Silent Partners

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 19, 1903

WE have read of a man who had been a member of the church forty years, but his absence from its services, his lack of missionary zeal, and his daily life led an earnest young Christian to think he was unconverted, and to talk to him about his spiritual welfare. The thought that his life had not borne witness for the Master he professed to serve, so impressed him that he said to himself: “To think that some of the young folks didn’t know that I was a church-member, and were concerned for the old man! I’ve been a silent partner long enough. It is time I woke up and worked for the Lord; time to let my light shine so that the young folks can see it.”

There may be others who have been “silent partners” in the church long enough to be an occasion for stumbling to its younger members. They listen complacently to reports of labor performed, literature distributed, missionary visits made, and congratulate themselves on the good work done by the church, and settle down again for “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.”

But, good friend, while reading the encouraging reports in this paper, how much of the work do you do? How many books have you loaned? How many tracts distributed? How many of your neighbors have you visited? How many copies of The Signs of the Times are you selling? How many? Are you an active or a “silent” partner in the King’s business? If all the church-members had done the same amount of work as yourself, what would the record be? There will be no “silent partners” in heaven.—Australasian Signs of the Times.