p. 119 | Are You a Worker? by R. F. Andrews

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 23, 1873

Are You a Worker?

By R. F. Andrews

WHAT are you doing for the cause of God financially? You say you believe the truth, and that those who are proclaiming “the commandments of God and faith of Jesus” are giving the last merciful warning that this world will ever hear.

Well, do your works correspond with your faith? Faith alone will not save. “The devils believe and tremble.” It is no profit to say to the hungry and naked, “Be ye warmed and filled,” and withhold from them “those things which are needful to the body.” “Faith without works is dead.” But you say, I have works, I keep the Sabbath, pray in my family (when other matters do not crowd too hard), and attend meeting when it is practicable, are not these good works? Yes, all these should be attended to even if things “crowd” ever so hard, and many other things besides. But I have a few direct questions that I wish you to answer. Since you have been enlightened by the glorious truths of the third angel’s message, how much of your means has been paid in to carry on this blessed work? Do you make it a sacred duty you owe to God to lay by a portion of your gains upon the first day of every week for the sustenance of the cause of God? 1 Cor. 16:2. As the cause of God has grown, and its borders have been extended, when calls for means have been made, have you promptly, cheerfully, and liberally, responded? To be particular, have you paid anything to the S. D. A. Publishing Association? How much have you in the Health Institute, in the California Mission, Swiss Mission, Book and Tract Fund, Danish Monthly, and last, though not least, how much have you pledged or paid toward our denominational school? Now you will have to acknowledge that all these are important agencies in carrying out the present truth. Now, if you have been working in harmony with those agencies by your life, sympathies, prayers, and means, you doubtless have been in the path of duty. But if you have been grumbling along, murmuring at this, and finding fault with that, and being displeased and dissatisfied with the other, holding a tight string around your purse, and feeling really provoked because others give liberally, I want you to stop for a moment and just look at the ground you are occupying. You are worse than a “dead weight.” You are a real hindrance to the work, and an outright enemy to the cause, though you may not realize it.

Now, my brother (or sister), I want to ask you a plain question. I want you to candidly reflect upon it, and, in the fear of God, answer it, in that way that you will not be ashamed in the Judgment. Suppose that every professed Seventh-day Adventist should take exactly the same course that you do in sustaining the cause of God, how would it stand? Now, if you are right, every one would be right in doing just as you do. Just think of it. No Publishing Association, Health Institute, Swiss Mission, California Mission, nor anything else; no effort made to get the truth before the public; all that there would be of Seventh-day Adventism, and the “third angel’s message,” would be a set of murmuring, grumbling, complaining, unhappy, and STINGY observers of the seventh day. Can’t you see the ground you occupy? Oh! make a desperate effort to break the fetters that Satan would bind you with. Come, forsake the company of “Korah, Dathan, and Abiram,” and press into the ranks among the workers, with heart, soul, and pocket-book.

R. F. ANDREWS.

Pontiac, Ill., Sept. 15, 1873.