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Welfare Ministry
How Are Unbelievers Impressed?—And what impression is
made upon the minds of unbelievers? The holy standard of the Word
of God is lowered into the dust. Contempt is cast upon God and upon
the Christian name. The most corrupt principles are strengthened by
this un-Scriptural way of raising means. And this is as Satan would
have it. Men are repeating the sin of Nadab and Abihu. They are using
common instead of sacred fire in the service of God. The Lord accepts
no such offerings.
All these methods for bringing money into His treasury are an
abomination to Him. It is a spurious devotion that prompts all such
devising. O what blindness, what infatuation, is upon many who claim
to be Christians! Church members are doing as did the inhabitants of
the world in the days of Noah, when the imagination of their hearts
was only evil continually. All who fear God will abhor such practices
as a misrepresentation of the religion of Jesus Christ.—
The Review
and Herald, December 8, 1896
.
Giving for Selfish Considerations—In professedly Christian
gatherings Satan throws a religious garment over delusive pleasures
[291]
and unholy revelings to give them the appearance of sanctity, and the
consciences of many are quieted because means are raised to defray
church expenses. Men refuse to give for the love of God, but for the
love of pleasure and the indulgence of appetite for selfish considera-
tions they will part with their money.
Is it because there is not power in the lessons of Christ upon benev-
olence, and in His example, and the grace of God upon the heart to
lead men to glorify God with their substance, that such a course must
be resorted to in order to sustain the church? The injury sustained to
the physical, mental, and moral health in these scenes of amusement
and gluttony is not small. And the day of final reckoning will show
souls lost through the influence of these scenes of gaiety and folly.
It is a deplorable fact that sacred and eternal considerations do
not have that power to open the hearts of the professed followers of
Christ to make freewill offerings to sustain the gospel, as the tempting
bribes of feasting and general merriment. It is a sad reality that these
inducements will prevail when sacred and eternal things will have no
force to influence the heart to engage in works of benevolence.
The plan of Moses in the wilderness to raise means was highly
successful. There was no compulsion necessary. Moses made no