“Do not think you need be a minister to dedicate yourself to Christ. Many a man has disgraced the pulpit, and many a man has sanctified an anvil; many a man has dishonored the cushion upon which he preached, and many a man has consecrated the plow with which he has turned the soil. We ought in all our business, as well as in our sacred acts, to do all for Christ.
Let me illustrate this. A merchant in America had devoted a large part of his money for the maintenance of the cause of Christ; and one said to him, ‘What a sacrifice you make every year.’ Said he ‘Not so. I have a clerk: suppose I give that clerk fifty pounds to pay a schoolmaster, and when he goes to the schoolmaster, he should say, ‘Here is your salary; what a sacrifice it is to me to give you that! ‘Why,’ the schoolmaster would say, ‘Sir, it is not yours, it is no sacrifice at all to you.’ So said this good man, “I gave up all when I came to God, I became his steward, and no longer head of the firm. I made God the head of the firm, and I became the steward. And now when I distribute of my wealth, I only distribute it as his almoner; and it is no sacrifice at all.” If we talk of sacrifices we make a mistake. Ought not that to be the spirit of our religion? It should be made a sacrifice at first, and then afterwards there should be a voluntary offering of all.
Never shall we see any great revival in the church, or any great triumphs of religion until the Christian world is more touched with the spirit of entire consecration to Christ. Would you extend your Master’s empire? Then be about your Father’s business.”
-C.H. Spurgeon, “Christ About His Father’s Business”
http://www.ncfic.org/articlemodule/view_article/id/63/src/@random49598ead4a15d/
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