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Cause in Vermont
573
These searchers for truth have suffered for it and know what
it cost. They value it and feel the most intense interest in its ad-
vancement. Self-denial and the cross lie directly in the pathway of
every follower of Christ. The cross is that which crosses the natural
affections and the will. If the heart is not wholly sanctified to God, if
the will and affections and thoughts are not brought into subjection
to the will of God, there will be a failure to carry out the principles
of true religion and to exemplify in the life the life of Christ. There
will not be a true desire to sacrifice ease and self-love, and the carnal
mind will not be crucified to work the works of Christ.
There is a work to be accomplished for many who live at Bor-
doville. I saw that the enemy was busily at work to carry his points.
Men to whom God has entrusted talents of means have shifted upon
their children the responsibility which Heaven has appointed them
of being stewards for God. Instead of rendering to God the things
that are His, they claim that all they have is their own, as though
by their own might and power and wisdom they had obtained their
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possessions. Who gave them power and wisdom to obtain earthly
treasure? Who watered their lands with the dew of heaven and with
the showers of rain? Who gave them the sun to warm the earth and
awaken into life the things of nature, causing them to flourish for the
benefit of man? Men whom God has blessed with His bounties clasp
their arms about their earthly treasure and make these bounties and
blessings, which God has graciously given them, a curse by filling
their hearts with selfishness and distrust of Him. They accept the
goods lent them, yet claim them as their own, forgetting that the
Master has any claim upon them, and refusing to yield to Him even
the interest that He demands. Riches cause the professed follow-
ers of Christ many perplexities and pierce them through with many
sorrows because they forget God, and love and worship mammon.
They allow worldly treasures to embitter their lives and prevent them
from perfecting Christian character. And, as though this were not
enough, they transmit to their children, to curse them, that which
has proved the bane of their own lives. God has entrusted men with
means to prove them, to see if they are willing to acknowledge Him
in His gifts, and use them to advance His glory upon the earth.
The earth is the Lord’s, and all the treasures it contains. The
cattle upon a thousand hills are His. All the gold and silver belongs