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own property which is entrusted to us for investment. If it were, we
might claim discretionary power; we might shift our responsibility
upon others, and leave our stewardship with them. But this cannot
be, because the Lord has made us individually His stewards. We are
responsible to invest this means ourselves. Our own hearts are to be
sanctified; our hands are to have something to impart, as occasion
demands, of the income that God entrusts to us.
It would be just as reasonable for the conference or the publish-
ing house to assume control of the income which a brother receives
from his houses or lands as to appropriate that which comes from the
working of his brain.
Nor is there justice in the claim that, because a worker in the
publishing house receives wages for his labor, his powers of body,
mind, and soul belong wholly to the institution, and it has a right
to all the productions of his pen. Outside the period of labor in the
institution, the worker’s time is under his own control, to use as he sees
fit, so long as this use does not conflict with his duty to the institution.
For that which he may produce in these hours, he is responsible to his
own conscience and to God.
No greater dishonor can be shown to God than for one man to
bring another man’s talents under his absolute control. The evil is
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not obviated by the fact that the profits of the transaction are to be
devoted to the cause of God. In such arrangements the man who allows
his mind to be ruled by the mind of another is thus separated from
God and exposed to temptation. In shifting the responsibility of his
stewardship upon other men, and depending on their wisdom, he is
placing man where God should be. Those who are seeking to bring
about this shifting of responsibility are blinded as to the result of their
action, but God has plainly set it before us. He says: “Cursed be the
man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.”
Jeremiah 17:5
.
Let not authors be urged either to give away or to sell their right
to the books they have written. Let them receive a just share of the
profits of their work; then let them regard their means as a trust from
God, to be administered according to the wisdom that He shall impart.
Those who possess the ability to write books should realize that
they possess ability to invest the profits they receive. While it is right
for them to place a portion in the treasury, to supply the general needs
of the cause, they should feel it their duty to acquaint themselves with