Our Stewardship by I. H. EVANS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 19, 1908

Our Stewardship

By I. H. EVANS

I. H. EVANS

(Reading for Wednesday, December 16)

“For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.”

God has appointed his children as stewards over his household. According to the Scriptures, the Lord does not appoint some as stewards, and leave others without stewardship; but he calls “his servants,” each and every one, and delivers to them his goods. In this appointment, the Lord does not necessarily give to each man the same responsibility. In the parable of the talents, he gave to one servant five talents, to another two, and to another one,—to every man according to his several ability. So the Lord entrusts his children with responsibility somewhat in proportion to their natural ability.

This appointment is not received from man, nor is it given by man: it comes from the Lord himself. He makes each servant of his, whom he calls to accept of his grace and mercy, his steward. The Master delivers to his servant a portion of his goods, over which he expects him to exercise stewardship, until the time that God calls him to make final settlement. This stewardship is a trust committed to man, and is one of the highest and noblest appointments he can receive in this world.

This stewardship will ever remain a sure test of character. Faithfulness in the performance of the plain, simple duties of life, is proof of one’s love and loyalty to God. One’s stewardship begins at the very time when he enters the Lord’s service. The individual does not have to continue with the Lord for a series of years to demonstrate his ability, or to give evidence of his integrity, before the Lord appoints him to his stewardship; but whom the Lord accepts, he appoints at once as a steward.

Paul says, “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” You will recall that in the parable of the rich steward, it had been reported to the rich man that his steward had wasted his goods. “And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.”

From all the teachings of God’s Word, it is expected that faithfulness, strict integrity, and loyalty to the Master will be found in all who retain their stewardship. One may ask the question, Over what am I made steward? The answer is: Over all that the Lord has committed to your keeping. You are the steward of your time, the steward of all the means which God has committed to you. Neither the Christian’s time nor his means is his own, to do with as he may wish. Each is a trust received from the Lord, to whom the Christian must be responsible for the use that he makes of these gifts. The Lord takes cognizance of every act, every word, all our dealings with one another, and our deportment before our fellow men.

The steward of the Lord can never say that this or that is of no importance to him. Apparently small things constitute the very pillars and foundation stones of true Christian character. Nothing can be regarded lightly. The Lord notices the dropped stitch; he sees the slightest task; he observes the spirit of faithfulness or unfaithfulness in the smallest matters; and to his vision these small things are the true index of what we really are. They either fit or unfit us for the society of heavenly beings. In all the teachings of Christ, faithfulness in small matters is upheld as all-important. “These,” says the Great Teacher, “ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”

God himself claims ownership to all the riches of earth. This world and all its treasures belong to God. Speaking through the psalmist, he declared, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” On another occasion, he says: “I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.”

All the temporal blessings that we enjoy are gifts from God. They are not obtained by our wisdom or by our human strength: they are treasures committed to our keeping, over which we are to exercise stewardship, and for which stewardship we are accountable to the Lord.

A GROUP OF INCA INDIAN CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE OF PERU

It is a great privilege for one to be God’s steward. Even in earthly courts to be a steward over the king’s household is an honor much sought after. The greatest, the noblest, count it a high privilege to be appointed steward by an earthly sovereign. But no earthly stewardship can approximate the glory and service of our heavenly King. We are his stewards, chosen and appointed by himself over his own household. The treasures and riches are his, and he entrusts them to us for our keeping. He expects us to return to him that which he claims as holy unto the Lord,—tithes and offerings. That portion of his goods which we use wisely and well in his cause is that which gives evidence of our faithfulness in our stewardship. If a man, by accepting the gifts of the Lord, accepts the office of steward, but refuses to return to him that which he claims as his own in either tithes or offerings, it can not be said of such a one that he is a steward faithful in all things.

God requires his people to bring tithes and offerings to him; these are his by right, for all we have is God’s. As if it were a thing too strange for belief, he asks, “Will a man rob God?” Then follows the fearful indictment: “Yet ye have robbed me.” Those stewards of his who have betrayed their trust ask, “Wherein have we robbed thee?” Then God answers, in terms too plain to be misunderstood, “In tithes and offerings.” Listen to God’s denunciation of such stewardship: “Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.” Then in yearning love and pity he pleads with his people, and promises these blessings to such as will be faithful stewards: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.”

