44
Manual for Canvassers
probationary time, everything will be laid open in the day of final
reckoning.
* * * * *
Laziness and indolence are not the fruit borne upon the Christian
tree. No soul can practise prevarication or dishonesty in handling the
Lord’s goods, and stand guiltless before God. All who do this are in
action denying Christ. While they profess to keep the commandments
of God, and claim to teach them, they fail to maintain the principles of
God’s law.
The Lord’s goods should be handled with faithfulness. The Lord
has entrusted men with life and health and reasoning powers; He has
given them physical and mental strength to be exercised; and should
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not these gifts be faithfully and diligently employed to His name’s
glory? Have our brethren considered that they must give an account for
all the talents placed in their possession? Have they traded wisely with
their Lord’s goods, or have they spent His substance recklessly, and are
they written in heaven as unfaithful servants? Many are spending their
Lord’s money in riotous enjoyment, so-called; they are not gaining
an experience in self-denial, but are spending money on vanities, and
are failing to bear the cross after Jesus. Many who were privileged
with precious, God-given opportunities, have wasted their lives, and
are now found in suffering and want.
God calls for decided improvement to be made in the various
branches of the work. The business done in connection with the cause
of God must be marked with greater precision and exactness. There
has not been firm, decided effort to bring about essential reform.
Debts to the Publishing-Houses
The loose way in which canvassers, both old and young, have
performed their work, shows that they have important lessons to learn.
Much haphazard work has been presented before me. Some have
established themselves in deficient habits, and this deficiency has been
brought into the work of God.
The tract and missionary societies have been deeply involved in
debt through the failure of canvassers to meet their indebtedness. Can-
vassers have felt that they were ill-treated if required to pay promptly
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