NOTES by Editor | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 12, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 31.

NOTES.

By Editor

THE Lord does not wish a forced obedience or service; for such is not true service. It is prompted by selfish motives. If we attempt to serve God through fear of punishment, our motive is selfish; for we simply do one thing unpleasant to save ourselves from something more unpleasant. If we attempt to serve God thinking that we shall be thereby prospered, the motive is wholly selfish; for we do that which is irksome in some respects for the purpose of getting gain. Such service is not acceptable to God. It is just as truly selfish as is the life of him who makes no profession, whose entire existence is spent in the service of self.

"GOD loveth a cheerful giver." A cheerful giver will possess "a willing mind," or a ready mind. The mind will not need urging, or coaxing, or compelling; it is ever ready; and an ever-ready mind makes a cheerful, glad, or joyous giver. He gives not because others do, but he gives because he loves to give. He considers it a privilege so to do. Such a mind actuated the poor widow who cast in all her living. But such a mind is not natural to man; how can it be obtained?

"WE love him," says the apostle "because he first loved us." All love springs from God. God so loved a sinful world that he gave his only begotten Son; and that Son so loved the world that he "gave himself." Through that gift came all the blessings which men enjoy. In him, dwelleth all fullness. Had it not been for that, evil and evil only would have reigned. But God showed his hatred of sin and love for man by giving his Son to die. This goodness of God is designed to bring men to repentance by revealing to them God's holy character and wonderful compassion, and in contrast with this their own imperfect natures, made so by sin.

THOSE who long for the pure and the good, will seek God for it in God's own way, and those who desire and will thus to seek God, will find his wisdom, sustaining grace, and mighty power manifested at every step. Sin will be revealed till the heart left to itself would despair, faith will be confirmed by answers to prayer, strength will be given to put away sin, and the hard, selfish heart of stone will be taken away and a yielding, teachable heart of flesh will be given; the sins will be pardoned, and the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit. Rom. 5:1-5. All these blessings wrought by his Spirit can be had for the asking. God is more willing to give them than an earthly parent is to give good gifts to his children. Luke 11:9-13. But we must not ask in words alone, but in heart, and he who seeks God with all the heart will not be disappointed.

THUS he becomes a child of God. He loves God supremely. His highest object of pursuit will be the success of God's cause. He will do for it, not grudgingly, or of necessity, but with a cheerful heart, counting it a privilege to do. He knows by faith in God's promises that every investment in the work of God is sure. Faith and love and love and faith are the main-spring of his actions. Faith will not be feeling; it will be exercised, and will shine brightest when feeling is absent and circumstances are forbidding. Love will not be an evanescent, intermittent emotion, but an abiding, active principle.

LIBERALITY freely and constantly exercised toward worthy objects helps to crucify self and develop unselfishness or love. In fact, love is active unselfishness, while all sin, the opposite of love, has its root in selfishness. The selfish are never happy. Pride, envy, hatred, strife, and all the foul

brood of sin, exist within their hearts. There is no peace to the wicked, or selfish. Supreme happiness results from supreme unselfishness. Nothing brings so much real enjoyment as entire forgetfulness of self and kind carefulness for others' welfare. This explains why it is more blessed to give than to receive. It makes us more unselfish, more like Christ, and consequently brings us greater returns in peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. But the giving must be unselfish; and true gratitude to God for his unspeakable gift to us will make it so. We will love him because he first loved us.

EARTHLY riches are but a bubble. Even though they could be possessed throughout man's earthly life, they soon pass away forever; and in their possession for their own sake, they are always more of a burden than a blessing. The true pilgrim and stranger will not seek them for themselves. He will show by his life, by the expenditure of the means which God places in his hands, by his liberality, by his sacrifices, that he is seeking a better country, that is a heavenly.

IN a little while from this the last message of mercy (Rev. 14:6-11) will close. Oppressive and apostate powers will issue decrees of confiscation of goods, imprisonment, and death, against the faithful, as traitors to human governments, because they dare serve God. Those who cling to their riches, and by any means hold their integrity, will see the riches swept away by inexorable law. Those who fear God and believe his promises will transfer all earthly wealth to the Bank of Heaven by yielding all to God now, to be used as he may by his providence indicate. But those who so love their riches as to retain them to the last, will so love them then that they will yield the truth; for if they cannot trust God now, how will they trust him when the day of trouble comes upon them?