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

must give an account of their stewardship. Means
that had been consecrated to God to advance His
cause has been squandered. Families in poverty,
who had experienced the sanctifying influences of
the truth and who therefore prized it and felt
grateful to God for it, have thought that they could
and should deprive themselves of even the
necessaries of life in order to bring in their
offerings to the treasury of the Lord. Some have
deprived themselves of articles of clothing which
they really needed to make them comfortable.
Others have sold their only cow and have dedicated
to God the means thus received. In the sincerity of
their souls, with many tears of gratitude because it
was their privilege to do this for the cause of God,
they have bowed before the Lord with their
offering and have invoked His blessing upon it as
they sent it forth, praying that it might be the
means of bringing the knowledge of the truth to
souls in darkness. The means thus dedicated has
not always been appropriated as the self-sacrificing
donors designed. Covetous, selfish men, having no
spirit of self-denial or self-sacrifice themselves,
have handled unfaithfully means thus brought into
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