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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
making it so fast that they have nothing, or next to nothing, to invest in
the cause of God. They have buried it, fearing that God would call for
some of the principal or increase. When, at the demand of their Lord,
they bring the amount given them, they come with ungrateful excuses
for not having put the means lent them by God out to the exchangers,
by investing it in His cause to carry on His work.
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He who embezzles his Lord’s goods not only loses the talent lent
him of God, but loses eternal life. Of him it is said: “Cast ye the
unprofitable servant into outer darkness.” The faithful servant, who
invests his money in the cause of God to save souls, employs his means
to the glory of God and will receive the commendation of the Master:
“Well done, thou good and faithful servant: ... enter thou into the joy
of thy Lord.” What will be this joy of our Lord? It will be the joy of
seeing souls saved in the kingdom of glory. “Who for the joy that was
set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down
at the right hand of the throne of God.”
The idea of stewardship should have a practical bearing upon all the
people of God. The parable of the talents, rightly understood, will bar
out covetousness, which God calls idolatry. Practical benevolence will
give spiritual life to thousands of nominal professors of the truth who
now mourn over their darkness. It will transform them from selfish,
covetous worshipers of mammon to earnest, faithful co-workers with
Christ in the salvation of sinners.
The foundation of the plan of salvation was laid in sacrifice. Jesus
left the royal courts and became poor, that we through His poverty
might be made rich. All who share this salvation, purchased for them
at such an infinite sacrifice by the Son of God, will follow the example
of the true Pattern. Christ was the chief Cornerstone, and we must
build upon this Foundation. Each must have a spirit of self-denial
and self-sacrifice. The life of Christ upon earth was unselfish; it was
marked with humiliation and sacrifice. And shall men, partakers of the
great salvation which Jesus came from heaven to bring them, refuse to
follow their Lord and to share in His self-denial and sacrifice? Says
Christ: “I am the Vine, ye are the branches.” “Every branch in Me
that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth
fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” The very
vital principle, the sap which flows through the vine, nourishes the
branches, that they may flourish and bear fruit. Is the servant greater
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