Listen to the words of your Redeemer, “. . . Riches are mine. I have placed them in your hands to be wisely employed in My service, to aid the suffering, to invest in opening the gospel to those who are in darkness. Riches must not be your trust, your god, or your saviour.”
The channels for doing good are many, and they stand wide open. Your barns are large, too large already. If they overflow, instead of building larger, send your treasure before you into heaven. There are widows to feed, orphans to be taken under the guardianship of your home, and share your ample stores; there are souls perishing for the bread of life; missions are to be supported, meetinghouses to be built. If God’s cause demands a part, not only of your interest, but of your principal, you are to give back to Him His own. He calls upon you to sow now, that you may reap your harvest with eternal joy.
God’s gift increase as they are imparted. We see this illustrated in the case of the poor widow whom the prophet Elisha, by a miracle, relieved from debt. She had only one jar of oil; but the prophet told her to borrow vessels of her neighbors, and the oil poured from that one jar continued to flow till all the vessels were filled. The supply ceased only when no more vessels were brought to receive it. So it will be now. So long as we let the gifts of God flow into channels of good, the Lord will supply the flow.
Christ says to His sons and daughters, “Ye are the light of the world.” But who gave you light? You did not have it in you naturally. God is the source of light; the truth has shone into our hearts, to be reflected to others. True love to God will produce love to man. This is what we need—love that is patient, self-sacrificing, persevering, intelligent, practical.
The Lord has given you means, that in putting it to a right use you may develop good and noble traits of character. . . .
The Lord is coming. You have no time to lose. You are not to do as did the inhabitants of the antediluvian world—plant and build, eat and drink, marry and give in marriage, the same as the careless worlding. Let the books of heaven present a different record from that which now appears. Make haste to redeem the time; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not.
Ellen G. White,
Signs of the Times, Jan. 14, 1886.
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