Basic HTML Version
Press Toward the Mark, September 28
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:14
.
We all have an experience to gain and crosses to lift. If we study our own
pleasure and gratify our own desires and taste, we shall be found wanting in
the day of retribution and rewards. If we live to do others good and to glorify
God, we shall not be considerate of ourselves, but shall seek to be of use
in the world, blessing humanity, and we shall receive the blessing of “Well
done” from the lips of the Master.
We should live for the next world. It is so wretched to live a haphazard,
aimless life. We want an object in life—to live for a purpose. God help us
all to be self-sacrificing, less self-caring, more forgetful of self and selfish
interest; and to do good, not for the honor we expect to receive here, but
because this is the object of our life and will answer the end of our existence.
Let our daily prayer go up to God that He will divest us of selfishness....
I have seen that those who live for a purpose, seeking to benefit and bless
their fellow men and to honor and glorify their Redeemer, are the truly happy
ones on the earth, while the man who is restless, discontented, and seeking
this and testing that, hoping to find happiness, is always complaining of
disappointment. He is always in want, never satisfied, because he lives for
himself alone. Let it be your aim to do good, to act your part in life faithfully.
There is hurry and excitement. Men feverishly invest their capital of
money in bonds and stocks, become wealthy in a day, and yet are unsatisfied.
They continue to invest with insane expectancy. The bank stock goes down,
the millionaire in the morning is a beggar at night and the way they think best
to end the matter is with pistol, rope, or the waters of the bay. Money is a
blessing when those who use it consider that they are the Lord’s stewards,
that they are handling the Lord’s capital, and must one day give account of
their stewardship. It is the love of money which the Bible condemns as the
root of all evil—such love that when a man loses money the precious life
God has given him is made of no account because money is gone.—
Letter
17, September 28, 1872
, to J. E. White.
[281]
287