p. 3 | Individual Responsibility by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 9, 1915

Individual Responsibility

By C. M. S.

To each person endowed with reason God has given gifts for whose exercise and development that soul is held responsible. It matters not how forbidding the environment, there is a debt upon that soul which none but he can discharge. It matters not how humble the birth, how lowly the occupation, the demand of the Creator is upon every one of us for service. It is a just demand, for has he not purchased us with his own blood out of the very market place of death?

We rob ourselves of much that God designs should be ours when we neglect to seek a preparation for the work he designs we should do.

Because we have not the gifts another possesses does not excuse us from using to the utmost of our power the gifts God has bestowed upon us. It is not for us to choose our endowment. That is in God's hands. “All these worketh the one and the same spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will.” 1 Cor. 12: 11. The gift God bestows upon you, use to his glory. You may consider it nothing. He does not so consider it, or he would never have bestowed it. Rest assured it was precious in his sight, or you would not possess it.

God's gifts were bestowed for a purpose, and that purpose cannot be accomplished while they are unused. He says they were given that we all might “attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error.” Eph. 4: 13, 14.

But it is not possible that the “gifts of the Spirit” should accomplish that work in us while we leave them unappropriated and unused. We can never “come unto the unity of the faith” while practicing idleness toward the cause of God. We cannot possess a “knowledge of the Son of God” while refusing to labor for the souls for whom he died. We can never be “full-grown” in the Christian sense until our labor for souls has taught us the worth of a soul; and “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” how can it be attained but through the school which he himself found necessary for his perfecting—the school of service?

The child is not expected to have the judgment necessary for its guidance, either temporally or spiritually. With the gifts of the Spirit unused, we are reckoned as children, “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine;” but the gifts, appropriated, developed, and strengthened, furnish sailing power, ballast, and anchoring facilities. They make our voyage straighter, steadier, and safer—and there is no safety without them.

With every professed member of the household of Christ using to the utmost of his ability the gift or gifts bestowed upon him “for the perfecting of the saints,” the cause of God presents a strong, impregnable front, the work goes with rapidity and force, and the coming of Christ is hastened. If we are not busy with the Master's business, using whatever gift it has pleased God to bestow, we may be sure that Satan will put something into our hands to take our attention and absorb our energies and means.

Then let us work. Let us lay plans to broaden and strengthen whatever work we may be doing. While praying for opportunities, let us practice on those we already have. We are in a busy world. Let us be busy about the greatest business in the world—the third angel's message.

C. M. S.