Basic HTML Version
600
Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
to the Redeemer. In heaven alone will be fully estimated the blessed
results, in the salvation of others, of a consistent, harmonious, godly
life.
My brother, you have much to do in your family to show them
that the truth has wrought a good work for you and that it has had a
softening, refining, elevating influence upon your life and character.
You profess to believe that we are living in the last days and that we
are giving the warning, testing message to the world; do you show
this by your works? God is testing you, and He will reveal the true
feelings of your heart.
The Lord has entrusted you with talents of means to use to
advance His cause, to bless the needy, and to relieve the destitute.
You can do a far greater amount of good with your means than
you can do by preaching while you retain your means. Have you
put your talents of means to the exchangers, that when the Master
comes, and shall say, “Give an account of thy stewardship,” you
can, without confusion, present to Him the talents doubled, both
principal and interest, because you have not hoarded them, have not
buried them selfishly in the earth, but have put them to use? Look
over the history of your past life. How many have you blessed with
your means? How many hearts have you made grateful by your
liberalities? Please read the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. Have you
loosed the bands of wickedness? Have you sought to undo the heavy
burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Have
you dealt your bread to the hungry, and brought the poor that were
cast out to your house? Have you covered the naked?
If you have been rich in these good works, you may claim the
promises given in this chapter: “Then shall thy light break forth as
the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy
[685]
righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be
thy rearward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou
shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am.” “And if thou draw out thy
soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light
rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord
shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and
make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and
like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” But you are not now
entitled to these promised blessings. You have not been engaged in