Laymen In The Closing Work

“Let every one study the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. What is the great work before us?—The proclamation of the Gospel, with its life-saving principles, to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Let no one remain in idleness because he cannot do the same class of work that the most experienced servants of God are doing. Because you can not be in the highest place, will you do nothing? Because you can not trade upon pounds, will you refuse to trade upon one pound? Because you have not five talents, will you put your one talent in a napkin, and hide it in the earth? Because you can not work for the multitude, will you refuse to work for individuals? Do the smaller duties waiting for you. Thus you will help those who are bearing heavy responsibilities. Use your talents, be they ever so few. God has certainly given you a work to do for Him. In all that you do, keep the Lord Jesus before you. Do all to the glory of His name. You belong to God, and you are to do His work. Your life is sustained by the Giver of life. Your every capability, therefore, is to be put to use in His service. By using your talents wisely and faithfully, you are gaining power to do better work, to bear heavier responsibilities.

“Whatever you accomplish, be it little or much, leave it with God, remembering that it is not for man to measure the worth or the reward of his own efforts or the efforts of his fellow men. The Lord Jesus will give you the wages that are your due. Your reward will be proportioned to the spirit in which your work was done. Purity of motive, an earnest desire to glorify God, will bring to the earnest worker the same reward that is given to the one who accomplishes more. The principles by which the worker is governed determine the reward.

“It is not alone by men in high places of responsibility in the ministry, not alone by men holding positions on boards or committees, not alone by the managers of our sanitariums and publishing houses, that the work is to be done which will cause the earth to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. This work can be accomplished only by the whole church acting their part under guidance and in the power of God.”—Pacific Union Recorder, March 24, 1904.

May the Lord bless us as we move forward unitedly in the light of the counsels which God has given us for the heralding of the message—some in one way, some in another—ever keeping in mind the great objectives set before us of a world to be warned and men and women to be brought to a knowledge of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.SPCSSW 15.1

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