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A Time for Vigilant Work, March 13
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep;
for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
Romans 13:11
,
NKJV.
There is another class who meet with loss because they are indolent, and spend
their powers in pleasing themselves, in using their tongues, and letting their muscles
rust with inaction. They waste their opportunities by inaction, and do not glorify
God. They might do much if they would put their time and physical strength to
use by acquiring means with which to place their children in favorable positions to
acquire knowledge; but they would rather let them grow up in ignorance than to
exercise their own God-given ability to do something whereby their children might
be blessed with a good education. Such men and women are being weighed in the
balances of the heavenly sanctuary and found wanting.
There is something for everyone to do in this world of ours. The Lord is coming,
and our waiting is to be not a time of idle expectation, but of vigilant work. We
are not to spend our time wholly in prayerful meditation, neither are we to drive
and hurry and work as if this were required in order that we should gain heaven,
while neglecting to devote time to the cultivation of personal piety. There must be a
combination of meditation and diligent work. As God has expressed it in His Word,
we are to be “not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” Worldly
activities are not to crowd out the service of the Lord. The soul needs the riches of
the grace of God, and the body needs physical exercise, in order to accomplish the
work that must be done for the promulgation of the gospel of Christ.
Those who cultivate a spirit of idleness commit sin against God every day; for
they do not put to use the power God has given them with which to bless themselves,
and to be a blessing to their families. Parents should teach their children that the
Lord means them to be diligent workers, not idlers in His vineyard. They must
make a diligent use of their time, if they are to be useful working agents, acting their
part in the vineyard of the Lord. They are to be faithful stewards, improving every
entrusted gift of power that has been bestowed upon them.—
The Home Missionary,
October 1894
.
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