Answer to Prayer
39
the man who hid his talent in the earth. They keep their possessions
and means from doing good to God’s cause. They claim that it is
their own, and that they have a right to do what they please with their
own; and souls are not saved by any judicious effort they make with
their Lord’s money. As judgment passes upon the house of God, the
angels keep a faithful record of every man’s work, their sentence is
recorded by their name, and the angel is commissioned to spare them
not, but to cut them down at the time of slaughter. And that which was
committed to their trust is taken from them. Their earthly treasure is
then swept away, and they have lost all. And the crowns they might
have worn, had they been faithful, are put upon the heads of those
saved by the faithful servants whose means were constantly in use for
God. And every one they have been the means of saving, adds stars to
their crowns in glory, and increases their eternal reward.
I was also shown that the parable of the unjust steward was to
teach us a lesson. “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of
unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into the
everlasting habitations.” If we use our means to God’s glory here,
we lay up in Heaven a treasure, and when earthly possessions are all
gone here, the faithful steward has Jesus and angels for his friends, to
receive him home to everlasting habitations.
“He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.”
He that is faithful in his earthly possessions, which is least, to make
a judicious use of what God has lent him here, will be true to his
profession. “He that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much.”
He that will withhold from God that which he has lent him, will be
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unfaithful in the things of God in every respect. “If therefore ye have
not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your
trust the true riches?” If we prove unfaithful in the management of
what God lends us here, he will never give us the immortal inheritance.
“And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who
shall give you that which is your own?” Jesus has purchased for us
redemption. It is ours; but we are placed here on probation to see if
we will prove worthy of eternal life. God proves us by entrusting us
with earthly possessions. If we are faithful to freely impart of what he
has lent us, to advance his cause, God can entrust to us the immortal
inheritance. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” “If ye love the
world, the love of the Father is not in you.”