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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
selfishness is broken. And when the call is made for donations to the
cause of God, some, under the stirring influence of the meetings, are
aroused to give who otherwise would do nothing. As far as this class
is concerned, good results have been realized. But under pressing calls
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many feel the deepest who have not had their hearts frozen up with
selfishness. They have conscientiously kept their means flowing out to
advance the cause of God. Their whole being is stirred by the earnest
appeals made, and the very ones respond who may have given all that
their circumstances in life would justify.
But these liberal, wholehearted believers, prompted by a zealous
love for the cause and a desire to act promptly, judge themselves capa-
ble of doing more than God requires them to do, for their usefulness is
crippled in other directions. These willing ones sometimes pledge to
raise money when they know not from what source it is coming, and
some are placed in distressing circumstances to meet their pledges.
Some are obliged to sell their produce at great disadvantage, and some
have actually suffered for the conveniences and necessities of life in
order to meet their pledges.
There was a time at the commencement of our work when such
sacrifice would have been justified, when God would have blessed all
who thus ventured out to do for His cause. The friends of truth were
few and their means very limited. But the work has been widening and
strengthening until there is means enough in the hands of believers to
amply sustain the work in all its departments without embarrassing any,
if all would bear their proportional part. The cause of God need not be
crippled in the slightest degree. The precious truth has been made so
plain that many have taken hold of it who have in their hands means
which God has entrusted to them to use in advancing the interests of
the truth. If these men of means do their duty, there need not be a
pressure brought upon the poorer brethren.
We are in a world of plenty. If the gifts and offerings were propor-
tionate to the means which each has received of God, there would be
no need of urgent calls for means at our large gatherings. I am fully
convinced that it is not the best plan to bring a pressure upon the point
of means at our camp meetings. Men and women who love the cause
of God as they do their lives will pledge upon these occasions, when
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their families must suffer for the very means that they have promised
to give to advance the cause. Our God is not a taskmaster and does