THE ONE THING NEEDFUL by Methodist Recorder

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 9, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 10.

THE ONE THING NEEDFUL.

By Methodist Recorder

It is not always the man who possesses the greatest talents, or who is the most highly educated and cultured, that is the most useful. Talent and learning and culture, when properly estimated and wholly consecrated to God, are an important means in his hand for the accomplishment of good; but there is such a tendency in poor, weak human nature to trust in these things, and to consider them sufficient in themselves to accomplish the work, that they are often diverted from their proper use and become the means of exalting the individual in his own estimation rather than in promoting the glory of God.

The cultivation of the intellect is of great importance, especially when accompanied by the proper training of the heart. But mere intellectual power, unless under the influence of divine grace, instead of being made a blessing to others, may become the means of great injury to them. The usefulness of any kind of power depends entirely on the manner in which it is employed, and the object which it

is intended to promote. While properly controlled and directed, it is capable of accomplishing important purposes, but if not thus directed and controlled it may cause great injury. This is as true of intellectual as of any other power. Hence the importance, whether a man's talents be great or small, whether his learning be extensive or limited, of consecrating all he has to God, placing himself entirely under the direction of his Spirit and grace, and then, and only then, will God condescend to make him a blessing to others, and use him as a means of advancing the interests of his cause.

Piety, after all, is the great essential to success in the work of soul-saving. With this, a man of comparatively limited abilities may be very useful, but without it a man of the highest scholastic attainments will prove a failure. While every man should earnestly seek the best gifts, he should remember that gifts without grace will accomplish nothing in building up the kingdom of Christ.—Methodist Recorder.