Choosing Earthly Treasure
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works” (not thy profession), says the True Witness. God is now sifting
His people, testing their purposes and their motives. Many will be but
as chaff—no wheat, no value in them.
Christ has committed to your trust talents of means and of influence,
and He has said to you: Improve these till I come. When the Master
cometh and reckoneth with His servants, and all are called to the
strictest account as to how they have used the talents entrusted to them,
how will you, my dear brother, bear the investigation? Will you be
prepared to return to the Master His talents doubled, laying before Him
both principal and interest, showing that you have been a judicious as
well as faithful and persevering worker in His service? Brother E, if
you follow the course that you have pursued for years, your case will
be correctly represented by the servant who wrapped his talent in a
napkin and buried it in the earth, that is, hid it in the world. Those to
whom talents were entrusted, received reward for the labor expended
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in exact proportion to the fidelity, perseverance, and earnest effort
made in trading with their Lord’s goods.
God holds you as His debtor, and also as debtor to your fellow men
who have not the light and truth. God has given you light, not to hide
under a bushel, but to set on a candlestick that all in the house may
be benefited. Your light should shine to others to enlighten souls for
whom Christ died. The grace of God ruling in your heart, and bringing
your mind and thoughts into subjection to Jesus, would make you a
powerful man on the side of Christ and the truth.
Said Paul: “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians;
both to the wise, and to the unwise.” God had revealed to Paul His truth,
and in so doing made him a debtor to those who were in darkness, to
enlighten them. You have not had a proper sense of your accountability
before God. You are handling your Lord’s talents. You have powers
of mind that if employed in the right direction would make you a
co-worker with Christ and His angels. Had your mind been turned in
the direction of doing good, of placing the truth before others, you
would now be qualified to become a successful laborer for God, and
as your reward you would see many souls saved that would be as stars
in the crown of your rejoicing.
How can the value of your houses and lands bear comparison
with that of precious souls for whom Christ died? Through your
instrumentality these souls may be saved with you in the kingdom