Financial Obligations Resting Upon Believers in the Closing Message
By George I. Butler
Last week we considered the progress and growth of the last message to the world, as represented at the last General Conference. All hearts were inspired by the progress it has made. The truth is planted firmly in all the leading nations on our earth, and is making progress in all. Rising to the duties of the hour, the General Conference resolved to make greater efforts in the immediate future to carry on the work to a glorious victory. Many missionaries are to be sent out to the various fields. The weak stations are to be re-enforced. Where martyrs have fallen in death, others are to step in. In no other way can we be true to our solemn responsibilities. With bold, faithful Caleb of old, we can say we are “well able” to go up and possess the goodly land. With our ranks already a hundred thousand strong, what can not be done if the Lord is with us? And he surely will be with us if we all move forward strong in faith and true to his work. Such advance must necessarily demand strong financial support. Has God given us such a work to do, and not given us means sufficient to support it properly? That would be a great reflection upon the wisdom of God’s generalship. Is the God of heaven like the man who began to build and was not able to finish? or like the king who started out to meet an enemy, but, unable to cope with him, met with an ignominious failure, and had to beg for peace?—Ah, no! Our Captain never lost a battle. Noah preached a coming deluge; and it came as God said it would. God proposed to take the Israelitish slaves out of Egypt, and give them a land flowing with milk and honey, and though many were stiffnecked and rebellious, and showed themselves unfit to enter that goodly land, yet others were true, and the expedition was not a failure. For some fifteen centuries Israel possessed that land. Christ took a little handful of weak disciples, educated them for a season, and by means of their labors filled our world with glorious lights. He never makes failures in his efforts. To be sure, God’s people were tested. Noah no doubt spent all his property in building the ark by which he and his family were saved. When the ark was built, and its valuable contents were all enclosed within its strong walls, all the property in the world was of no value whatever compared with it. Earth’s wealth, with its owners and worshipers, was buried out of sight in an ocean of water. The little that Noah and his family had was all there was left of earth’s treasures. A nation of slaves in Egypt could not have been very wealthy; but all of Pharaoh’s host, with their ornaments, beasts, and trappings, when rolled under the waters of the Red Sea, were poorer by far than these slaves. How poor were Christ’s disciples in the things of this world when they began the proclamation of their message to the world! In their poverty, they had all things in common, and the apostles afterward had to take up collections for them to keep them from suffering. But the message went on in triumph till the then-known world all heard the gospel. Col. 1:23. The advent believers who first accepted the third angel’s message were, as a rule, poor in this world. Much of their means was used in giving the first angel’s message. But now our people are not poor. We have means enough with which to support this grand work of missions triumphantly. The only question is, Have we the genuine faith to use our means faithfully in carrying on this work to a grand success? Here is where our faith is to be tested. The call for means to support our work in all parts of the world is surely13going to test us as a people. We greatly fear many will fail to stand that test. The love of the world fills the hearts of many who profess to love this truth. The calls have been coming, are continuing to come, and will constantly and greatly increase. There can be no doubt of that. The transferring process must and will go on. By that process our faith will be mightily tested. ‘Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags [“purses,” American Revised Version] which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.’ Luke 12: 32-37. This ‘little flock’ must be the advent believers who are looking for the Lord when he comes. They transfer their treasure to the bank of heaven by using their means to carry on the work of warning the world of Christ’s soon coming, preaching faithfully the closing message to all the world, for the proclamation of it will enlighten the whole world. Every dollar put into this work with right motives will be transferred over yonder. If it is left to be burned up in this world at Christ’s coming, its owner will be burned up with it. ‘Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ These words of Christ are strictly true: just as true is it that where our hearts are, there shall we go ourselves. The heart being the seat of our affections, our actions show what we love the most. The one who truly, firmly, continually believes we are in the last days, that Christ is coming very soon, will use of his means to support and sustain that work. Just as true is it that those whose faith is weak, and whose love of this world is strong, will fail to properly sustain the great work of carrying the truth to the world. They love this world and its riches better than the cause of God. Christ illustrated this principle in his counsel to the young man of great wealth, who, having heard the precious words of the Saviour, desired to share in the great salvation. He eagerly inquired what he should do to obtain eternal life. Christ referred him to the commandments of God, the great standard of right. He claimed to have kept them from his youth up. Christ beheld the young man, saw noble qualities in him, loved him, and greatly desired to have him as a true disciple. Christ saw the young man’s one great need, and told him to go and sell his property and do good with it, and come and follow him in the self-denying life of a true follower, and he should have part in the great reward hereafter. The young man turned away very sad. He had great possessions. What a lesson our Saviour makes of this one illustration! ‘How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven!’ He even declares that it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. It is no wonder that the disciples were astonished at this statement. Multitudes in this message will be greatly astonished to see this principle verified before their eyes. This young man disappeared from view, going away with a sad heart. He loved his riches so much that he gave up Christ and the great reward that he might retain them. The servant of God has told us that this young man, had he obeyed Christ, might have been one of his apostles and stood high in Christ’s favor. Ah, what a terrible mistake he made! Thousands, yea, millions of talented, naturally good and most valuable men have made, and are making, mistakes of the same nature. Many of them may read this article. They will be tested in this last solemn message. If they are unwilling to transfer their property by supporting the cause of God with it and assisting in the great work of proclaiming this message, clinging to their possessions as did the young man to whom the Saviour gave this heart-searching advice, they will be among those to whom James speaks: ‘Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them . . . shall eat your flesh as it were fire.’ James 5: 1-5. The love of riches, when it supplants the love of God’s truth in the heart, is indeed the root of all kinds of evil. Men can not realize this now, but, alas! they will realize it in that awful day when they find themselves lost forever because they loved this world more than they loved Christ and heaven.