint who has been so long committed to the Lord and to the truth. Our brother is one of a dwindling band amongst us, beloved brethren, who knew, and sat under Mr. Taylor’s ministry. Any of us here who are under fifty have not had that privilege, and there are not many left among us who did, and some of those are now unable to serve.

That is why I read the second scripture, because I think what was distinctive in our brother was the way in which he supported locally the working out of the truth as enshrined in beloved Mr. J. Taylor’s ministry, under the Lord’s hand. Now the question is “others have laboured”—our brother has laboured and he has entered into his rest. I am sure the Lord will say to him, as to many others, “Well, good and faithful bondman ... enter into the joy of thy Lord”, Matthew 25: 21. What a thing that is! Two weeks ago we had a reading here, and sitting looking at our brother one reflected that within a few weeks or months (I did not realize it would be so soon) he would actually be with his Lord. What a rest, what a reward, for our brother who has laboured so faithfully and well. But then there is this other part of the verse, as to whether we are going to enter into this labour “others have laboured”—have we entered into their labours?

I would say affectionately a word to those of my own generation, those in their thirties and forties, that the testimony is resting, and should rest at the moment, very largely on our shoulders. We should not leave it to those who are getting on in years. Brothers in their seventies and eighties have faced the brunt of the day.

What a day it has been; times of conflict, times of testing, sorrow, times of division. Now those of us who are in middle age should be taking the brunt of the burden. That means we need to be formed in the way these beloved men have been formed; formed in affection for the Lord; formed in affection for the saints; formed in the ministry that the Lord has given.

Our brother referred in prayer to our brother as a spiritual father. There are not many of them and now we have lost another. Are those features going to be carried on? Have we entered into the labours of a generation, beloved brethren, that is beginning to leave us, one after another being taken? It now rests with those of us who in our localities would seek to take up responsibility.

Those of us who are married, and have households, can support the testimony locally, as our brother’s household has done in this place. If the testimony is going to continue, under the Lord’s hand, what about those of us who are a little younger; are we going to enter into these labours? Not just by way of work; not just by way of public service; our brother was not characterized by service in public ministry exactly; his service was supportive of what the Lord was giving, and what He was doing, and marked by care for the local company where the Lord had set him. May those of us who are younger, indeed all of us, commit ourselves to taking on the spirit of what has been left to us by way of remembrance of what our brother has been. If the Lord leaves us here we need to do some labouring, and to enter into it as fully committed to what the Lord has on the earth at the present time, for His name’s sake.