The world and the churches are breaking God’s law, and the warning must be given, “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation.”Revelation 14:9, 10. With such a curse hanging over the transgressors of God’s holy Sabbath, should we not show greater earnestness, greater zeal? Why are we so indifferent, so selfish, so engrossed in temporal interests? Is our interest separated from Jesus? Has the truth become too pointed, too close in its application to our souls; and like the disciples of Christ who were offended, have we turned away to the beggarly elements of the world? We spend money for selfish purposes, and gratify our own desires, while souls are dying without a knowledge of Jesus and the truth. How long shall this continue?
(CS 51.1)
All should have a living faith,—a faith which works by love, and purifies the soul. Men and women are ready to do anything to indulge self, but how little are they willing to do for Jesus, and for their fellow men who are perishing for the want of the truth!...
(CS 51.2)
Invest Now in the Bank of Heaven
Has not the time come when we should begin to cut down our possessions? May God help you who can do something now to make an investment in the bank of heaven. We do not ask a loan, but a freewill offering,—a return to the Master of His own goods which He has lent you. If you love God supremely, and your neighbor as yourself, we believe you will give tangible proofs of the same in freewill offerings for our mission work. There are souls to be saved, and may you be coworkers with Jesus Christ in saving these souls for whom Christ has given His life. The Lord will bless you in the good fruit you may bear to His glory. May the same Holy Spirit which inspired the Bible take possession of your hearts, leading you to love His word, which is spirit and life. May it open your eyes to discover the things of the Spirit of God. The reason there is so much dwarfed religion today is because people have not brought practical self-denial and self-sacrifice into their lives.—The Review and Herald, January 8, 1889.
(CS 51.3)
Latter Rain Postponed
The great outpouring of the Spirit of God, which lightens the whole earth with His glory, will not come until we have an enlightened people, that know by experience what it means to be laborers together with God. When we have entire, wholehearted consecration to the service of Christ, God will recognize the fact by an outpouring of His Spirit without measure; but this will not be while the largest portion of the church are not laborers together with God. God cannot pour out His Spirit when selfishness and self-indulgence are so manifest; when a spirit prevails that, if put into words, would express that answer of Cain,—“Am I my brother’s keeper?”(Genesis 4:9)—The Review and Herald, July 21, 1896.
(CS 52.1)
Subordinate Every Earthly Interest
My dear brethren and sisters
(CS 52)
I speak to you in words of love and tenderness. Every earthly interest must be made subordinate to the great work of redemption. Remember that in the lives of the followers of Christ must be seen the same devotion, the same subjection to God’s work of every social claim and every earthly affection, that was seen in His life. God’s claims must ever be made paramount. “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.”Matthew 10:37. Christ’s life is our lesson book. His example is to inspire us to put forth untiring, self-sacrificing effort for the good of others....
(CS 52.2)
Every power of God’s servants is to be kept in continual exercise to bring many sons and daughters to God. In His service there is to be no indifference, no selfishness. Any departure from self-denial to self-indulgence, any relaxation of earnest supplication for the Holy Spirit’s working, means so much power given to the enemy. Christ is reviewing His church. How many there are whose religious life is their own condemnation!
(CS 53.1)
God demands that which we do not give,—unreserved consecration. If every Christian had been true to the pledge made on accepting Christ, so many in the world would not have been left to perish in sin. Who will answer for the souls who have gone to the grave unprepared to meet their Lord? Christ offered Himself as a complete sacrifice in our behalf. How earnestly He worked to save sinners! How untiring were His efforts to prepare His disciples for service! But how little we have done! And the influence of the little that we have done has been terribly weakened by the neutralizing effect of what we have left undone, or undertaken and never brought to completion, and by our habits of listless indifference. How much we have lost by failing to press forward to accomplish our God-given work! As professed Christians, we ought to be appalled by the outlook.—The Review and Herald, December 30, 1902.
(CS 53.2)
The Spirit of Sacrifice
The plan of salvation was laid in a sacrifice so broad and deep and high that it is immeasurable. Christ did not send His angels to this fallen world, while He remained in heaven; but He Himself went without the camp, bearing the reproach. He became a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; Himself took our infirmities, and bore our weaknesses. And the absence of self-denial in His professed followers, God regards as a denial of the Christian name. Those who profess to be one with Christ, and indulge their selfish desires for rich and expensive clothing, furniture, and food, are Christians only in name. To be a Christian is to be Christlike.
