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Love for the Truth

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 27, 1870

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 36, No. 15.

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Love for the Truth.

By Henry F. Phelps

“I love thee, I love thee, and that thou dost know;” “But how much I love thee my actions will show.”
It seems to me to be utterly impossible for any one connected with any enterprise whatever, to long continue in love with it, without a spirit of sacrifice. When we cease to sacrifice, our love will cease in a corresponding degree. So that our liberality toward any object or enterprise, will be a safe rule by which to measure our love for it. In other words, our love for the cause of truth, with which we are connected, can be measured by our spirit of giving. And sacrifice means something more than simply giving when we can as well as not, giving of our plenty; it sometimes means to give even as the poor widow did, all, if need be, and trust in God to supply all our wants.
Do you try to excuse yourselves by saying that the ministers, more than any other class of men, need a large measure of this spirit? So sure as they have duties to perform, so sure they will have to give account; and just so sure your responsibilities are just as great in proportion to the position you occupy, as are theirs. Each stone in a building is called by the master builder to fill its appropriate place; and if it fails, another will be supplied, and it will be cast away. So the great Master Builder has called them to stand as watchmen; and if they fail, their testimony will be cut off, and another called to their place. But, no less is it true that you also have a position to fill in this great building, and responsibilities laid upon you which you alone may discharge; and if you fail, your love for the truth will gradually wear away, and you will be deceived in yourself, lose your position, and another fill your place, who will fill it more worthily. “Give an account of thy stewardship,” will soon be spoken by the Master; and it will not be left for you to say, “It applies to my neighbor;” but it will be spoken to you, Give account of thy, not another’s, stewardship. And what will be your feelings if you have failed in your duties. “They that preach the gospel, must live of the gospel.” “Give, and it shall be given.” “They that give to the poor, lend unto the Lord.” “Cast thy bread upon the waters.” “So laboring, we ought to support the weak.” “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” “Give to him that asketh.” “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse.” “Yet ye have robbed me in tithes and offerings.”
Do not these texts prove a duty? “The poor ye have always with you.” Who needs to have it said, “Thou art the man?” Who will not plead guilty? Who can say, I have done what I could? Who will say, I have filled my vows, I have done my duty, my garments are clean? Do you say, I can? Look a moment at the various branches of this great work. Have you done all? Look at your own wardrobe, at your table, about yourselves on every hand, and see if there are no superfluities—many things simply for show or for taste? If there are, cut them off. But more particularly look to your vows and pledges. Have you paid all? Look to your Systematic Benevolence. Have you done your duty? Have you paid all? or are you one, two, or three years behind? If the latter, you have certainly robbed God. Then, I beseech you, come up and do your duty. Don’t wait. It is not Systematic Compulsion, but Benevolence, a free-will offering. Remember that your love for God’s cause is measured by the offering you make. Another will soon take your place; and sad indeed will it be, if you lose your crown. And this will certainly be the case, unless you reform. Then why delay? Unless you do your duty, blood will be found upon your garments. And oh! the anguish of your soul in that day, to see that you have not only lost yourself, but that others have stumbled over you into perdition, on account of your unfaithfulness. Can it be thus? Will it be thus? Now you can decide your own case. Then it will be too late. Your case will have been decided. Soon it must be decided, and that for eternity. How can you thus slumber on from year to year, while the destinies of eternity are before you? I beseech you to awake.
“Awake ye, awake, no time now for reposing.”
May God help ministers and people, reader and writer, to awake now, lest we be awakened when it is too late. HENRY F. PHELPS.
Pine Island, Minn.