246
Counsels on Stewardship
fully treasured. A cent seems like a trifle, but a hundred cents make
[291]
a dollar, and rightly spent may be the means of saving a soul from
death. If all the means which has been wasted by our own people in
self-gratification had been devoted to the cause of God, there would
be no empty treasuries, and missions could be established in all parts
of the world.
Let the members of the church now put away their pride and lay
off their ornaments. Each should keep a missionary box at hand, and
drop into it every penny he is tempted to waste in self-indulgence.
But something more must be done than merely to dispense with su-
perfluities. Self-denial must be practiced. Some of our comfortable
and desirable things must be sacrificed. The preachers must sharpen
up their message, not merely assailing self-indulgence, and pride in
dress, but presenting Jesus, His life of self-denial and sacrifice. Let
love, piety, and faith be cherished in the heart, and the precious fruits
will appear in the life.—
Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions
of the Seventh-day Adventists, 293
.
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