Robbing God by Mary Stratton

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 7, 1873

Robbing God.

By Mary Stratton

We can rob God in tithes and offerings, which is a very great wrong; but there are other ways by which we can just as effectually rob him. We profess to give the sacred hours of the Sabbath to the Lord. Then if we devote a portion of the day to labor which can possibly be avoided, Is not this robbing him of his just claims? It seems to me it is.

And again, when we go to the house of prayer, we go to worship God. The time is his. But if our thoughts wander like the fool’s eye to the ends of the earth, this surely is not giving him the time.

At the family altar, by our own firesides, where it may be the cares of life press most heavily upon us, there to sit calmly down, read a portion of his word, and engage in humble prayer, must be well pleasing to him. But to command our thoughts at such a time and worship him in spirit and in truth, must be doubly so. Is it not likewise robbery to devote the time which the Lord requires us to spend in his service to our own interests?

Presumptuous sins are increasing in these last days. We presume on the mercy of God, forgetting that justice is one of his highest attributes. Anciently, the Lord was very particular. Is he any less so now? We must admit that he never changes.

MARY STRATTON.