FAITHFULNESS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 15, 1905

FAITHFULNESS.

By Editor

THE first requisite of a steward is that he be faithful to his master's cause and interests. His intelligence and ability are presupposed in his selection or appointment. His faithfulness or non-faithfulness is manifest in the use he makes of all his powers for the time and purpose for which he is chosen.

EVEN so the one thing above all others which God requires of His servants is faithfulness. He does not say to the one who has improved his gift, "Thou hast been intelligent in a few things," or "Thou hast been wise;" but, "Thou hast been faithful." He does not say to the talent-user at last, "Well done, thou good and successful servant;" but, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." In the last great struggle with the combined powers of darkness, it is not said of His followers that they are great, or wise, or successful, or triumphant, or learned; but, "They that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful." Rev. 17:14. The calling and choosing was of Him; the faithfulness is the result of yielding loyally to God's cause and choice.

THERE is a great difference between the way men and God estimate men. If man is successful from a worldly view-point, common humanity looks with leniency upon all his sins and mistakes. In the glamor of success they are forgotten. "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart;" and, among all the grand essentials of heart-service, faithfulness, with all it involves, stands pre-eminent.

WHAT an example we have of this in the life of "Moses the servant of God," "Moses the man of God!" How grand and glorious his character appears, limned against the black background of the selfishness of the great historic characters of the world! He served God, not man. He sought God's glory in all instances save in one moment of temptation. The one cause dear to heart and soul was God's cause and the salvation of the called people. They might misjudge his motives, as they did, he plead with God, and labored on. Mighty men and princes, a great multitude, disputed his right to a position which he sought to shun, but he left the contention with God, and labored on. His own sister and brother maligned him, and weakened his influence with the people; but he goes on with his work, leaving them to God, praying that healing power may restore Miriam, upon whom divine wrath has fallen. A whole people become so debased that the patience of Divinity seems almost exhausted, and God declares that He will destroy them, and make of His servant a nation; but "Moses the man of God" can not have it thus; God must save His people, and vindicate His name and promises. Better to Moses was loss of eternal life than the failure to save that people. These are but glimpses of the character of the man of whom God said, "My servant, . . . faithful in all Mine house."

GOD'S cause needs men of this character today—men dead to the petty ambitions of this world, dead to its petty jealousies and envies, oblivious to the tongue of calumny and reproach moved by envy and falsehood; men who will stay by God's work, wrestling with God for its triumph till from Pisgah's top they are permitted to see the promised land, ever they lay down their armor, or till divided floods congeal by the power of God and safe passage is given to the eternal Paradise of God. Men are wanted, faithful men.