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Christ’s Object Lessons
of help to the sick. But money is of no more value than sand, only as it
is put to use in providing for the necessities of life, in blessing others,
and advancing the cause of Christ.
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Hoarded wealth is not merely useless, it is a curse. In this life it
is a snare to the soul, drawing the affections away from the heavenly
treasure. In the great day of God its witness to unused talents and
neglected opportunities will condemn its possessor. The Scripture
says, “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that
shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments
are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them
shall bear witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.
Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire
of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you
kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped
are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.”
James 5:1-4
.
But Christ sanctions no lavish or careless use of means. His lesson
in economy, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be
lost,” is for all His followers. (
John 6:12
.) He who realizes that his
money is a talent from God will use it economically, and will feel it a
duty to save that he may give.
The more means we expend in display and self-indulgence, the
less we can have to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Every penny
used unnecessarily deprives the spender of a precious opportunity of
doing good. It is robbing God of the honor and glory which should
flow back to Him through the improvement of His entrusted talents.
Kindly Impulses and Affections
Kindly affections, generous impulses, and a quick apprehension
of spiritual things are precious talents, and lay their possessor under a
weighty responsibility. All are to be used in God’s service. But here
many err. Satisfied with the possession of these qualities, they fail to
bring them into active service for others. They flatter themselves that
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if they had opportunity, if circumstances were favorable, they would
do a great and good work. But they are awaiting the opportunity.
They despise the narrowness of the poor niggard who grudges even a
pittance to the needy. They see that he is living for self, and that he
is responsible for his misused talents. With much complacency they