It matters not from what cause we suffer, whether inability on the
part of brethren, or parsimoniousness, we must bear hardness as good
soldiers of Jesus Christ, suffer and toil on, for we shall reap if we
faint not. We must not raise up a money-loving and worldly people;
and in order to this end we must not be _money-loving preachers_, nor
_worldly_ men ourselves. This is our security against the evil of
covetousness.
We do not believe the Lord will accept meeting in two or three
conventions in a year, and making three or four contributions and a few
speeches for missionary work. We must have more telling evangelizing
than this. This kind of work is demoralizing the brethren and drying up
all the veins of generosity in them. We shall have more and more _dying
churches_ till we change our course and go out into the field as we did
thirty-five and forty years ago, and hunt up these churches and wake
them up. We must not live with the idea of _sending_ some one to them,
but we must _go to_ them; and they must not be _helpless creatures_,
and think to support those who go to their relief by _relating their
stories about their being few and poor_, but do according to their
ability, and not let the preacher who visits them sacrifice more than
a dozen of them, and they only do their little _occasionally_, and he
making his sacrifices _every meeting_. This will not stand in the day
of judgment.