One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund by W. C. DALBEY

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · May 23, 1907

One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund

By W. C. DALBEY

For Special Work at Home and Abroad

Paying Our Debts

PAUL said, “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians.” That is, Paul, knowing what he did in Christ and of Christ, was, because of this, in debt to both Greek and barbarian. The apostle had the gospel (“Paul a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God”), and so he felt in duty bound to do his part in giving the gospel to all nations. “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name.”

I sometimes feel that we are forgetting the price paid for man’s redemption; because we are so slow to acknowledge our indebtedness to those outside of Christ. Are we ashamed of that which makes us a debtor? Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

Every one who is a recipient of the gospel, is, with Paul, in duty bound to give it to others. “Go ye.” Here is a debt from which no Christian can escape; it is a specific obligation.

Now, all can not, nor are all obliged to, pay their indebtedness in the same way. Debts are paid according to the loan. All have not the same ability (talents). All can not preach, some (very few) can not canvass. Many are not fitted for medical missionary work. But all are to give of their means. Many hold to the idea that only one tenth belongs to God. This is not so. All, both ourselves and our wealth, belongs unto God. The difference is, of the one tenth God specifies how it shall be used, and he graciously allows us to choose the channels through which the nine tenths are to flow for the furtherance of the gospel.

Every penny or dollar we spend should be spent to the glory of God. If we but buy a loaf of bread, it should be done that we may gain more strength with which to get more means to place in God’s treasury. “Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

Seventh-day Adventists have obligated themselves to give the third angel’s message to the world in this generation. Each individual member should feel that this is his enterprise. And, as all enterprises require means for their extension, so to this message, which should be the greatest thing on earth to us, ought to be given, not a part, but all our time, talent, and means. This, “whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God,” should be carried out in our daily lives, whether in the field, in the workshop, or in the office. The message should ever be before our minds and uppermost in our thoughts. At this present time, every member of the denomination should feel it a sacred obligation to pay his apportionment of the $150,000 fund, and pay it quickly. The Spirit of God has sanctioned the raising of this fund. It is our debt. “Owe no man anything,” should also apply here. Let us pay our debts,—this debt,—and do it quickly.

W. C. DALBEY.