THE CLOSING CONFERENCE YEAR.
By A. S. Hutchins
THE present Conference year in our State will soon be past; and what will be our record in financial matters? Some of our brethren are in debt on S. B., some to the T. and M. society, while others owe on pledges to the cause in different branches. We kindly call the attention of our brethren to these things, and invite them to pay up these dues if possible as early as our next camp-meeting, if not earlier. I greatly fear some are becoming negligent in payment of pledges and dues to the cause of God. Why must these obligations be the last to be paid, if paid at all? “Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.” Many who have a commendable regard for the integrity of their word with men, seem to lose a sense of their obligation to God. “Will a man rob God?” An excellent proverb is: “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.” And here is another: “Say not unto thy neighbor, Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give: when thou hast it by thee.” Some have had it by them to pay what they honestly owed the treasury of the Lord, but have failed to do it when they could, and have brought upon themselves the displeasure of the Lord. God gives men means, that they may use them, as the pilgrim uses his staff, to help them on in their heavenly journey. Says Christ: “Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.”