Needs of the Canvassing Work
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truth. Providence and grace, means and ends, are closely connected.
When His laborers do the very best they can, God does for them that
which they cannot do themselves; but no one need expect to succeed
independently and by his own exertions. There must be activity united
with firm trust in God.
Economy is needed in every department of the Lord’s work. The
natural turn of youth in this age is to neglect and despise economy,
and to confound it with stinginess and narrowness. But economy is
consistent with the most broad and liberal views and feelings; there
can be no true generosity where it is not practiced. No one should
think it beneath him to study economy and the best means of taking
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care of the fragments. Said Christ, after He had performed a notable
miracle: “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.”
Economy and Self-Denial
Quite a sum may be expended in hotel bills that are not at all
necessary. The cause of God lay so near the heart of the pioneers in
this message that they seldom took a meal at a hotel, even though
the cost was but twenty-five cents each. But young men and women
generally are not educated to economize, and waste follows waste
everywhere. In some families there is a wicked waste of enough to
support another family if reasonable economy were used. If, while
traveling, our youth will keep an exact account of the money they
expend, item by item, their eyes will be opened to see the leaks. While
they may not be called upon to deprive themselves of warm meals, as
the early workers did in their itinerant life, they may learn to supply
their real wants with less expense than they now think necessary. There
are persons who practice self-denial in order to give means to the cause
of God; then let the workers in the cause also practice self-denial by
limiting their expenses as far as possible. It would be well for all our
workers to study the history of the Waldensian missionaries and to
imitate their example of sacrifice and self-denial.
Be Bible Students
We have a grand work to do for the Master, to open the word of
God to those who are in the darkness of error. Young friends, act as
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