Chapter 11—Personal Finance
Those not qualified to manage their own business affairs are
not fitted to become ministers—No man is excusable for being with-
out financial ability. Of many a man it may be said, He is kind,
amiable, generous, a good man, and a Christian, but he is not qualified
to manage his own business. As far as the proper outlay of money is
concerned, he is a mere child. He has not been educated by his parents
to understand and practice the principles of self-support. Such a man
is not fitted to become a minister.—
The Youth’s Instructor, February
7, 1901
.
Refuse to engage in any business that would hinder you from
giving yourself fully to your sacred calling—The energies of the
minister are all needed for his high calling. His best powers belong to
God. He should not engage in speculation or in any other business that
would turn him aside from his great work. “No man that warreth,” Paul
declared, “entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may
please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (
2 Timothy 2:4
). Thus
the apostle emphasized the minister’s need of unreserved consecration
to the Master’s service. The minister who is wholly consecrated to
God refuses to engage in business that would hinder him from giving
himself fully to his sacred calling. He is not striving for earthly honor
or riches; his one purpose is to tell others of the Saviour, who gave
Himself to bring to human beings the riches of eternal life. His highest
desire is not to lay up treasure in this world, but to bring to the attention
of the indifferent and the disloyal the realities of eternity. He may
be asked to engage in enterprises which promise large worldly gain,
but to such temptations he returns the answer, “What shall it profit a
man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul” (
Mark
8:36
)?—
The Acts of the Apostles, 365, 366
.
No separate business can be engaged in without lessening the
vigor and force of our labor in the cause of God—Wrong habits
of life have lessened our mental and physical sensibilities, and all
the strength we can acquire by right living and placing ourselves in
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