Wills and Legacies
435
He has given them property to be wisely used, not selfishly hoarded
or extravagantly expended in luxury and selfish gratification either
in dress or in the embellishment of their houses. He has entrusted
them with means with which to support His servants in their labor
as preachers and missionaries, and to sustain the institutions He has
established among us. Those who rejoice in the precious light of truth
should feel a burning desire to have it sent everywhere. There are
[478]
a few faithful standard-bearers who never flinch from duty or shirk
responsibilities. Their hearts and purses are always open to every call
for means to advance the cause of God. Indeed, some seem ready to
exceed their duty, as though fearful that they will lose an opportunity
of investing their portion in the bank of heaven. There are others who
will do as little as possible. They hoard their treasure, or lavish means
upon themselves, grudgingly doling out a mere pittance to sustain the
cause of God. If they make a pledge or a vow to God, they afterward
repent of it, and will avoid the payment of it as long as they can, if
not altogether. They make their tithe as small as possible, as if afraid
that that which they return to God is lost. Our various institutions
may be embarrassed for means, but this class act as though it made no
difference to them whether they prospered or not. And yet these are
God’s instrumentalities with which to enlighten the world.
These institutions have not, like other institutions of the kind,
received endowments or legacies. And yet God has greatly prospered
and blessed them, and made them the means of great good. There
are aged ones among us who are nearing the close of their probation;
but for the want of wide-awake men to secure to the cause of God the
means in their possession, it passes into the hands of those who are
serving Satan. This means was only lent them of God to be returned
to Him; but in nine cases out of ten these brethren, when passing
from the stage of action, appropriate God’s property in a way that
cannot glorify Him, for not one dollar of it will ever flow into the
Lord’s treasury. In some cases these apparently good brethren have
had unconsecrated advisers, who counseled from their own standpoint
and not according to the mind of God. Property is often bequeathed
to children and grandchildren only to their injury. They have no love
for God or for the truth, and therefore this means, all of which is the
Lord’s, passes into Satan’s ranks, to be controlled by him. Satan is
much more vigilant, keen-sighted, and skillful in devising ways to