General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4
THE MOTIVE FOR SERVICE
H. E. OSBORNE
Reading for Tuesday, December 23.
IT is beneath the Christian to serve because it is popular: it is beneath the loyal child of the ever blessed heavenly Father to serve Him because some one else does. It is beneath the citizen of heaven to serve his King because it will bring him profit or gain in money, or lands, or goods, or fame, or honors, or even happiness. These motives are all beneath him. GCB October 1, 1902, page 658.7
We mention three motives which are in their last analysis a trinity of one. GCB October 1, 1902, page 658.8
I. DUTY, OBLIGATION
H. E. OSBORNE
One of the things upon which men pride themselves is honesty. “I render to every man his own;” “I pay every cent I owe;” “I am in debt to no one,” are expressions often heard, and such ones would deem it an insult if they were charged with dishonesty. And yet how many are dishonest, dishonest toward the truest, justest One in all the universe, dishonest toward God. GCB October 1, 1902, page 658.9
Duty is that which we owe, is that which is due. GCB October 1, 1902, page 658.10
To refuse to do it is to be dishonest. To fail to heed the call of this “stern daughter of the voice of God,” is to fail to be just with Him unto whom we owe the largest obligation. GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.1
Why do we owe God? GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.2
I. God created us. We would not be were it not for His goodness and power. He “made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that in them is.” Acts 14:15. “He giveth to all life and breath and all things; and He made of one every nation of men;” “for in Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:25, 26, 28. Then all that we are, and all that we have came from Him, given and kept by His own creative power. By virtue, then, of God’s creation we owe Him all our service. Will we honestly pay the debt? GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.3
2. But He has done more than this. In the face of all His goodness we sold ourselves “for naught,” base bondslaves to sin. “For every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin, and the bondservant (of sin) abideth not in the house forever; the son abideth forever.” John 8:34, 35. When we were bondslaves of sin, utterly unable to free ourselves from the cruel master we had chosen, He bought us with a price so amazing that the shining angels of God have not ceased, and can never cease, to wonder; bought by such a price that we might be sons to abide in His house forever, instead of servants which must die; bought “not with corruptible things, with silver or gold,” but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18); bought with this price that we might not become bondservants of men or devils (1 Corinthians 7:23); “bought with a price” that we might “glorify God” (1 Corinthians 6:20); bought by the blood of Christ that the servants of sin might become “the servants of righteousness, “servants to God” (Romans 6:16-22). Then we owe God all that we have because He has redeemed us. Our service belongs to Him. Are we honest enough to pay the debt? GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.4
He gave His Son to redeem the world, to save men of all nations of the same flesh and blood as we, and all the agencies of heaven are enlisted in the work. For this purpose Christ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. He has redeemed us to Himself that we might unite with Him in this work; and so has made each of us “debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.” Romans 1:16. All this is plain, isn’t it? Now are we honest? Will we do our duty? Will we meet our obligation? Will we pay the honest debt? GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.5
“He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause.” O, the time to yield to do the duty is now. GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.6
II. GRATITUDE
There is no greater sin than ingratitude. It is well called monstrous, fiendish, treasonable. The sympathetic heart wonders in amazement at the story of the ten lepers. We can hear the vows and promises which their agony-wrung lips uttered previous to their healing; but not one grateful word came back to the Healer from nine of these; and yet their case is typical of millions who are as truly ungrateful. Are we like the Samaritan one, or the professedly Israel nine? GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.7
Gratitude is a desire to be kind or beneficial, together with a lively sense of the benefits received. It combines the three elements of humility, truth, and justice. Humility is a realization that we are nothing in ourselves; truth teaches that all that we have came from God; and justice teaches that we ought to render to the Giver all in our power for what He has bestowed. GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.8
True gratitude keeps in mind God’s received goodness. Its language is:— GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.9
“Bless Jehovah, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless Jehovah, O my soul,
And forget not any of His benefits.
It is He who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
And who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;
Who crowneth thee with kindness and mercy;
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good,
So that thy youth is renewed like an eagle’s.”
GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.10
Psalm 103:1-5, Boothroyd.
In its recognition of God’s goodness its question is:— GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.11
“What shall I render unto Jehovah
For all His benefits toward me?”
GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.12
All our bounties, all benefits, all blessings, which have ever touched our lives are from the Giver of all good, the purchase price of the blood of Christ. He is an all-merciful Giver to an undeserving receiver. The life, and honor, and glory of Heaven’s best was laid upon the altar of sacrifice that God’s enemies, slaves of sin, traitors to His government might be saved. O, does not such love awaken within our hearts more than a mere sense of duty? Does it not make the heart tenderer, more responsive to the needs of others? Ought not gratitude to God for all that He has given us call forth from us the highest, holiest consecration to His service in labor for the poor and needy in body and soul? Well has Thomas Gibbons written of the two classes:—“That man may last, but never lives, Who much receives, but nothing gives; Whom none can love, whom none can thank, Creation’s blot, creation’s blank. But he who marks from day to day, In generous acts his radiant way, Treads the same path his Saviour trod, The path to glory and to God.” GCB October 1, 1902, page 659.13
Gratitude must be guided by wisdom. Its exuberance must not always control. Like the healed demoniac of Gadara we may wish to sit at the feet of the Master, or like Peter on the mount of Transfiguration we may wish to build houses and remain in the blessed Presence; but true, wise gratitude will give heed to the Master’s directions to go to the needy ignorant who have known us in sin, or those in the possession of Satan in the very shadow of the mountain of glory. See Mark 5:15-20; Matthew 17:1-9, 14-16. GCB October 1, 1902, page 660.1
III. THE MOTIVE OF LOVE
Love includes benevolence, beneficence, charity, kindness, mercy, duty, and gratitude; and love is of God; for “God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in Him.” “We love, because He first loved us.” And he who has the love of God within will love as Christ loved, and do as Christ did. GCB October 1, 1902, page 660.2
Love is not an emotion. It is not an impulse. Love is a principle, steadfast, enduring, undying. It is born of the Spirit of God. Romans 5:5. That which calls it forth is others’ needs. It serves souls, not because they are worthy, but to make them worthy; not because they are rich; but because they are poor, and love would make them rich; not because they can or will repay again, but only that they may be helped, to in turn be helpers of the needy. It grows by what it gives, not by what it withholds. GCB October 1, 1902, page 660.3
“There is that scattereth, and increaseth yet more;
And there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth only to want.
