Should I be asked, what I understand by giving up all for Christ, my
reply would be that I believe this surrender to be made, when any
individual, following whatever lawful vocation he may, labours and
contrives therein, with all the assiduity and indefatigable diligence
of which he is capable, to accomplish the known--the recorded will of
his Lord and Saviour. If that will requires that he should labour for
the souls, as well as the bodies of men; that he should strive to
make his fellows happy in time, and in eternity; that he should
impart to them the knowledge of Him who is "the way, the truth, and
the life"; he will labour with time, talents, means, and prayers, for
the attainment of these ends, as diligently as others labour from
motives of simple covetousness, or with a view of making provision
against future contingencies for themselves or for their families. If
any object to selling "houses or lands" it remains for themselves to
distinguish[18] between the motives, which induce them to retain
their property, and those which induced the "young man" to retain
his. If they retain it from any private affection unsupported by the
word of truth, and if it is not their own full conviction--that, in
so doing, they are pursuing the path most directly tending to fulfil
the mind of Christ; neither the myriads of those who embrace their
views and follow their plans, nor the learning and authority by which
they are supported, will prove them to be wise, or true, or eligible,
in that day when the judgment shall be set, and the books shall be
opened. The principle I have here endeavoured to establish from the
sacred volume, demands of no man the relinquishment of a present
sphere of usefulness, till he is himself conscientiously convinced
that he is called to another, where he may accomplish more for the
great cause for which he lives--the exaltation of Jesus, and the
gathering his sheep. But though it does not require a relinquishment
of present occupations, it is most uncompromising as to the end to
which they must be directed.[19]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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