How to Meet our Pledges to the Cause.
By D. T. Bourdeau
In order to meet our pledges to the cause, we must realize that we have made them to God, and that in paying them we have to do with the Being to whom we owe all we are and all we possess, and who holds us accountable; and that all things are naked and open to him. The trouble with many is, that in making and paying their pledges, their minds are not raised to God. They make the cause of God a common thing; hence they pledge but little, and are slack in paying what they promise. To be prompt in paying our vows to God, we should cultivate strict honesty in all our business deal. If we are dishonest, penurious, and slack with man, we will be so with God. But as God is first, he should be loved supremely, and should be served first. We are naturally inclined to attend to our own wants first, and sometimes, ere we are aware, we are where we cannot render unto God the things that are his, because we have robbed him of his just due; we have appropriated to our own selfish purposes that which belonged to another. God's money was by us, and we took the liberty of using it for ourselves. It ought to have been doing something in his cause. Will he not demand it of us with usury? We should plan for God as well as for ourselves. To meet their payments in worldly matters, men will economize and move systematically. When means come in, they will say, “I shall apply it thus and so, and for no other purpose must I touch that?” And thus should we economize and plan for the Lord. We often hear people talk of “laying up for a rainy day.” Now this is right if it is not carried too far. And why not follow the same rule in laboring for the Lord? There are seasons when means come in more easily than at other seasons. Is it not then, that we should think of the Lord, and set apart what we need, to pay our pledges to sustain his cause? If Christ were on earth and should come to us destitute and calling for help, it seems to us that we should tell him readily to turn in with us that we might relieve him. But we have the privilege of rendering him this assistance in the person of his followers—in meeting the wants of his cause. He comes to us weekly through the plan of Systematic Benevolence. Shall we turn away from him, and give him a cold shoulder? He comes to us through the various calls to help in the different branches of the cause. Shall we be indifferent to his voice? God forbid. What we want is, to exercise more faith and have the cause nearer our hearts; to realize that as we sacrifice to sustain it, we are laying up treasure in Heaven; that as we sow, so shall we reap; that what men hoard up here without blessing others with, will not amount to much in the burning day. Oh! the sad and galling thought that will then come upon those who have bent all their energies in a worldly direction! Let us awake to a sense of our duty, do what we do as unto the Lord, and make a wise appropriation of the means he has given us, whether it be much or little, that we may finally have the satisfaction of meeting our treasure in Heaven.