Chapter 90—Shifting Responsibilities
Those Sabbathkeeping brethren who shift the responsibility of
their stewardship into the hands of their wives, while they themselves
are capable of managing the same, are unwise and in the transfer
displease God. The stewardship of the husband cannot be transferred
to the wife. Yet this is sometimes attempted, to the great injury of
both. A believing husband has sometimes transferred his property to
his unbelieving companion, hoping thereby to gratify her, disarm her
opposition, and finally induce her to believe the truth. But this is no
more nor less than an attempt to purchase peace, or to hire the wife to
believe the truth. The means which God has lent to advance His cause
the husband transfers to one who has no sympathy for the truth; what
account will such a steward render when the great Master requires His
own with usury?
Believing parents have frequently transferred their property to their
unbelieving children, thus putting it out of their power to render to
God the things that are His. By so doing they lay off that responsibility
which God has laid upon them, and place in the enemy’s ranks means
which God has entrusted to them to be returned to Him by being
invested in His cause when He shall require it of them. It is not
in God’s order that parents who are capable of managing their own
business should give up the control of their property, even to children
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who are of the same faith. These seldom possess as much devotion to
the cause as they should, and they have not been schooled in adversity
and affliction so as to place a high estimate upon the eternal treasure
and less upon the earthly. The means placed in the hands of such is
the greatest evil. It is a temptation to them to place their affections
upon the earthly and trust to property and feel that they need but little
besides. When means which they have not acquired by their own
exertion comes into their possession, they seldom use it wisely.
The husband who transfers his property to his wife opens for her
a wide door of temptation, whether she is a believer or an unbeliever.
If she is a believer and naturally penurious, inclined to selfishness
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