The Spirit of Sacrifice

Chapter 8—Simplicity and Economy

[Unpublished Ms., April 15, 1904.]

Our sanitariums are to be conducted upon principles that will meet the approbation of the great Medical Missionary who went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and healing all manner of disease among the people.... SpTB19 26.2

In the establishment and carrying forward of the work, the strictest economy is ever to be shown. Workers are to be employed who will be producers as well as consumers. In no case is money to be invested for display. The gospel medical missionary work is to be carried forward in simplicity, as was the work of the Majesty of heaven, who, seeing the necessities of a lost, sinful world, laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that He might stand at the head of humanity. He so conducted His missionary work as to leave a perfect example for human beings to follow. “If any man will come after Me,” He declared, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Every true medical missionary will obey these words. He will not strain every nerve to follow worldly customs, and make a display, thus thinking to win souls to the Saviour. No, no. If the Majesty of heaven could leave His glorious home to come to a world all seared and marred by the curse, to establish correct methods of doing medical missionary work, we His followers ought to practise the same self-denial and self-sacrifice. SpTB19 27.1

Christ gives to all the invitation: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” If all will wear Christ's yoke, if all will learn in His school the lessons that He teaches, there will be sufficient means to establish gospel medical missionary work in many places. SpTB19 27.2

Let none say, “I will engage in this work for a stipulated sum. If I do not receive this sum, I will not do the work.” Those who say this show that they are not wearing Christ's yoke; they are not learning His meekness and lowliness. Christ might have come to this world with a retinue of angels; but instead He came as a babe, and lived a life of lowliness and poverty. His glory was in His simplicity. He suffered for us the privations of poverty. Shall we refuse to deny ourselves for His sake? Shall we refuse to become medical missionary workers unless we can follow the customs of the world, making a display such as worldlings make? Consider the life and sufferings of the Son of the infinite God. To save a race of sinners He lived a life of poverty and self-denial. To one who asked if he might follow Him, He said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.” Shall those who profess to be His followers refuse to engage in the work of helping their suffering fellow beings unless they can be placed in a position that will not lessen their dignity? SpTB19 27.3

My brother, my sister, take up your work right where you are. Do your best, ever looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. In no other way can we do the work of God and magnify His truth, than by following in the footsteps of Him who gave up His high command to come to our world, that through His humiliation and suffering, human beings might become partakers of the divine nature. For our sake He became poor, that through His poverty we might come into possession of the eternal riches. SpTB19 28.1

It is not being rich in the wealth of the world that increases our value in God's sight. It is the meek and the contrite that the Lord acknowledges and honors. Read the fifty-seventh chapter of Isaiah. Study this chapter carefully; for it means much to the people of God. I will make no comments upon it. If you will study it carefully and prayerfully, you will become wise unto salvation.... SpTB19 28.2

Intelligent, self-denying, self-sacrificing men are now needed,—men who realize the solemnity and importance of God's work, and who as Christian philanthropists will fulfil the commission of Christ. The medical missionary work given us to do means something to every one of us. It is a work of soul-saving; it is the proclamation of the gospel message. SpTB19 29.1