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TEXT, LUKE 16:2. —“Render an account of thy
stewardship.”
HAVE felt for a long time that I ought
to speak upon this subject. 1 have felt
that there was no subject that needed
to be taught any more than this. I have
been thoroughly conscious of the fact
that whenever I attempted to preach on
this subject I would have to face certain
conditions in my own church that are
not pleasing. It is an easy matter to
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talk about the shirking of other people, but it is
a hard thing to get down to deal with our own in the
same way. I had a great deal rather talk to you
about our achievements, about the glories of the
church, about the church universal in its triumphs
over evil in its progress in the establishment of the
Kingdom of Christ.
PAST GLORY.
The other day I received, through some unknown
person, a Chicago paper. In it there was a write-up
of my church covering the period of the past twelve
years, giving something of the struggles through
which we have passed and something of the
triumphs that we have had, showing how, twelve
years ago, we were nothing but a struggling band,
unknown outside of our immediate vicinity, and that
during these eleven or twelve years God had so
blessed us as that we had become a church having
connected with it philanthropic and humanitarian in
terests and enterprises, and looking forward to still
greater things in the near future. I must say that
this write-up pleased me very much, for I am human
enough to like these things, and I do not think my
pleasure was altogether unholy, for I think God
would register against me His disapproval if I were
not, out of deep gratitude, to rejoice over past vic
tories.
But there are times when we must face our de
fects. I remember one day, while crossing the ocean
on a great steamer, I went down into the engine
room and looked at that great, ponderous mass of
machinery. It looked to me as if there were enough
machinery there to run the world, and-1 said to the
chief engineer, “How do you manage to keep this
machinery going so smoothly for so long a time with
out a stop?’’ He said, “We keep five expert en
gineers who do nothing but walk about through this
machinery in search for the-slightest friction. We
don’t bother about that part that is moving smoothly;
it is that part that is going rough, that begins to
show signs of friction, that engages the attention of
these men, and they correct it before it gets beyond
their control.” As I think this morning of the
church universal, I honestly believe the great trouble
■with us is we are not willing to face and correct the
points of deflection, the points of friction, the points
of our weakness, the points wherein we are defec
tive.
I want, God being my helper, to talk to you from
my heart upon what I believe to be the most serious
defect in the church of Jesus Christ. A few months
ago there was published in a Northern magazine a
symposium; ten men were interviewed, ten minis
ters of general reputation and experience, on the
question, “What is the matter with the church?” I
read every one of the answers, and while they were
all good and helpful, I am frank to say to you that
not one covered the territory. I say that, too, in
spite of the fact that I have an answer in that list.
Some of them said that the defect with the church
was its loss of the Sabbath. That is a very impor
tant truth. Others said that an avalanche of world
liness that had swept the church from its moorings.
Others said that it was the money spirit that seized
upon and petrified the heart and the conscience of
the world, everybody trying to get rich. That is a
great truth. Others said that it was a lack of Bible
study; others a lack of the spirit of evangelism, etc.,
and all of these are good, but, my brethren, not a
one of them, nor all of them combined, to my mind,
answer the question that was propounded, “What is
the matter with the church?” Is there anything the
The Golden Age for April 14, 1910.
OUR STEWARDSHIP
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G Broughton, T). T).
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
matter with it? Some will say that it is a debatable
question as to whether there is anything the matter
or not, but I think it won’t take me long to convince
you that the question is not debatable, and I am con
vinced that the reasons given above of its deflection
are secondary.
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
The other day I was going down the street, and
one of our leading citizens, an officer in one of our
churches, called me and said, “Will you give me a
bit of your time?” I said, “I am in a hurry, but if it
is important I will talk with you.” He said, “It is
important to me. I am discouraged. None of your
foolishness. I am in great trouble.” I said, “Well,
tell me about it,’’ and he said, “I have recently been
put in charge of the finances of our church, and I
have been going over the books of our church, and,
after the very best effort that we can put forth, we
have secured pledges for the support of our church
from about two hundred members, and we have over
one thousand members upon our church roll.” I
said, “How do you run under such conditions as
that?” “Why,” he said, “a few of us have to make
up the deficit. I would not mind giving more; that
isn’t what is bothering me. I know we will get the
money. I am bothered about this great mass of 800
people and more in our church that have absolutely
no conscience with respect to.the support of the
organization. That is the thing that is bothering me.
And,” he said, “I called into my office the other day
a man who keeps a similar position in another
church in our city, a church with between thirteen
and fourteen hundred members upon its roll. I
thought maybe he could help me, and told my
trouble, and he said, ‘You are so much better than
we are that. I feel that I ought to come to you for
advice. We have made a canvass and have only 175
out of 1,400 that make any contribution at all to the
church or missions or any enterprise of the
church.’” Do you think anything ails the church?
