Money by Rev Andrew Murray

wrought without it. The Church must never beg for money as if this
were the secret of her strength.
See these Apostles, Peter and John, penniless in their earthly poverty,
and yet just in virtue of their poverty, mighty to dispense heavenly
blessings. "Poor, yet making many rich." Where had they learned this?
Peter says, "Silver and gold have I none; in the name of Jesus Christ,
walk." It points us back to the poverty which Christ had enjoined
upon them, and of which He had set them the wonderful example. By
his holy poverty He would prove to men what a life is of perfect trust
in the Father, how the possession of heavenly riches makes
independent of earthly goods, how earthly poverty fits the better for
holding and for dispensing eternal treasures. The inner circle of His
disciples found in following the footsteps of His poverty the
fellowship of His power. The Apostle Paul was taught by the Holy
Spirit the same lesson. To be ever in external things, utterly loose
even from earth's lawful things, is a wonderful, he almost appears to
say an indispensable, help in witnessing to the absolute reality and
sufficiency of the unseen heavenly riches.
We may be sure that as the Holy Spirit begins to work in power in
His Church, there will again be seen His mighty operation in the
possession of His people. Some will again by their giving make
themselves poor, in the living faith of the incomprehensible worth of
their heavenly heritage, and the fervent joy the Spirit gives them in
it. And some who are poor and in great straits with their work for
God will learn to cultivate more fully the joyful consciousness: "Silver
and gold have I none: what I have I give: in the name of Jesus Christ,
walk." And some who are not called to give all, will yet give with an
unknown liberality, because they begin to see the privilege of giving
all, and long to come as near as they can. And we shall have a
Church, giving willingly and abundantly, and yet not for a moment
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