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Counsels on Stewardship
of dishonesty will carry out their principles until they cheat their own
souls, and lose heaven and eternal life. They will sacrifice honor and
religion for a small worldly advantage. There are such men right in
our own ranks, and they will have to experience what it is to be born
again, or they cannot see the kingdom of God. Honesty should stamp
every action of our lives. Heavenly angels examine the work that is
put into our hands; and where there has been a departure from the
principles of truth, “wanting” is written in the records.
Says Jesus, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where
moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.”
Treasures are those things which engross the mind, and absorb the
attention, to the exclusion of God and the truth.
The love of money, which prompts the acquisition of earthly trea-
sure, was the ruling passion in the Jewish age. High and eternal
considerations were made subordinate to the considerations of secur-
ing earthly wealth and influence. Worldliness usurped the place of
God and religion in the soul. Avaricious greed for wealth exerted
such a fascinating, bewitching influence over the life, that it resulted
in perverting the nobility, and corrupting the humanity of men, until
they were drowned in perdition. Our Saviour gave a decided warning
against hoarding up the treasures of earth.
All branches of business, all manner of employments, are under the
eye of God; and every Christian has been given ability to do something
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in the cause of the Master. Whether engaged in business in the field, in
the warehouse, or in the counting room, men will be held responsible
to God for the wise and honest employment of their talents. They are
just as accountable to God for their work, as the minister who labors in
word and doctrine is for his. If men acquire property in a manner that
is not approved by the word of God, they obtain it at a sacrifice of the
principles of honesty. An inordinate desire for gain will lead even the
professed followers of Christ into imitation of the customs of the world.
They will be influenced to dishonor their religion, by overreaching
in trade, oppressing the widow and the orphan, and turning away the
stranger from his right.—
The Review and Herald, September 18, 1888
.