A Covenant by Sacrifice.
By R. F. Cotterell
THE work of human redemption and salvation is a work of sacrifice. Christ has made the great sacrifice; and he bids us take up the cross and follow him. And unless we do this, he assures us that we cannot be his disciples. Therefore, when the great gathering day comes, the command is, “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” Ps. 5 : 5. The saints—those who will be gathered when the angels are sent forth to gather the elect—are such as have made a covenant with God by sacrifice. A sacrifice costs something. David said he would not offer a sacrifice to God which cost him nothing. I remember hearing the question raised, in a conversation between two ministers, whether anything could be properly called a sacrifice except the slaying of an offering. This is not its only scriptural sense. It is used otherwise in both Testaments. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Ps. 51 : 17. “But to do good and to communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” Heb. 13 : 16. When the Philippians sent of their goods to supply the necessaries of life to the apostle Paul, he declared their action to be “an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.” Now we have the opportunity to offer sacrifices to God equally acceptable. We can serve the cause of God, blessing and saving men, by the use of those things which he has put into our hands. It may cost us some self-denial to surrender to God what he has intrusted to our care as stewards. He gives us our living out of his goods; but we are apt to think we need all we have and more. We are little disposed naturally to make a sacrifice. If we had an abundance, a thousand times more than we could use, how liberal we would be! This would not be a sacrifice. The thought is deceptive. The person that has a great abundance is no more inclined to be liberal; and if he was, he would know little of real sacrifice. For what purpose was the account of the poor widow and her two mites put upon record? Was it not to teach us to “trust in the Lord and do good”? Is the reader making a covenant with God by sacrifice? Some have for years rejoiced that God has given them the truth. It has come to them by sacrifice—the sacrifice of the Son of God, and a sacrifice on the part of those whom God has used as instruments—and they have not yet learned that God requires them to make a sacrifice to give the truth to others, that they may be saved. “Talk of following Christ, yet making no sacrifice! not giving of their abundance, even to save their fellow-men!” Be not deceived. “If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” Some think they are too poor to give even a small amount of means in the cause. In such cases it will often be found that they are not too poor to use means for useless and hurtful indulgences. They find means to indulge the appetite with those things which are neither food nor drink; but are an injury instead of a benefit. Those who indulge in tea and butter, or largely in sugar, are not benefited thereby, but certainly injured. They find means to make a costly offering to perverted appetite. Can they not do something in the cause of God and perishing humanity? Can they not at least sacrifice these idols? This would be something, if they did no more. But if they would cease to sacrifice to idols, they would have something with which to serve God. Let us each ask ourselves, Are we making a covenant with God by sacrifice? R. F. COTTERELL.