Counsel to One Who for Financial Reasons Was Planning to Leave the Work of God195
I would not for one moment present to you or any other man a bribe
of dollars and cents to hold you in connection with the work, whatever
inconvenience it might suffer for a time because of your withdrawal
from it. Christ stands at the helm. If His Spirit does not make you
willing to be anything or do anything for the truth’s sake, then you
can learn that lesson only by passing through trial. God will test the
faith of every soul. Christ has purchased us at an infinite sacrifice.
Although He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we
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through His poverty might come in possession of eternal riches. All
that we possess of ability and intellect is only that which the Lord has
lent us in trust to use for Him. It is our privilege to be partakers with
Christ in His sacrifice if we will.
The men of experience and piety who led out in this work, who
denied self and did not hesitate to sacrifice anything for its success,
are now sleeping in the grave. They were God’s appointed channels
through which the principles of spiritual life were communicated to
the church. They had an experience of the highest value. They could
not be bought or sold. Their purity and devotion and self-sacrifice,
their living connection with God, were blessed to the upbuilding of the
work. Our institutions were characterized by the spirit of self-sacrifice.
But in some respects the work has deteriorated. While it has grown
in extent and facilities, it has waned in piety. In the days when we
were struggling with poverty, those who saw how wondrously God
wrought for the upbuilding of the cause, felt that no greater honor
could be bestowed upon them than to be bound up with the interests
of the work by sacred links which connected them with God. Would
they lay down the burden and make terms with the Lord from a money
standpoint? No, no. Should every timeserver forsake his post of duty,
they would never desert the work. They would say, “If the Lord placed
me here, He desires me to be a faithful steward, learning of Him day
by day how to perform the work acceptably. I will stand at my post
until God shall release me. I will know what it means to be a practical,
wholehearted Christian. I expect my reward by and by.”
The believers who in the early history of the cause sacrificed for
the upbuilding of the work were imbued with the same spirit. They felt
that God demanded of all connected with His cause an unreserved con-
secration of soul, body, and spirit, of all their services and capabilities,
to make the work a success. The testimonies came to them, claiming