Testimonies for the Church, Volume 2 - Ellen G. White

the treasury of God, they will use it in this instance,
and will greatly increase it, and will then give a
larger sum to the cause. They can see no possibility
of a failure. Away goes the means out of their
hands, and they soon learn, to their regret, that they
have made a mistake. The brilliant prospects have
faded. Their expectations are not realized. They
were deceived. Satan outgeneraled them. He was
more shrewd than they, and he managed to get
their means into his ranks and thus deprive the
cause of God of that which should have been used
to sustain it in extending the truth and saving souls
for whom Christ died. They lost all they had
invested, and robbed God of that which they should
have rendered to Him.
Some who have been entrusted with only one
talent excuse themselves because they have not as
large a number of talents as those to whom are
entrusted many talents. Like the unfaithful steward
they hide the one talent in the earth. They are afraid
to render to God that which He has entrusted to
them. They engage in worldly enterprises, but
invest little, if anything, in the cause of God. They
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