Joseph Spoor, so full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, was soon yoked for service. The church of his adoption has been noted for setting all its members to work, having no drones in its hive; thus utilising all its material; not always indeed putting the right man in the right place, but, in the urgency of the work that brooks no delay, placing at times the round man in the square hole, and the square man in the round hole. Mistakes, however, of this kind have been as seldom made here as amongst other churches, as our history has shown. Thus all available working power has been laid under contribution; and many persons who at their starting gave few evidences of adaptation for prominent positions, have developed wonderful resources of intellect and pulpit power. The great curse of the Church is the indolence of so many of its members. They lie upon its energies as an incubus, forgetting, as the great art critic, Ruskin, says, "The law of nature is, that a certain quantity of work is necessary to produce a certain quantity of good of any kind whatever. If you want knowledge you must toil for it, and if you want food you must toil for it." Thus it is, in the words of Gay —
Action is man's salvation, physical and mental. He only is wise who lays himself out to work till life's latest hour: he will thus help to lengthen his life and bless it, not only for time but for eternity, for the blessing of "well done" will endure through the length of eternal existence. Joseph Spoor was never so blessed in his work as he is now. And when all the great works of art and the prodigies of science shall have settled into the limbo of oblivion, his labours, so fruitful in good to thousands, will shine out more and more gloriously, and the blessing of those that were ready to perish will come upon him through the everlasting ages.
In the December of 1830, the Newcastle-on-Tyne circuit put his name on the plan as an exhorter. The work to which he was thus called appeared to him to be so great and momentous in its issues, and his own insufficiency so glaring, that he hesitated and trembled. But it seemed to his quenchless zeal such a grand thing to save souls from death, and in addition to this, the call of the Church was to him so clearly the call of God, that he ventured with much fear and trembling to speak publicly in the name of the Lord Jesus. His own words are: "This was a cross to me, and a heavy one. I said, Send any one but me. I saw the greatness of the work, and oh, how ill qualified I was for it. I trembled, and would fain have refused, but it seemed laid upon me, and I dared not refuse. I saw the value of souls, and had an ambition to save them. So I cried for wisdom and help, and essayed in this work of calling sinners to repentance, and the Lord helped me, — so I went on."
These early pulpit efforts, though exceedingly earnest, were rough and ready. To cultured persons of ears polite the breaches of pulpit etiquette would have disturbed their repose. Hardened sinners, however, in great numbers, felt the power of the truth as he proclaimed it, bowed before it, and cordially received it. He felt that he had but few talents, but he lived to multiply them. One talent rightly used is better than ten perverted or buried. A little used brings more, hence it is that unto him that hath shall be given. Dr. Arnot uses this parable: "See that well on the mountain side — a small rude, rocky cup full of crystal water, and that stream flowing through a breach in its brim. The vessel is so diminutive that it could not contain a supply of water for a single day for one family, but ever getting through secret channels, and ever giving an open outflow, day and night, summer and winter, from year to year, it discharges in the aggregate a volume to which its own capacity bears no appreciable proportion. The flow from that cup might, in a drought or war, become life to the inhabitants of a city." Yes, but the cup in the case of the Christian worker increases in capacity to hold, and of course to give forth, till it becomes a large and capacious vessel of mercy. So it was in the case of the subject of this biography.