(CS 54.1)
And yet how true are the words of the apostle: “For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.”Philippians 2:21. Many Christians do not have works corresponding to the name they bear. They act as if they had never heard of the plan of redemption wrought out at infinite cost. The majority aim to make a name for themselves in the world; they adopt its forms and ceremonies, and live for the indulgence of self. They follow out their own purposes as eagerly as do the world, and thus they cut off their power to help in establishing the kingdom of God....
(CS 54.2)
The work of God, which should be going forward with tenfold its present strength and efficiency, is kept back, like a spring season held by the chilling blast of winter, because some of God’s professed people are appropriating to themselves the means that should be dedicated to His service. Because Christ’s self-sacrificing love is not interwoven in the life practices, the church is weak where it should be strong. By its own course it has put out its light, and robbed millions of the gospel of Christ....
(CS 54.3)
How can those for whom Christ has sacrificed so much, continue to enjoy His gifts selfishly? His love and self-denial are without a parallel; and when this love enters into the experience of His followers, they will identify their interests with those of their Redeemer. Their work will be to build up the kingdom of Christ. They will consecrate themselves and their possessions to Him, and use both as His cause may require.
(CS 55.1)
This is nothing more than Jesus expects of His followers. No individual who has before him so great an object as the salvation of souls will be at a loss to devise ways and means for denying self. This will be an individual work. All that it is in our power to bestow will flow into the Lord’s treasury, to be used for the proclamation of truth, that the message of Christ’s soon coming and the claims of His law may be sounded to all parts of the world. Missionaries must be sent out to do this work.
(CS 55.2)
The love of Jesus in the soul will be revealed in word and deed. The kingdom of Christ will be paramount. Self will be laid a willing sacrifice on the altar of God. Everyone who is truly united with Christ will feel the same love for souls that caused the Son of God to leave His royal throne, His high command, and for our sake become poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich.—The Review and Herald, October 13, 1896.
(CS 55.3)
A Call for Consecrated Families
God calls for personal effort from those that know the truth. He calls for Christian families to go into communities that are in darkness and error, to go into foreign fields, to become acquainted with a new class of society, and to work wisely and perseveringly for the cause of the Master. To answer this call, self-sacrifice must be experienced.
(CS 55.4)
While many are waiting to have every obstacle removed, souls are dying without hope and without God in the world. Many, very many, for the sake of worldly advantage, for the sake of acquiring knowledge of the sciences, will venture into pestilential regions, and will go into countries where they think they can obtain commercial advantage; but where are the men and women who will change their location, and move their families into regions that are in need of the light of the truth, in order that their example may tell upon those who shall see in them the representatives of Christ?
(CS 56.1)
The Macedonian cry is coming from every quarter of the world, and men are saying, “Come over, ... and help us,”(Acts 16:9) and why is there not a decided response? Thousands ought to be constrained by the Spirit of Christ to follow the example of Him who has given His life for the life of the world. Why decline to make decided, self-denying efforts, in order to instruct those who know not the truth for this time? The Chief Missionary came to our world, and He has gone before us to show us the way in which we should work. No one can mark out a precise line for those who would be witnesses for Christ.
(CS 56.2)
Those who have means are doubly responsible; for this means has been entrusted to them of God, and they are to feel their accountability to forward the work of God in its various branches. The fact that the truth binds souls by its golden links to the throne of God, should inspire men to work with all their God-given energy, to trade upon their Lord’s goods in regions beyond, disseminating the knowledge of Christ far hence among the Gentiles.
(CS 56.3) 1 I
Many to whom God has entrusted means with which to bless humanity, have let it prove a snare to them, instead of letting it prove a blessing to themselves and others. Can it be that the property that God has given to you shall be permitted to become a stumbling block? Will you let His entrusted means, which has been given you to trade upon, bind you away from the work of God? Will you allow the trust which God has reposed in you as His faithful steward, serve to lessen your influence and usefulness, by keeping you from being laborers together with God? Will you permit yourself to be detained at home, in order to hold together the means which God has entrusted to you to put into the bank of heaven? You cannot plead that there is nothing to do; for there is everything to do. Will you be content to enjoy the comforts of your home, and not try to tell perishing souls how they may obtain the mansions Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him? Will you not sacrifice your possessions, in order that others may obtain an immortal inheritance?—The Review and Herald, July 21, 1896.
(CS 56.4)