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blood, to bind us in willing servitude to Himself. All the good things
we have are a loan from our Saviour. He has made us stewards. Our
smallest offerings, our humblest services, presented in faith and love,
may be consecrated gifts to win souls to the service of the Master and
to promote His glory. The interest and prosperity of Christ’s kingdom
should be paramount to every other consideration. Those who make
their pleasure and selfish interest the chief objects of their lives are not
faithful stewards.
Those who deny self to do others good, and who devote themselves
and all they have to Christ’s service, will realize the happiness which
the selfish man seeks for in vain. Said our Saviour: “Whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.”
Charity “seeketh not her own.” This is the fruit of that disinterested
love and benevolence which characterized the life of Christ. The law
of God in our hearts will bring our own interests in subordination to
high and eternal considerations. We are enjoined by Christ to seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This is our first and
highest duty. Our Master expressly warned His servants not to lay up
treasures upon the earth; for in so doing their hearts would be upon
earthly rather than heavenly things. Here is where many poor souls
have made shipwreck of faith. They have gone directly contrary to the
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express injunction of our Lord, and have allowed the love of money
to become the ruling passion of their lives. They are intemperate in
their efforts to acquire means. They are as much intoxicated with their
insane desire for riches as is the inebriate with his liquor.
Christians forget that they are servants of the Master; that they
themselves, their time, and all that they have belong to Him. Many are
tempted, and the majority are overcome, by the delusive inducements
which Satan presents to invest their money where it will yield them the
greatest profit in dollars and cents. There are but few who consider the
binding claims that God has upon them to make it their first business
to meet the necessities of His cause and let their own desires be served
last. There are but few who invest in God’s cause in proportion to their
means. Many have fastened their money in property which they must
sell before they can invest it in the cause of God and thus put it to a
practical use. They make this an excuse for doing but little in their
Redeemer’s cause. They have as effectually buried their money in the
earth as had the man in the parable. They rob God of the tenth, which