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Laying up Treasure

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 1, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 22.

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Laying up Treasure

By W. S. Chapman

W. S. CHAPMAN
As God made the heavens and the earth, his claim to ownership is a just one. His reservation of the heavens (1 Peter 1:4) for himself is made in wisdom, but the free gift of the earth to man (Ps. 115:16) is so remarkable in its munificence as to be beyond the comprehension of a mind not illumined by the Spirit of God.
In giving the earth to man, God gave all in any manner connected with it. He gave not only the earth and all that it contains,—the sea with its life, its mysteries, and its marvels,—but also the elements surrounding the planets. He gave more: he promised that as long as the earth should remain, “seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease;” in other words, that God’s power should be over man’s home, preserving it from destruction. To this end God’s mantle of grace encircles it like an atmosphere.
Man was placed upon earth as its lord and keeper, with dominion over all. When man fell, and became a servant, his power and authority were transferred, by his disobedience, into the hands of his master, to whom he had yielded himself to obey. Satan, with his evil ones, took possession of the earth, to remain its masters until the restoration. Acts 3:21.
Before the fall, Satan was without a home after his expulsion from heaven (Luke 10:18; Rev. 12:9), and without any right to use aught on earth to his own advantage. In the acquirement of this world he obtained not only a home, with personal safety for himself and his followers because of God’s grace encircling the earth, but also a kingdom, and subjects with whom to make war against the God who had so mercifully spared his life. He also acquired material of all kinds for equipping and maintaining the great army with which he hopes finally to capture the city of God.
To this end Satan has bent every energy to utilize to the utmost every resource at his command to prepare, train, and fit men, as his servants, for the work he hopes, through their cooperation, to accomplish.
His first and most important effort has been to compass the complete degradation of man. Realizing that unless the law of sin could be placed in supreme control, there would always be the possibility of a yielding of the mind to the gentle influence of the Spirit of God, and a consequent reformation, Satan has striven to develop selfishness, and to such a degree as to darken the mind beyond all hope of enlightenment. Greed and covetousness have been engendered and fostered, so that men have become, indeed, lovers of self, covetous, and unprincipled, fit tools for the hands of their master.
From this lost condition the goodness of God is calling men to repent, to turn and serve the true and living God. Those who heed the call renounce all allegiance to the prince of this world. They abandon all claim to the so-called rights and privileges of Satan’s dominions, announcing themselves as pilgrims and strangers here, citizens of a heavenly country and kingdom, looking for a city.
As their Master is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and as Satan is only a usurper, they have a right, as servants of the King, passing through the disputed territory, to use the goods of their Lord for their own sustenance, and for the furtherance of the work entrusted to them by God; but they can not safely or honestly use the wealth, or “fulness,” of this world, in which they are simply strangers and pilgrims, for their own profit or to their own advantage. Only as they use money, property, and other advantages to God’s honor and glory, and to the advancement of his work in the earth, can they expect to meet his approval, and avoid final condemnation.
For a Christian selfishly to appropriate the things of this world to his personal advantage is wrong. To gather together these things into “possessions,” is to enlist under the banner of Satan, to choose this present world for a “home,” to withdraw from under the protecting power of God, and to come short of the glory of God at last.