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Counsels on Stewardship
by the chilling blast of winter, because some of God’s professed people
are appropriating to themselves the means that should be dedicated to
His service. Because Christ’s self-sacrificing love is not interwoven in
the life practices, the church is weak where it should be strong. By its
own course it has put out its light, and robbed millions of the gospel
of Christ....
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How can those for whom Christ has sacrificed so much, continue
to enjoy His gifts selfishly? His love and self-denial are without a
parallel; and when this love enters into the experience of His followers,
they will identify their interests with those of their Redeemer. Their
work will be to build up the kingdom of Christ. They will consecrate
themselves and their possessions to Him, and use both as His cause
may require.
This is nothing more than Jesus expects of His followers. No
individual who has before him so great an object as the salvation of
souls will be at a loss to devise ways and means for denying self. This
will be an individual work. All that it is in our power to bestow will
flow into the Lord’s treasury, to be used for the proclamation of truth,
that the message of Christ’s soon coming and the claims of His law
may be sounded to all parts of the world. Missionaries must be sent
out to do this work.
The love of Jesus in the soul will be revealed in word and deed.
The kingdom of Christ will be paramount. Self will be laid a willing
sacrifice on the altar of God. Everyone who is truly united with Christ
will feel the same love for souls that caused the Son of God to leave
His royal throne, His high command, and for our sake become poor,
that we through His poverty might be made rich.—
The Review and
Herald, October 13, 1896
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A Call for Consecrated Families
God calls for personal effort from those that know the truth. He
calls for Christian families to go into communities that are in darkness
and error, to go into foreign fields, to become acquainted with a new
class of society, and to work wisely and perseveringly for the cause of
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the Master. To answer this call, self-sacrifice must be experienced.
While many are waiting to have every obstacle removed, souls are
dying without hope and without God in the world. Many, very many,