Is Material Prosperity an Evidence of Spiritual Growth?
By F. M. W.
In the excellent progress which is attending this movement at the present time, it is well for us to stop and consider this question. We are selling more books than ever before in our history. We are paying more tithe. We are giving more toward the support of foreign missions. We have materially increased our organized forces. Our institutions are found in every quarter of the earth. Are these activities a proof of increasing personal piety in the church? They should indeed stand as the fruit of piety; and we believe that on the part of many believers in this message they are the outward evidences of a deepening experience in God. But, dear reader, how is it in your individual case? We need to consider this question from the individual rather than from the denominational standpoint. It is possible to go out and preach the message, hold Bible studies, sell religious literature, with commercial rather than missionary motives. One may even form the habit of giving to missionary enterprises (and it is an excellent habit to form) from motives far removed from those of true Christian liberality. This movement has grown into a great, active, organized agency. This has been made possible by the earnestness, the zeal, the labors, of the believers in this message. But as we may possess a zeal without knowledge, so we may possess a zeal without piety. Has the spirit of personal piety kept pace with the spirit of zeal? Are the men and women connected with this work as devoted to God, as consecrated of life, as pure of heart, as unsullied by the world, as free from the power and the thralldom of personal sin, as were the believers of two or three or four decades ago? Has the fine gold of faith become tarnished, the love of the truth corrupted? Has the simplicity of life and experience departed? Let each for himself consider these vital questions. Some, we know, in their personal experience have kept pace with the material progress made. Others, we fear, have fallen behind. In the hearts of some,9worldly principles have found entrance. They have grown weary of the way, and their hearts are turned back to Egypt’s allurements. Dear reader, where do you stand? Are you a preacher,—a messenger of God’s saving grace to those who know it not? Do you know the power of the gospel in your own life? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you kept from falling by faith in his mighty power? This experience in your life will give power to your testimony. Without it your message will be as sounding brass and as a tinkling cymbal. And in your experience, dear Bible worker, canvasser, physician, nurse, teacher, it will prove the same. The overshadowing demand of this hour is not for more money, larger book sales, increased patronage in school and sanitarium. These are all desirable; but above these, the demand for greater personal piety, for more of God in the soul, is loud and insistent. “God with us,”—this is the need of this people. The spirit of power and of sanctification and of wisdom is needed by the church. Possessing this spirit, every necessity to the finishing of the work will be supplied. Consecrated men and devoted means will be ready for every opening, and a speedy work will the Master accomplish through his people. Our only hope in the finishing of this work in this generation is in God. Christ in us, Christ working for us and through us,—in this union with the divine, will the work be accomplished. F. M. W.