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Deceitfulness of Riches
253
with partiality. He has distributed the talents according to the known
powers of His servants, and He expects corresponding returns.
In your earlier experience the Lord imparted to you talents of
influence, but did not give you talents of means, and therefore did
not expect you in your poverty to bestow that which you had not
to give. Like the widow, you did give what you could, although,
had you considered your own circumstances, you would have felt
excused from doing even as much as you did. In your sickness, God
did not require from you that active energy of which disease had
deprived you. Though you were restricted in your influence and in
your means, yet God accepted your efforts to do good and to advance
His cause according to what you had, not according to what you had
not. The Lord does not despise the humblest offering bestowed with
readiness and sincerity.
You possess an ardent temperament. Earnestness in a good
cause is praiseworthy. In your former trials and perplexity, you were
obtaining an experience which was to be of advantage to others.
You were zealous in the service of God. You loved to present the
evidences of our position to those who did not believe present truth.
You could speak with assurance, for these things were a reality to
you. The truth was a part of your being; and those who listened
to your earnest appeals had not a doubt of your honesty, but were
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convinced that these things were so.
In the providence of God your influence has been extended; in
addition to this, God has seen fit to prove you by giving you talents
of means. You are thereby laid under double responsibility. When
your condition in life began to improve, you said: “As soon as I can
get me a home, I will then donate to the cause of God.” But when
you had a home you saw so many improvements to make to have
everything about you convenient and pleasant that you forgot the
Lord and His claims upon you, and were less inclined to help the
cause of God than in the days of your poverty and affliction.
You were seeking friendship with the world, and separating
further and further from God. You forgot the exhortation of Christ:
“Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged
with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that
day come upon you unawares.” “Let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed lest he fall.”