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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your
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hand? saith the Lord. But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his
flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing:
for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and My name is dreadful
among the heathen.”
Malachi 1:12-14
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“When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for He
hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is
it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not
pay.”
Ecclesiastes 5:4, 5
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God has given man a part to act in accomplishing the salvation of
his fellow men. He can work in connection with Christ by doing acts
of mercy and beneficence. But he cannot redeem them, not being able
to satisfy the claims of insulted justice. This the Son of God alone
can do, by laying aside His honor and glory, clothing His divinity
with humanity, and coming to earth to humiliate Himself and shed His
blood in behalf of the human race.
In commissioning His disciples to go “into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature,” Christ assigned to men the work
of spreading the gospel. But while some go forth to preach, He calls
upon others to answer to His claims upon them for tithes and offerings
with which to support the ministry and to spread the printed truth all
over the land. This is God’s means of exalting man. It is just the work
which he needs, for it will stir the deepest sympathies of his heart and
call into exercise the highest capabilities of the mind.
Every good thing of earth was placed here by the bountiful hand
of God as an expression of His love to man. The poor are His, and the
cause of religion is His. He has placed means in the hands of men, that
His divine gifts may flow through human channels in doing the work
appointed us in saving our fellow men. Everyone has his appointed
work in the great field; and yet none should receive the idea that God
is dependent upon man. He could speak the word, and every son of
poverty would be made rich. In a moment of time He could heal the
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human race of all their diseases. He might dispense with ministers
altogether and make angels the ambassadors of His truth. He might
have written the truth upon the firmament, or imprinted it upon the
leaves of the trees and upon the flowers of the field; or He might with
an audible voice have proclaimed it from heaven. But the all-wise
God did not choose any of these ways. He knew that man must have