True Motive in Service
67
Jesus said, “When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy
face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which
is in secret.”
Matthew 6:17, 18
. Whatever is done to the glory of
God is to be done with cheerfulness, not with sadness and gloom.
There is nothing gloomy in the religion of Jesus. If Christians give the
impression by a mournful attitude that they have been disappointed in
their Lord, they misrepresent His character and put arguments into the
mouth of His enemies. Though in words they may claim God as their
Father, yet in gloom and sorrow they present to the world the aspect
of orphans.
Christ desires us to make His service appear attractive, as it really
is. Let the self-denials and the secret heart trials be revealed to the
compassionate Saviour. Let the burdens be left at the foot of the cross,
and go on your way rejoicing in His love who first loved you. Men
may never know of the work going on secretly between the soul and
God, but the result of the Spirit’s work upon the heart will be manifest
to all, for He “which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.”—Matthew
6:19.
Treasure laid up on earth will not endure; thieves break through
and steal; moth and rust corrupt; fire and storm sweep away your
possessions. And “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Treasure laid up on the earth will engross the mind to the exclusion of
heavenly things.
The love of money was the ruling passion in the Jewish age. World-
[89]
liness usurped the place of God and religion in the soul. So it is now.
Avaricious greed for wealth exerts such a fascinating, bewitching influ-
ence over the life that it results in perverting the nobility and corrupting
the humanity of men until they are drowned in perdition. The service
of Satan is full of care, perplexity, and wearing labor, and the treasure
men toil to accumulate on earth is only for a season.
Jesus said, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break
through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also.”