The Metropolitan Tabernacle pulpit Author:Charles Haddon Spurgeon Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: WITH THE KING FOR HIS WORK! (A motto for Sunday-school Teachers.) Delivered On Thursday Evening, November Ist, 1877, By C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE M... more »ETROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. " These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges : there they dwelt with the king for his work."—1 Chronicles iv. 23. All labour is honourable. No man ever needs to be ashamed of an honest calling. Whether a potter or a gardener, or whatever else his occupation may be, the workman need never blush at the craft or toil by which he earns his honest wage. " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," belongs to us all. The sluggard may well be ashamed of his sloth, not the diligent man of his industry. It is quite certain that the word of God does not disparage the humblest calling. I suppose that there is scarcely a trade or occupation which is not mentioned in sacred Scripture. The rough hand and the rugged face of the peasant are to be preferred before the dainty finger and the sleek form of the Pharisee. And the election of grace has comprised men of all sorts—herdsman and fisherman, brickmaker and tent maker; those who ploughed the soil, and those who ploughed the sea. From all ranks and classes and conditions of men God has been pleased to call forth his own; and he has loved them none the less because they have had to soil their hands with the potter's clay, or bend their backs to till the field. Wretched is the clown who sits in the shade while his comrades work in the sun. There is an honour then, and a dignity, too, in humble honest toil. The Bible itself does not disdain to record the humble craftsman's name. To serve a king always was and still is deemed a thing to be desired. Those who do such duties claim some deference from their fellows. Wor...« less