1 Thessalonians 2:3-6 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:… "When I gave up my business sixteen years ago, after three months of the severest struggle of my life, whether I should go for dollars and cents or for souls, from that day to this I have no more lived for money than I have lived for water. My friends have blamed me because I have not laid aside something for my family. Some of them insisted upon my wife having some money, and they bought her a home in the country, and the rumour is that it cost 30,000 dollars, and 30,000 dollars to furnish it. The home cost 3,500 dollars, and there have been some improvements, and the furniture and everything cost 10,000 dollars. It belongs to my wife and children. My father died at the early age of forty-one, and if I died tomorrow there will be a roof over the heads of my wife and children. I have been offered 500 dollars to lecture, when I might talk an hour, and then go to a comfortable hotel; but as it is now, I work at the Tabernacle all day, and talk till midnight with inquirers, and when I am done have hardly strength enough left to go to my room. The royalty on the hymn books amounted last year to 68,000 dollars, but it all went to three trustees, and not one dollar came into the hands of Mr. Sankey or myself. It belongs to us as much as the income of your business belongs to you but we give it up. We do not want one dollar of your money in Boston. Give it to the Lord as long as you please. I would rather live on a crust of bread than have people think we came for your money. If any young man here wants to go into the work of the Lord for money, I advise him not to do it. Now, I do not want any one to go off and say that we preach for nothing, for we do not. We preach for souls, and the Lord takes care of us. I never have known what it is to want money in the sixteen years I have been at work for Him. The Lord has taken good care of me, and I have not known what it is to want." (D. L. Moody.) Parallel Verses KJV: For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:WEB: For our exhortation is not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in deception. |
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