Co-Workers with Christ
77
warned those who inquired after salvation: “Take heed, and beware of
covetousness.” “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
It is this increasing devotion to money getting, the selfishness
which the desire for gain begets, that removes the favor of God from
the church and deadens its spirituality. When the head and hands are
constantly occupied with planning and toiling for the accumulation
of riches, the claims of God and humanity are forgotten. If God has
blessed us with prosperity, it is not that our time and attention should
be diverted from Him and given to that which He has lent us. The giver
is greater than the gift. We are not our own; we have been bought with
a price. Have we forgotten that infinite price paid for our redemption?
Is gratitude dead in the heart? Does not the cross of Christ put to
shame a life of selfish ease and indulgence?
What if Christ, becoming weary of the ingratitude and abuse that
met Him on every side, had left His work! What if He had never
reached that period when He said: “It is finished.” What if He had
returned to heaven, discouraged by His reception! What if He had
never passed through that soul agony in the garden of Gethsemane that
forced from His pores great drops of blood!
Christ was influenced in His labor for the redemption of the race
by a love that is without parallel, and a devotion to the Father’s will.
He toiled for the good of man up to the very hour of His humiliation.
[83]
He spent His life in poverty and self-denial for the degraded sinner.
In a world that was His own He had no place to lay His weary head.
We are reaping the fruits of this infinite self-sacrifice; and yet when
labor is to be done, when our money is wanted to aid the work of the
Redeemer in the salvation of souls, we shrink from duty and pray to be
excused. Ignoble sloth, careless indifference, and wicked selfishness
seal our senses to the claims of God.
Oh, must Christ, the Majesty of heaven, the King of glory, bear the
heavy cross, wear the thorny crown, and drink the bitter cup, while we
recline at ease, glorifying ourselves and forgetting the souls He died
to redeem by His precious blood? No; let us give while we have the
power. Let us do while we have the strength. Let us work while it is
day. Let us devote our time and means to the service of God, that we
may have His approbation and receive His reward.
* * * * *