p. 3 | Gifts and Giving by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 24, 1902

Gifts and Giving

By Editor

Editorial

Gifts and Giving

GIVING is just as much a part of Christian experience as praying. In giving we simply allow the Lord’s character to find expression through us, and in this way his character becomes wrought into us. It is evident that it is not the market value of the gift which is of the greatest importance in the Lord’s sight. According to heaven’s estimate the poor widow who cast two mites into the temple treasury gave more than any of the others. This shows that it is the giving spirit, rather than the material gift, which determines the value of the offering as entered in the books of heaven. And this is what makes it possible for every member of the Lord’s family to give just as much as any other member when the heavenly standard of value is used in measuring the size of the gift. It might surprise some who have been praised by the world as liberal givers to find how small their benefactions have really been. On the other hand, there have been many poor widows’ accounts opened in the books of the bank of heaven with a large balance to their credit, although the world has not been made aware of the fact through the columns of the newspapers. It is because of the very principle here set forth that every Christian will give something to the Lord and for his work in the earth. The spirit of giving is the Lord’s own spirit, and when the Lord quickens us by his spirit which dwells in us, that Spirit will reveal itself in doing through us what the Lord himself is constantly doing. The Lord is continually giving. This is the essence of love. “God so loved . . . that he gave.” Christ came “to give his life.” He who is born of God and conformed to the image of his Son will reveal the same disposition. This is the joy of heaven. This is why Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

A Sure Defense

FALSE teaching abounds. Every right principle is being perverted. The plain “Thus saith the Lord” is either ignored or is interpreted to bring it into harmony with tradition or with “science falsely so called.” The people are being fed upon human speculation instead of upon “the sincere milk of the word.” Few are taught how to bring every action to the test of divine principles, and to govern their daily conduct by the law of the heavenly kingdom. Some who have had better advantages than others to become established upon right principles do not seem to have improved these opportunities in the most profitable way, and they are consequently weak when they ought to be strong. What is our defense against every form of error? It is the simple revealed truth of God. The poorest defense against error is to study error. No one would think of advising a friend who had an appetite for strong drink to try all the different kinds of liquors so that he might be prepared to recognize them and avoid them in the future. This sort of preparation would entangle him in the very snare which he is seeking to shun. He is best fitted to recognize error who is the most fully acquainted with the truth. The Spirit of truth has been given to us to make us acquainted with the truth. Christ came that he might bear witness to the truth. Through the truth we are to be sanctified. It is the Lord’s will that all should “come unto the knowledge of the truth,” and “the truth of the Lord endureth forever.” Against every threatening evil “his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” “Buy the truth, and sell it not.”

A Stormy Time

IN the part of the world where we are living, the storms are frequent and severe. Last week the record was an unusual one. This whole section of the country was storm swept day after day. Many lives were lost, and much property destroyed. These frequent storms are the forerunners of the final storm when the earth will “be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and with great noise, with storm and tempest.” But this is a sign of soon-coming salvation to those who believe the Lord, and know his way of salvation. “The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm.” A forty-days’ storm brought destruction upon the old world, but Noah’s faith turned the flood of waters into a means of salvation for all who were in the ark. “By faith Noah . . . prepared an ark to the saving of his house.” In this ark it is said that “few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” The same storm which flooded the earth floated the ark. The hosts of Israel were delivered from Pharaoh’s army in a fearful storm. “Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.” “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.” In the same storm the Israelites found salvation and the Egyptians destruction. “And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.” Have you found the place of refuge?

“Thou blest Rock of ages, I’m hiding in thee.”

The Real Work

THERE is the constant danger that we should be “cumbered about much serving” even while trying to do the Lord’s work. It is so easy to have our minds occupied with plans for organizations and institutions, and our energies spent upon that which is, after all, only a means to an end. We need frequently to be reminded that our one work is to be witnesses for God and his truth, to come into personal touch with those who are “strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world,” that we may “turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.” Any work which does not contribute in some

degree to this result must be wasted effort, so far as the kingdom of God is concerned.

There is a world to be warned. There are souls to be rescued from sin. There are victories to be gained for the cross of Christ. There is need that humanity should come into close touch with humanity in order that divinity may have a channel through which it may reach after the lost. No organized effort can take the place of personal ministry. The world was not redeemed by heavenly council meetings and resolutions merely. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. To how many are we personally ministering help and blessing? How many have been rescued through our direct effort? “Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

“Rescue the perishing, duty demands it, Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide: Back to the narrow way patiently win them; Tell the poor wanderer a Saviour has died.”