p. 100 | M. R. S by M. R. S.

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 18, 1859

M. R. S

By M. R. S.

CONSECRATION. NO. 3.—PROPERTY.

HAS the Lord given, I may rather say lent you a portion of his earth? for "the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof," Ps. And while many generations have successively occupied it, it has all the time been his, and at his disposal. You, now, dear friends, have your position in the human family. God has seen fit to place your life away down here in the last generation of probationers, and has intrusted to you a worldly possession, which one after another has called mine, and left; just as shadows possess some particular spot successive days. Do those broad acres never look good to you? and do you never look upon your beautiful dwelling, and feel an emotion similar to Nebuchadnezzar's when he said, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built by the might of my power" &c., while you do not wait to realize that your life is like "the flower of the grass," and the earth you possess

doomed to desolation and the flames?

You who profess to believe the time near when Jesus shall come to call us all to an account of our stewardship, are you willing to give him the wealth that so charms you, and is thus enslaving your very soul? Oh will you, just as long as you can, cling to a lent treasure, and lose a portion you might secure for an everlasting possession? Perhaps you have silenced conscience by thinking it perfectly right to keep your property, provided you do not set your affections upon it. It seems to me a thought like this should be evidence enough that your heart is already upon it. Where your treasure is there will your heart be also; and if you scrupulously keep your treasure here, your heart must be here also. It may be you have been reserving your wealth for your children. Why dear brother, of what possible benefit can it be to them in a little from this? God will take care of your children's future necessities if you will give your means as he calls for it through the wants of his cause and the poor around you. Will you love your children better than your Saviour, and a treasure in heaven? For what you give to the Lord here is placed to your account in heaven. "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness." How? By using this mammon, i. e., our wealth in a way of which God can approve, and thus secure the friendship of the Father and Son, who alone are able to receive us into "everlasting habitations."

I would here remark that God does not require us to attend to one duty exclusive of another. "One duty never conflicts with another." When the apostle says, "If any man provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel," he means for us to be diligent enough in business so as to attend to our own and families' actual necessities—not luxuries—and the surplus—duty elsewhere dictates regarding that; and if we suffer the cause of God to languish for want of that surplus means, we prove our affections are on something beside that precious cause, for which we are reserving our mammon. Jesus speaks [Luke xii] of our being "rich towards God." How? By adding farm to farm, or even keeping all we have to expend on self-interest or gratification, while souls that might have a chance to learn the truth, and be fitted for the mighty events now just before us, are shrouded in darkness, error and sin, and going carelessly on to perdition? Did you never think that a portion of the wealth you guard so closely, given to God in sustaining the spread of his truth, and with an earnest desire for his blessing upon it, may, we had almost said must, be the means in his hands of securing eternal life and all its attendant blessings to more than one who might otherwise drink the wrath of God? And think you your own soul would stand justified, while others are lost because you refused to give your means to carry the light to them? May be you have thought the Lord does not require you to sell your property for less than its real or former value, to advance his cause. Well then, suppose you keep it just a little longer till Jesus comes, and it becomes worthless to yourself and every one else? would it be better than selling now for half its value and giving the avails for the support of that truth which can save from eternal damnation? Oh take heed, lest in the day that shall try men's souls you find "your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten, your gold and silver (whether in your land or on interest) is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days" to be left to desolation.

Dear brother or sister, do not think I am condemning any one. Search your own hearts; and if you are one of the above class, God help you to profit by what I believe his Spirit teaches to be your duty. But perhaps you are of the very poor of this world; and as you mourn over the bleeding cause of God, wish you had at your disposal the wealth your brother possesses. While he clings to it, you would give it, oh as freely, to speed on the last message of mercy. Dear saint, Jehovah will find means to sustain his precious truth; and if those professing the third angel's message, who hold the Lord's property, come not up speedily to his help, they will most certainly be sifted out, and others raised in their stead who will cheerfully ("God loveth a cheerful giver"—remember that), and fully supply all the wants of his cause.

But about your own duty. Paul tells you [2 Cor. viii, 12,] "For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." God will hold the poor accountable for the manner in which they spend their littles. Now when you are about to spend your pennies for something not strictly necessary, recollect perishing souls, and the widow's two mites [Mark xii,] which were more than all the rich had cast into the treasury. Be assured God will call us all to an account of our stewardship, though the portion he may have assigned some of us be very small. Understand me; I do not think he requires us to give when we actually need the means most. Let us do all we can do to perform all our duties, to ourselves, our families and to society, for God.