OUR TREASURES by S. M. Spicer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 29, 1877

OUR TREASURES.

By S. M. Spicer

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven.” Matt. 6:19, 20.

This exhortation came from the lips of one who knew perfectly the vanity of the riches of this world, likewise the exceeding rich treasures and blessedness of Heaven.

With the limited knowledge of mortals, surrounded as we are with the riches and pleasures of this world, the natural inclination is to appropriate and enjoy, as far as lies in our power, all that earth can afford.

And why should we not do so? Truly we may if we do it in the proper manner. Has not God fitted up this lovely world, expressly providing for man’s necessities, comfort, and pleasures? Yea, in infinite love, as well as wisdom and power, has our Heavenly Father prepared the earthly dwelling place of the human family. He arranged all the nice adaptations of the outer world to correspond with man’s nature and circumstances. No thoughtful person can look upon our earthly paradise, marred as it is with sin, without seeing that the Creator had in view man’s happiness as well as his necessities. And throughout all the wide-spread universe, from the lowliest flower in its perfection of beauty, to the farthest twinkling star lit up and sustained by omnipotent power, all declare God’s beneficence as well as power and holiness.

And how should man regard these manifestations of a loving Father? How shall he adapt himself to the conditions of so genial a dwelling place? In other words, how shall he “use the world as not abusing it”? Surely not in thoughtlessness of God’s provisions for his needs, nor in indifference to the displays of God’s wisdom and power, thus calculated to call out love and worship toward him. It is really an important Christian duty to study and appreciate the Creator in his visible works.

The sensual mind, centered in self-indulgence, knows nothing of this high, ennobling pleasure. The covetous heart, engrossed in the mania for increasing wealth, ever clutches “the muck-rake,” and never looks up to discover the true enjoyment of a rational Christian. Thus all God’s care, wisdom, and greatness, as displayed in the outer world, are lost to such individuals, and the greater multitude grovel on incapable of appreciating, worshiping, or acceptably serving the glorious Creator.

But we designed at this time to consider more particularly the proper mode of using or appropriating material wealth. The Saviour’s injunction is, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.” He presents in the same connection the reasons why this earth is an unsafe depository for our treasures,—“where moth and rust doth corrupt; and where thieves break through and steal.” Solomon, the richest as well as wisest of earthly monarchs, says, “Labor not to be rich.” “Riches certainly make themselves wings.” “They fly away.” Yes; vain will be the trust in riches, though hoarded with anxious toil, and guarded with scrupulous care.

It would seem from the teachings of Christ that it was not according to the divine plan that the rich should amass great wealth beyond all possible need, and the majority of the human family actually lack the necessaries of life. God dispenses the bounties of nature with an impartial as well as a liberal hand, pouring out the indispensable means of existence—air, sunshine, and water—in such a manner that they cannot be appropriated by the rich to the robbing of the poor. The lowliest peasant may thank God that in these free gifts he even may be richer than a king.

It is true that amassing money is all in accordance with God’s will when man uses only legitimate means to turn his circumstances and the resources of nature to his advantage; and wholly approved are the fruits of honest toil and faithful industry unless these treasures become too much objects of affection and worship, thus robbing God of his due.

Though Christ pronounced woes upon the rich, it was not to disparage riches, but the misappropriation of what rightfully belongs to God, being only committed to man as his steward. When the rich man, forgetting the Lord, says, I will pull down my barns, and build larger, that I may have where to bestow my goods, then, perhaps, it may be justly said to him, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”

What a fearful malediction as well as retribution we find pronounced against the rich in James 5:1–4: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you. . . . Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” This is a sad picture of such as have improperly laid up their treasure upon earth; and well it corresponds with the history of extortion and oppression from the earliest ages to the present day. Riches are corrupted because gained by dishonest means,—fraud and violence, which have debased the heart of the retainer. Ill-gotten gain rusting in our coffers may truly “eat the flesh as it were fire” in the day of wrath. What a fearful history of fraud, exorbitant usury, and general oppression of the poor, may be marked on the rusting coins that fill the miser’s chest, and doubtless the same with the coffers of many of the honored rich. Were all these dark secrets written for the eye of man, they would certainly consign to infamy here; they are all recorded in God’s book of remembrance, and thus they “shall be a witness against” those who thus “have heaped treasure together for the last days.”

Perhaps it would not be amiss for each one of us to search for the rust in our smaller coffers, and recall carefully the history of the gathering thereof, and reflect upon the prospects of the future, as to whether all our treasure is laid up on earth; and then as carefully examine the costly, crowded wardrobe, to see what garments are moth-eaten. Perhaps some of these were purchased by savings unjustly wrung from the dues of the overworked washerwoman, or the night-toiling seamstress. All these needlessly accumulated, costly garments will daintily feed the moths, while the pleading poor are turned hungry and shivering from the door of the rich. How fearful at the last will re-echo the words—“I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat,” “naked, and ye clothed me not.” Thus is the treasure laid up upon earth,—treasure only heaped up “for the day of wrath.”

We referred in our last to the utter destruction of all earthly possessions in the consuming flames of the last day, leaving the worldly rich bankrupt and eternally ruined. It truly becomes man to inquire seriously how he may escape so sad a fate. How can his treasure be insured against such a fearful loss? The Saviour prescribes how, in the same admonition,—“Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven.” There is the true savings bank for all our treasures, the bank that never fails, the place to insure against the fires of the burning day. But how can we transfer the treasures of earth to the kingdom above? The Saviour pointed out the way, when the rich young man came to him to inquire,—“Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven.” A very simple direction; yet perhaps there are few who, on receiving it, would not likewise “turn away sorrowful,” to think of sparing the least of these dear treasures. How could they willingly give to the poor what has been wrung from them by the most careful scheming to overreach in a bargain? What! sell any of those precious acres which have accumulated to thousands by mortgages on the homes of the poor, who have had to yield them up after the hard struggle of many years? Says the Saviour, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.” No wonder, cumbered as he is with so many cares of houses and lands, bank stock, mortgages and deeds, all of which will prove stubble in the consuming day.

It seems very striking when we consider how particularly Jesus, in his teachings and works of mercy, pleaded the cause of the poor. What a lesson also in the “good Samaritan.” Thus in many ways are we told how to lay up our treasure in Heaven. “He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord.” Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these ye have done it unto me.

Not only ministering to the physical wants of the needy, but every act of kindness, cheering the sorrowful and suffering, relieving pain of body, or leading the sin-sick soul to the way of life and peace,—all these labors of love, heart services, are received as given to the Saviour, and placed to account in the bank of Heaven. Truly blessed are those who have faithfully sought to lay up much treasure in Heaven. How much more profitable these labors of love which cheer the fellow-pilgrim on the way, while they are treasured above, than the constant anxiety to store the worthless dross of earth.

Whoever can realize fully that the only portion they can save of their dear gold, is what they tear away from their selfish embrace, and devote to the service of God, would cease to hug their shining coins and freely send them out on missions of love to the world. Then, having accomplished the proper work for the Master, they are purified and fitted for treasure above. As we love our treasures, let us not delay to separate them from the enemy’s grasp and fire-doomed kingdom, but convert them as soon as may be into the currency of Heaven.

S. M. SPICER.