To Rich Seventh-day Adventists by George I. Butler

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 29, 1906

To Rich Seventh-day Adventists

By George I. Butler

“WOE unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.” Luke 6: 24. To be rich is to have an abundance of earth’s blessings, so as to want nothing of the comforts of this life; to be fully supplied with all the good things of this world, so that every temporal want is met.

We are well aware that in our time the word “rich” is used in quite a different sense. In these days of mammoth fortunes, people are not called “rich” unless they are possessed of property to the amount of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. The real meaning of the word “rich” is an abundance, yes, a superfluity, of the good things of this world, when applied to people. Perhaps a scripture will make the meaning of “rich” plain: “And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”

“And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12: 15-20.

In this “rich” man’s case, as set before us by the Saviour as an illustration of the rich man and his dangers, we behold

merely a farmer with an abundance of land from which to raise grain in large quantities. His productive fields bring forth far more than he and his family can consume. Instead of having a beneficent disposition to alleviate distress and bring comfort and joy to others with his superabundance, he selfishly hoards it, in order that he may live high and be merry.

Here is a description of the vast multitudes of well-to-do people in this land of wealth. Their obligations to God are forgotten and disregarded. The sufferings of the poor and needy appeal not to their selfish motives. God’s requirements are not considered. The salvation of souls has no charms for them. Having a “good time” in this world, eating, drinking, making merry, ignoring eternity and the judgment day,—this is the kind of life that multitudes choose to live in this world.

There are large numbers of professed Seventh-day Adventists in these United States living in much the same way. They are not the most pious, most devoted, most self-sacrificing believers of our faith. They are rather the most worldly minded, the sharpest traders; they are specially interested in good bargains, joining farm to farm, loaning money with big interest, keeping their eye steadily fixed on the “main chance,” that is, to get a little more money or property together. What for?—To be consumed in the final conflagration just ahead.

Says one, Is it not proper for me to be prudent, industrious, saving, trying to get some means ahead? Should I not make provision for the future? Are not such efforts to be commended? Are they not good evidences of sound judgment? Let the Saviour answer this question: “But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall these things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasures for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

That is God’s reply to this kind of worldly wisdom. This statement shows how God regards much of the worldly wisdom now so common among Seventh-day Adventists. The only possible hope for our worldly wise church-members is for them to follow the directions Jesus gave in a parallel Scripture in the same connection: “Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not. Truly wise men, when the moving time comes, always place their property where they can transfer it to the place to which they expect to move. These “bags which wax not old” represent agencies which God gives us in which to deposit our treasure in the bank of heaven. We transfer it by “giving alms” to good and noble causes. Every whit of that treasure is laid up in heaven. Angels keep an account of it, and it is transferred to our future home. We save it by doing good with it. We lose it by covetously hoarding it here. Where our treasure is, there our hearts necessarily are. Where our hearts are, there shall we go at last. If our hearts are here in this world, our affections centered upon the things of this life, there we shall be at last. When the world is melted and burned in the great day, all our hoarded property and we ourselves will burn up together.

Dear brethren and sisters, this most important $150,000 fund so greatly needed in this time of pressing calls, demands your aid. Here is a gracious opportunity for you to transfer some of your means to the better land. This should be considered a great privilege and blessing to every person acting as God’s steward. May he help you to see the importance of so considering it, and of making a liberal transfer at the present time.

GEO. I. BUTLER.