Your ShelfYour Projects

Pocket-Deep

25%

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 5, 1866

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 28, No. 1.

Read the full edition

Pocket-Deep.

YES, say does your religion go pocket-deep? Were you converted only in the upper story—the old man only scalped, or was he killed dead? Does your religion teach only about that unruly member, so that cut your head off, and soul and body would both be damned; or, were you converted right down through, from head to foot, "soul, body and spirit," pocket, pocket-book and all? Not merely the coppers, three-cent pieces, and smooth fourpences; but those dollars and eagles, and V's and X's? Say, friend, when God converted you, did he convert house, barn, cellar, corn-cribs, potato-bins, meal-bags and all? You have been praying for a deeper work of grace. How deep will you have it?—pocket-deep? You have desired to feel more deeply. How deep?—pocket-deep? or do you only want to feel skin-deep? You don't feel as you want to. Well, perhaps you never will till you feel in your pocket more.
Just think about these matters, will you? You feel for your brother; well, just feel in your pocket. You feel for the poor; well, feel in your pocket. You feel for the cause; well, feel in your pocket. You feel for poor preachers; well, feel in your pocket. And if you feel there you will make others feel, and feel very thankful too, that God has some servants whose religion is pocket-deep.
"Oh, I don't believe in talking so much about pecuniary matters!" You don't, eh? Ah, well; I guess your religion is not pocket-deep yet. Try again; get a little nearer Him who "was rich" and "became poor" for you. You feel rather pleased when God's blessings come rolling into your purse and dwelling—that's all right, but the Lord Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Now don't shrug your shoulders so; I'm not going to beg a sixpence from you; don't be alarmed, I wouldn't ask you to give me a dollar for all the money you have in the world. Don't fret; all I want to know is whether your religion is pocket-deep or not. Just think of it a little. I don't ask whether you would scatter everything to the four winds if you knew the Lord was coming so that you couldn't use it; but whether you are as ready to open "the bag" now, when it can be of use, as at some other time, when it will be scattered in haste and fear, and do no one any good, and perhaps will do much hurt, as has often been the case in time past. In a word, is your religion pocket-deep, or is it only skin-deep?—Cross and Crown.