Habit and the Man

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Feb 16, 1882

Habit and the Man.

How often the remark is heard, "If I had A's money, what an amount of good I would do with it, and how much better I should know how to enjoy it than he does;" or, "If I had B's talent, how I would make it tell, instead of frittering it away as he does;" or again, "If I had nothing to do all the day in and out, no family cares, like Mrs. C, what service I would give to visiting the sick and relieving the distressed." Such expressions are so common that they may be said to be "always in stock," as certain lines of staple goods are at the stores. But there is a very simple test of them, and a very sure one. Just ask the one using them, What are you doing with your income, whatever it is? How are you making tell the talent God has given you? How many moments are you stealing from your limited time and manifold cares, that you may do good to those who need your thought?

In other words, What is the habit of your heart, the spirit of your life? That will tell the whole story. What you do with the little you have of money, and talent, and time, is the sure index of what you would do with these if they were suddenly and indefinitely increased. And what you do with these, moreover, as God gives them to you, is all you will have to answer for. It is to be remembered that you have not to shoulder the responsibility of A's fortune, B's talent, or C's time and opportunity. The servant who made right use of the two talents which his Lord intrusted to him, received the same recognition for faithfulness as the one that had received five. And it would have fared as well with the possessor of one, had he but followed the course of the others and made the use of it that was intended. But he belonged to the class who say, "If I had been given the five talents, I would have made far more of them than did even the faithful servant." Whereas, the important truth is, that had he been given the five talents, in the same spirit he would have buried them, and pleaded at last the pitiful story of the hard master as his excuse.

This is indeed a most important truth. It is practical, coming close to every Christian's life. The simple fact is that the man who, when asked to contribute to a charitable or a church object, pleads poverty, and in addition says, "If I were as well off as Blank now, I would do it with delight," would not give though he had Blank's wealth ten times over. On the other hand, the man who says cheerily, "It's but little I can do, but that I will do with all my heart, only wishing it were more," is a philanthropist, and would be a great one should he ever find himself face to face with great opportunity.

The question is, then, not what you would do with what you have not, but what you actually do and are doing with what you have, whether of outward possessions or of mind and heart. The late Mr. Morgan, who died honored and beloved by all who knew him, never would have been the philanthropist he was had he waited to be benevolent until his fortune was made. He began giving in small sums when his means were small. The habit of giving was a part of the man. The number of his known and larger gifts is reckoned, but the constant and smaller liberalities and beneficences that brightened and blessed thousands of poor, struggling souls, who shall reckon them? And what was true of him is true of all philanthropists whose inner life becomes revealed to us.

It is the same in Christian work. The pastor does not come to rely upon those ambitious members who are watching for large opportunities, and lamenting limited capacity and chance. He knows they would not see or be ready for the great chance if it came. But he looks to the faithful, willing, every-day workers, who have the spirit of the Master in all their work, and count it all worthy and sacred because it is his service. No one can measure to what large work and influence they may attain; but we know of a surety that they are the ones who will attain, because they are in the line of growth. It was a broad law, working itself out in human experience everywhere, that Christ formulated when he said, "Unto every one that hath shall be given, but from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away from him." No truth can be learned that should tell more powerfully on the Christian heart, than the blessed truth that God's service is one that ever enlarges and enriches by faithful performance of it as it comes day by day. Let every one do this with what he hath, and unto him God shall give, and give abundantly. The habit of service is the index of the man.—Examiner and Chronicle.