IF!

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

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 11.

“Look at our houses, our lands, our possessions; our entertainments, our amusements, our recreations; our comforts, our luxuries, our extravagances! Surely, as long as we have all these things for ourselves, we can scarcely plead with any honesty, ‘We would help the poor heathen if we could, but really, we have no money!’ No money! Nay, God’s servants have plenty of their Master’s money. But they are not willing to part with it. If we liked to give the money, we should find we had it to give. If we wanted to send our missionaries, we should find some way of doing it. O yes, if it would secure social advantages, or if it were something we cared for, Christians would soon be busy writing their checks, and pouring their silver and gold into the treasury. But as it is—‘we really can not afford it!’ True, we sing about

“ ‘…my silver and my gold, Not a mite would I withhold.’ ”

And, perhaps, a mite we do not withhold. But, too often (with heaped-up riches), we withhold all the rest! We think we may lavish as much as we please upon ourselves, while we expect our Master, who gave Himself for us, to be satisfied with any little pittance we may condescend to offer Him!

“We sing, and lustily (for is it not one of our favorite hymns?): ‘Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were an off’ring far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.’ ”

And then we give Him, for foreign missions, one per cent. of our income? Nay, but (taking the average) one-sixteenth of one per cent.! O, why do we call ourselves God’s servants, and serve Him so badly?

“My brother, beware how you rob God. Take care, I pray you, lest in seeking to save your life you lose it, lest in seeking to save your money it vanish away, lest in seeking to save your children they are taken from you.”

He who embraces in his prayers the widest circle of his fellow-creatures, is most in sympathy with the mind of God.—Dean Goulburn.