The year 1907 saw the largest ingathering of tithes and offerings in the history of the third angel’s message. According to the statistical reports, the tithe paid was $1,064,753.43. Offerings for home and foreign missions were made to the amount of $639,964.69. All this means has been devoted to the cause of God through the faithful stewardship of his children.

Doubtless many who listen to this reading to-day have been faithful to the last cent which belongs to God. Surely there is not one who feels that he has given too much to God’s cause in the earth. There may be others who have given only a portion of that which belongs to the Lord, and which he claims as his own. There may be some, even, who have not conscientiously endeavored to return to the Lord that which belonged to him. These are all matters of very great importance to every soul here to-day. There is no surest test of character than faithfulness in bringing tithes and offerings to the Lord. No one but God knows the exact amount of each individual’s tithe. No church-member can know it; no one in the conference can possibly know it. Even the members of one’s own family do not have a true knowledge of just the amount of tithe he should pay. A true tithe is known only to the individual and to God.

God not only claims a full tithe, but he claims offerings as well. “Ye have robbed me . . . in tithes and offerings.” Who among us can claim that we have no offerings to bring to the Lord? He who gave his only begotten Son to redeem

us from sin and its awful curse, is entitled to the best that we can give. One dear believer writes, in a letter received while this reading is being prepared: “I do believe if I owned the wealth of all this, God’s footstool, I could, and would, really give it all, just as fast as it could be used, and then feel as if I had done nothing more than I ought to do.” This is the spirit of every true steward of Christ. He not only is willing, but anxious, to render to the Master everything that it is possible for him to give, to be used to the Master’s glory.

While we are blessed with health and life, it is well for us to think of the day of final settlement. We shall have to give an account to the Lord of our stewardship. Each of us must stand before Almighty God, and render to him an account of our use of the means and the time which he entrusted to us in this life. Christ said: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? and if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?”

The rewards which God has promised to his faithful children are beyond all calculation. They are infinite in value. They are eternal in time. Nothing of earth can compare with what we shall have in eternity with the Lord. Neither will our reward be all of a material nature; for we shall find spiritual blessings of which we have only had a foretaste here. To live and reign with Christ through all eternity, to share with him his throne, to walk upon the sea of glass, to stand before the throne of God,—these are rewards which ought to encourage us to earnest Christian effort, to faithful stewardship, to holy living, in this present life.

Moreover, God takes the means which we put into his cause, and uses it in bringing souls to his kingdom. The results of the use of this means he credits to the steward who paid the tithes or offerings, though the amounts given were already the Lord’s. Thus the giver is doubly blessed,—blessed in giving to the Lord his own, and rewarded with what his gifts have accomplished in the work of saving souls. These ransomed, redeemed ones are reckoned to the account of the stewardship of God’s people; and they will shine as stars in the crowns of God’s children throughout endless ages.

On that glad day when the Master comes to call to himself the purchase of his blood, and to reward his faithful children, there will stand before him a countless throng who have come from “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” We shall meet all the faithful stewards of God’s household around his throne. The touch of immortality will be in every face; the life of God will be stamped on every brow. Then with his own hand the Master will crown with glory and honor those who have been true to him.

It will not be the honors which men have given us, nor the treasures of earth which we have heaped together here, that will be our pride and joy in that day. No, no! Our joy will be to have done what we could to save our fellows from sin and ruin. In that glad day there will be some in glory, clothed in the white robes of Christ’s righteousness, who have been saved, by God’s grace, through our stewardship.

To-day is a good day for us to redeem the past. Let not the enemy deceive your soul. What God requires of one he requires of all,—faithfulness in stewardship. If God has been wronged by us in tithes and offerings, let us restore this day that which is the Lord’s, and make a covenant of peace with God. Forget not the standard of acceptable stewardship: “It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful;” remember also the words of the Master: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.”

To-day is the accepted time. To-day bring your tithes and offerings to God, and prove him now, if he will not pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. May all here to-day heed this call, and be among those faithful stewards to whom our Lord will say, on his return: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”