The Review and Herald
July 22, 1902
Neglected Duties
The church is the channel through which the Lord works to save the perishing. By the members of the church are to be made known his mercy, goodness, and power. What a wonderful work has been committed to us! All heaven is waiting for human channels through which to communicate the grace of God. But selfishness is hindering us in fulfilling God's purpose for us. Selfishness is hiding the Saviour from his people. Thorough conversion is what the church needs. God calls for men imbued with the love of Christ to do his work. He needs men of sound minds, clear heads, and tender hearts. RH July 22, 1902, par. 1
I am instructed to say: Unless our ministers and the leading men in our institutions believe and practice the word of God, they will never see the King in his beauty. God's law is his standard of character. And the foundation principles of this law are, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Obedience to this law is the condition of gaining salvation. Upon our obedience depends our present and future happiness. RH July 22, 1902, par. 2
Will men and women claim to be Christians, and yet lose out of their lives the tenderness and love of Christ? Shall those who have a knowledge of the truth for this time allow themselves to speak and act harshly? Will they treat those connected with them in labor as if they were unworthy of notice? RH July 22, 1902, par. 3
When you see a fellow being striving to climb the hill, will you, standing securely at the top, reproach him because he is not there also? or will you descend the hill, and linking his arm in yours, guide his trembling feet in the upward path, soothing and encouraging him, till he stands at the summit, filled with hope and courage? RH July 22, 1902, par. 4
Have you not seen a fellow worker, pale and worn, bearing on his face the premonitions of death? How did you treat him? Was your heart touched, your sympathy aroused? Did you reach out to him the hand of fellowship? Did you do all in your power to help him? or did you selfishly seek gain for yourself at his expense,—you on vantage ground, he in sickness, sorrow, and want? Did you think it would please God for you to destroy your fellow worker's faith, his hope, his confidence in human brotherhood? And after you had acted thus, did you congratulate yourself upon your financial gain? RH July 22, 1902, par. 5
How did the pitying Redeemer look upon such a course? Think you that he placed on it the seal of his approval? RH July 22, 1902, par. 6
We are to Work the Works of Christ
Our work is to restore, not to destroy; to lift up, not to cast down; “to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” We are commanded to remember those that are bound, as bound with them. God asks, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” RH July 22, 1902, par. 7
Study your Bibles, my brethren. In the name of Christ I call upon you to work the works of Christ. Godliness is profitable for all things. It is the fruit of a repentance that needeth not to be repented of. The evidence of its worth is in itself, and is revealed by good works. True reform bears the fruit of the Spirit. He who loves God is a friend to those for whom the Son of God died. RH July 22, 1902, par. 8
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.... Put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” RH July 22, 1902, par. 9
Neglected duties confront us. Too often, instead of doing the work the Lord has given us, we have watched for defects in those whom, instead of criticising, we ought to have helped. We have not worked faithfully. There are in our institutions untrained men and women. Jesus needs their service. With yearning tenderness he is inviting them to come to him, that he may use them as channels for the communication of his grace. But those whom he has appointed to co-operate with him in fitting these souls for service, have failed to manifest that loving tenderness which as Christians they should manifest for the young and the inexperienced. Not only do they themselves fail of following Jesus; they keep others from his side. How can the Lord bless them? Let us break the crust of selfishness that surrounds us. Let us not descend to bickering and strife, criticising and condemning one another. Christ is ashamed to call those who do this his brethren. RH July 22, 1902, par. 10
Christ's Work for Us an Incentive to Labor
A great work is to be done, and in doing this work, we are to labor on a much higher plane than we have labored on in the past. Brethren and sisters, this matter has been so forcibly presented to me that I cannot hold my peace. Into the church there has come a hard-hearted spirit, and with it principles of selfishness, which have excluded the light of Christ from our hearts. RH July 22, 1902, par. 11
Christ is constantly working for us. Our advocate in the heavenly courts, he is ever making intercession for us. The cry of the one ready to perish finds swift entrance to his ear. “He shall deliver the needy when he crieth: the poor also, and him that hath no helper.” Shall we not work for him in the way he has marked out? Shall we not help those in need of help? RH July 22, 1902, par. 12
Christ suffered, being tempted; therefore he always sympathizes with those whom Satan is seeking to destroy. That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, he was in all things made like those he came to help. He has compassion on the ignorant, and on those that are out of the way; for when he was on this earth, he was compassed with infirmities. He is ever willing and ready to help us in our perplexities. As he worked for us, let us work for others. RH July 22, 1902, par. 13
Many more than we suppose need a helping hand held out to them. There are many to whom words of sympathy would be as a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul. Are you doing Christ service by ministering to weary, discouraged fellow beings? RH July 22, 1902, par. 14