Is that a debatable question with you? Oh, some
body says, “you are valuing the church by a money
standard.” I believe you will agree with me that
gifts of money show the bent of our interest. We
put our money into the things in which we are in
terested. Judging by this standard, then, is there
anything the matter with the church? What is it?
As I see it, the one supreme thing today that ails
the church of Jesus Christ is the failure on its part
to recognize and appreciate its obligation of stew
ardship. Whenever the church wakes up to a reali
zation of its stewardship, it is not going to be hard
to get the church to attend the services, to work, to
do anything.
That much being said, I want to define for you
the meaning of this word, Steward: I think per
haps it is not properly understood. What do I
mean when I say steward? Some one says, “You
mean a servant.” I do mean a servant, but I mean
a good deal more than a servant. The word stew
ard is a bigger word than the word servant. It in
volves a great deal more responsibility. The ser
vant does simply what his master tells him to do,
and renders an account for the doing of it. A stew
ard represents his Master in service and acts for
him in emergency. A good illustration of what I
mean is the case of Eleazar. He was a servant in
the home of Abraham. Abraham sent Eleazar to
Padan Aram to get a wife for Isaac. The moment
that he received that communion and started
upon that important journey to secure a bride for
Isaac he became a steward. He was charged with
the responsibility of selecting this maid and bringing
her safely.
I was passing down one of the prominent streets
of Paris one day in charge of a French guide. He
spoke broken English and I could understand him
very well. He said to me, “You see that building?”
“Yes,” I said. “Well, that is the building where we
do business with the United States government.”
All the churches in this land ought to be places
where we do business with the government of heav
en. I do not mean that we ought to spend all our
time in prayer and singing and testimony, but I
mean the church ought to be the place where every
thing that is -done is done with an eye single to the
glory of God and to the hastening of the coming of
the Kingdom of Heaven. I do not believe that there
should be an officer or office in it that is not wholly
for the purpose of hastening the coming of the
Kingdom of Heaven. I do not believe there should
be a society or service of any kind or character,
whether a religious service, an educational class,
or class to study the Word of God, that does not
have for its object and aim the hastening of the
Kingdom of Heaven. A.ll this should be business
transacted for the Kingdom. And it should be so
with every individual in the church. The individual
is responsible, and so it ought to be said of every
man and woman in the church when he is seen
by others, “There is a man or there is a woman with
which we do business for God,” whether in the realm
of so-called secular affairs or so-called sacred af
fairs, and all His business ought to be done upon
the basis of hastening the coming of the Kingdom
of Heaven.
THE STEWARD.
We talk a great deal about the sacred and secular
side of the Christian’s life. There is no distinc
tion here. There is no such thing to the Christian
as a secular life. The moment he becomes a child
of God he transfers all his rights to his Lord and
everything he does is unto God, for he is God’s
steward. It is all business that is being transacted
for his Master. I am tired of hearing people talk
about “my secular business, and my sacred busi
ness”; it is all one business to the man who is the
child of God. It is just as sacred as you sit in that
engine and pull the throttle as it would be to stand
in this pulpit and preach. Your home is just as
sacred as your church; your family is just as
sacred as your church; it is all God’s; all you have
got or are expecting to have is Gods, if you are
God’s. The world ought to so be impressed as that
when it sees a man who is a child of God that it
says, “There is a man with whom if you have a
transaction you will have a transaction with God’s
steward; he is God’s own representative.
And somehow 1 believe that in this country the
reason of our failure to grasp the thought of our
stewardship is a part of our national education. I
was talking with a Roman Catholic priest, a man of
considerable learning in the affairs of the world
and especially his own church, and he made this
statement. “In America it is a great deal harder to
get our Church to obey orders than any other part of
the world.” And I said, “Why is that true?” “I
think it is true,” he said, “because of the nature of
our education. From the cradle to the grave in this
country we are taught to sing of liberty and we have
sung of liberty and talked of liberty and thought of
liberty until our liberty has become our license, and
that is why it is so hard for us to get law enforced.”
I talked with a member of Parliament about our pro
hibition law. He was a very rank temperance man,
doing his level best to incorporate something of our
system in his own country, and he made this com
ment after I told him of our recent triumphs: He
said, “Yes, you people in the States find it compara
tively easy to enact a law, but from my observation
it is quite another thing to enforce it. We have a
considerable struggle in ever getting a law passed, but
when a law goes on the statute books of England it
is there to be enforced.” And my brethren, while
I rejoice in liberty as much as anybody and thank
God for all that we have, I say to you we are in
great danger in this country lest our liberty shall
become our license. We, as Christians, forget that
we are stewards of God, that we are here transact
ing His affairs. This lack of recognition of divine
stewardship is a thing that is disgracing the cause
of Christ more than anything else in the world.
And the time will come when we will be called
to give an account of our stewardship; just as the
time comes when the agent or the steward has to
show the books, render a trial balance, so that time
must come for us.
(Continued on Page 14.)
