Tithes and Offerings
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Did repinings and complaints then reach the ear of the jailer? Oh, no!
From the inner prison, voices broke the silence of midnight with songs
of joy and praise to God. These disciples were cheered by a deep and
earnest love for the cause of their Redeemer, for which they suffered.
As the truth of God fills our hearts, absorbs our affections, and
controls our lives, we also will count it joy to suffer for the truth’s sake.
No prison walls, no martyr’s stake, can then daunt or hinder us in the
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great work.
Come, O my soul, to Calvary. Mark the humble life of the Son of
God. He was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Behold
His ignominy, His agony in Gethsemane, and learn what self-denial is.
Are we suffering want? so was Christ, the Majesty of heaven. But His
poverty was for our sakes. Are we ranked among the rich? so was He.
But He consented for our sakes to become poor, that we through His
poverty might be made rich. In Christ we have self-denial
exemplified. His sacrifice consisted not merely in leaving the royal
courts of heaven, in being tried by wicked men as a criminal and
pronounced guilty, and in being delivered up to die as a malefactor,
but in bearing the weight of the sins of the world. The life of Christ
rebukes our indifference and coldness. We are near the close of time,
when Satan has come down, having great wrath, knowing that his
time is short. He is working with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish. The warfare has been left in our
hands by our great Leader for us to carry forward with vigor. We are
not doing a twentieth part of what we might do if we were awake. The
work is retarded by love of ease and a lack of the self-denying spirit of
which our Saviour has given us an example in His life. Co-workers
with Christ, men who feel the need of extended effort, are wanted.
The work of our presses should not be lessened, but doubled. Schools
should be established in different places to educate our youth
preparatory to their laboring to advance the truth.
Already a great deal of time has been wasted, and angels bear
to heaven the record of our neglects. Our sleepy and unconsecrated
condition has lost to us precious opportunities which God has sent us
in the persons of those who were qualified to help us in our present
need. Oh, how much we need our Hannah More to aid us at this time