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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
God calls for those who are at ease in Zion to be up and doing.
Will they not listen to the Master’s voice? He wants prayerful, faithful
workers who will sow beside all waters. Those who labor thus will be
surprised to find how trials, resolutely borne in the name and strength
of Jesus, will give firmness to the faith and renew the courage. In the
path of humble obedience is safety and power, comfort and hope; but
the reward will finally be lost by those who do nothing for Jesus. Weak
hands will be unable to cling to the Mighty One, feeble knees will fail
to support in the day of adversity. Bible readers and Christian workers
will receive the glorious prize, and hear the “Well done, thou good and
faithful servant: ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
Withholding Means
The blessing of God will rest upon those in-----who have the cause
of Christ at heart. The freewill offerings of our brethren and sisters,
made in faith and love to the crucified Redeemer, will bring back
blessings to them; for God marks and remembers every act of liberality
on the part of His saints. In preparing a house of worship, there must
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be a great exercise of faith and trust in God. In business transactions
those who venture nothing make but little advancement; why not have
faith also in an enterprise for God and invest in His cause?
Some, when in poverty, are generous with their little; but as they
acquire property, they become penurious. The reason they have so
little faith is that they do not keep moving forward as they prosper, and
give to the cause of God even at a sacrifice.
In the Jewish system it was required that beneficence should first
be shown to the Lord. At the harvest and the vintage the first fruits of
the field—the corn, the wine, and the oil—were to be consecrated as an
offering to the Lord. The gleanings and the corners of the fields were
reserved for the poor. Our gracious heavenly Father did not neglect
the wants of the poor. The first fruits of the wool when the sheep were
shorn, of the grain when the wheat was threshed, were to be offered
to the Lord; and it was commanded that the poor, the widows, the
orphans, and the strangers, be invited to their feasts. At the close of
every year all were required to make solemn oath whether or not they
had done according to the command of God.