The liberal soul shall be made fat,
And he that watereth shall be watered also himself.”
GCB October 1, 1902, page 660.4
But love does not scatter that it may increase; it is not liberal that it may receive; all that may accrue from its exercise is left to God. Love gives and delights in giving. GCB October 1, 1902, page 660.5
“Love spends all, but still hath store.”
Love is served in serving. It is happy in bringing others happiness. When men of all parties and creeds applied to Mr. Howe, chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, for protection, he never refused his assistance to a worthy person, whatever his creed. “Mr. Howe,” said Cromwell, “you have asked favors for everybody besides yourself; pray, when does your turn come?” Howe replied, “My lord, Protector, my turn is always when I can serve another.” GCB October 1, 1902, page 660.6
The joy of John the Baptist was to fulfill the mission of proclaiming the coming of his Lord, even when he knew that that coming would completely eclipse his own mission. His joy was fulfilled—filled full—in the decrease of himself because it resulted in the increase of Christ. John 3:29, 30. GCB October 1, 1902, page 660.7
Love does not give for its own sake. It is not love which denies one’s self a meal for health’s sake, or to strengthen self-culture. It is love to give up that meal that one who is needy may eat and be strong. It is not love that bears pain and toil and suffering for the sake of bearing it, but it is love that bears it for others’ sakes. In a solitary place in Russia stands a monument with this inscription: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.” The pillar marks a spot where a man died. A small party pursued by wolves had exhausted seemingly the last resource, and only another victim to the hungry, savage maws of the wild beasts could save the party. A servant against the entreaties of his master, threw himself into the midst of the ravenous brutes, and so saved his master’s life. In gratitude the master erected the monument. But Infinite Love died to save us—His enemies. Does not His love for us lead us to give ourselves for those in the same peril as were we when He took our trembling hand and saved us from eternal death? GCB October 1, 1902, page 660.8
Love must give; love lives only by giving. GCB October 1, 1902, page 660.9
True love is not satisfied in merely wanting to see all saved. There are few among professed Christians that do not want all to be saved, and they pray eloquently for the heathen. Jesus saved men by saving each one. He did good to all by doing good to each. Do we love God? Do we want souls saved? Do we want one soul saved—any definite one so much so as to give our very life? That person has no burden of soul, no real love for the Master who does not have a burden of some one soul, his enemy, perhaps, because that soul needs saving. That is the Spirit of the Master. “Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be the sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He maketh His sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust;... ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” GCB October 1, 1902, page 660.10
While love seeks justice and practices severe economy, it is not economical in its giving. “He that giveth, let him do it liberally.” Love is not discouraged if its gifts are unused, perverted, squandered, misappropriated. They are given in good faith to God, and God will care for results. Often our gifts are like bread cast upon the waters, utterly lost to sight, perhaps never again seen by us in this earth-life. Sometimes it seems to us a right, wise use is not made of the means given; but never for this must our giving cease. We are to do good for good’s sake. It is said of Christ: “He shall not fail nor be discouraged till He set judgment in the earth.” Through all the millenniums, centuries, years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds, He has poured out His undying, unstinted, self-denying love. How many times the precious seed has fallen by the wayside, by the stony places, among the thorns which choked; so many times love has been bestowed on unworthy, ungrateful wretches. How many times have we responded? Yet He has not been discouraged. Shall we ever be when He is not, and His almighty love and power are in control? GCB October 1, 1902, page 661.1
O, it is love that is needed. Not maudlin sympathy or ecstatic feeling or fevered impulse, but love for souls, love begotten of Jesus Christ, in a heart cut loose from the world and emptied of sin; it is a living Christ within that is needed, a deep, abiding, eternal principle, seeking not our own ease or pleasure or gain, but others’ good. GCB October 1, 1902, page 661.2
Duty! gratitude! love! Divine duty tells what we ought to do. Gratitude seeks to know what we can do for Him who withheld not His life. And love compels the doing. It was love, and love only that sent Judson to Burma, that gave courage to Brainard, that placed the learning of Paul and of Morrison upon the altar of God, that quickened the mechanical skill of Williams, and the burning zeal of Duff, and constrained Kothah-by-u to spend whole nights in prayer for the salvation of his people, the Karens. Love kindles the missionary spirit at home, opens closed hearts, unlocks earthly treasure-houses, makes liberal even the naturally covetous, stingy, and penurious. O, it is love that we need, Christ-begotten, Spirit-born love to open the arms of faith to embrace the great, needy races of earth, to tell the glad tidings to those in the prison-house of sin, to press “to its pitying bosom the orphan tribes of heathendom, who among their idols many, have no father God, and no brother Saviour.” GCB October 1, 1902, page 661.3
Are we honest before God sufficient to do our duty? Are we so truly grateful that we will render to Him and His devoted service for all His benefits to us? Does the love of Christ constrain us? Love is the law of His kingdom; are we children of His kingdom? M. C. WILCOX. GCB October 1, 1902, page 661.4