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Personal, Practical Piety, March 12
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know
what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints.
Ephesians 1:18
.
Let the eye of your understanding be so enlightened that it will affect your
hearts, and that the soul temple will be so full of divine mercy and compassion
for perishing souls who have never heard the message that you will be aroused
to put forth practical efforts in their behalf. Having our eyes thus opened
to the wants of the destitute fields around us, we shall be led to bind about
our own imaginary wants. Our work in missionary lines must be far more
extensive. Self-denial and self-sacrifice must be practiced as they have not
yet been.
It is in working actively to supply the necessities of the cause of God that
we shall bring our souls in touch with the Source of all power. But let no one
entertain the idea that those who have embraced the truth will be engaged
in imparting more than in receiving. Your spiritual expenditures need not
exceed your spiritual income. The one is essential to the other. Neglect the
one, and the other will be neglected. The most interested active servants of
God in every age have been those who have had most living, practical piety.
Their spiritual wants were supplied from the never failing source of power,
that they might impart to others. When we have an eye single to the glory of
God, we shall cultivate personal piety.
There is danger of our religious activity losing in depth as it gains in
surface. There is danger of our workers depending upon human agents,
upon facilities, and great preparations for work, and losing their firm faith
in God, in making every outward show of prosperity, while the work in the
heart is neglected. Philanthropy, however widespread, cannot take the place
of personal piety. Danger is on every hand, and we need to be constantly
depending upon God, that His Holy Spirit may make our hearts pure, unselfish,
and quick to hear the orders from above....
There is nothing insignificant in the work of God, and the faithfulness
with which the work is done rather than the amount decides the reward of
each. The work of the one who has but one talent is as valuable in the sight
of God as the one who has five talents.—
Manuscript 25, March 12, 1899
,
“Faithfulness in the Work of God.”
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