p. 16 | Not Man, but God

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 25, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 12.

Not Man, but God.

The work of the Christian is not to be measured by man's opinions, approval, or disapproval, but by the consecration and love put into it. But as this is known only to God, it is true that only God can rightly judge of its value. Oftentimes that which the world and even the church lauds most is founded on the veriest selfishness. It is wrought for the praise of men, and men praise. The doer has his reward in the evanescent applause. The human instrument is praised and takes the glory, while God is left out of the question. Many of the great “philanthropic” works are of this sort. While they do much good in relieving distress and alleviating suffering, they cost no real sacrifice or self-denial on the part of him who promotes them and who receives all the praise. Frequently the deeds are performed on an ostentatious scale, and are used as advertisements of the man or the organization with which he is connected. Large organizations, large forces of laborers, certainly ought to do much work, and when a year or two of it is summed up in a little tract, an article, or a speech or two, it sounds large, and straightway the people idolize the man at the head of it all, and wonder why others do not do something for humanity. Well, others do. There are God's scattered ones all up and down the earth who do not let one hand know what the other does, who do not know that they are doing for Christ; it looks so small (Matt. 25: 37–39), whose faces shine with the love of God, but they do not know it. Such are the salt of the earth, unappreciated of men, but whose work in the day of judgment will tell, because Christ is in it all. Workers in the harvest-field, look not to men, but to God.