Counsel to One Who for Financial Reasons Was Planning to Leave the Work of God193
advantages? Only through Christ: God calls upon all who would have
everlasting life to copy the Pattern. Truth and righteousness are the
first principles of the gospel, and the only principles that Christ will
recognize in any human agent. There must be heartfelt surrender of
our will to God; we must renounce all our own supposed merits, and
look to the cross of Calvary. This surrender to God involves effort on
the part of the human agent to cooperate with the divine agencies; the
branch must abide in the vine....
Many, oh, so many, among believers have scarcely food enough
to eat, yet in their deep poverty they bring their tithes and offerings to
the Lord’s treasury. Many who know what it is to sustain the cause
of God in hard and trying circumstances have invested means in the
publishing house. They have willingly endured hardship and privation,
and have watched and prayed for the success of the cause. Their gifts
and sacrifices express the fervent gratitude and praise of their hearts
to Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvelous light.
No more fragrant influence can ascend to heaven. Their prayers and
their alms come up as a memorial before God.
But the work of God in all its wide extent is one, and the same
[213]
principles should control, the same spirit be revealed, in all its branches.
It must bear the stamp of missionary work. Every department of the
cause is related to all parts of the gospel field, and the spirit that
controls one department, will be felt throughout the entire field. If
a portion of the workers receive so large wages, there are others, in
different branches of the work, that will call for higher wages, and the
spirit of self-sacrifice will become extinct at the great heart of the work.
Other institutions will catch the same spirit, and the Lord’s favor will
be removed from them, for He can never sanction selfishness. Thus
our aggressive work would come to an end. It is possible to carry it
forward only by continual sacrifice. From all parts of the world the
calls are coming in for men and means to carry forward the work.
Shall we be compelled to say, “You must wait; we have no money in
the treasury”?
Brother X knows the earlier history of the work in the office; he
knows the testimonies which God has sent to him and others in regard
to self-denial and sacrifice. He is not ignorant of the many opening
fields where the standard of truth is to be lifted, and where means are