The Review and Herald
December 8, 1910
How Lay Members May Help
(Concluded.)
Children to Be Missionaries
Children can be acceptable missionary workers in the home and in the church. God desires them to be taught that they are in this world for useful service, not merely for play. In the home they can be trained to do missionary work that will prepare them for wider spheres of usefulness. Parents, help your children to fulfil God's purpose for them. Train them to be an honor to the One who died to gain for them eternal life in the kingdom of glory. Teach them that God has a part for them in his great work. The Lord will bless them as they work for him. They can be his helping hand. As they do their work in the home with fidelity, learning to be burden-bearers, they are working with Christ for the formation of Christlike characters. RH December 8, 1910, par. 1
Let parents and children work earnestly to help others. Those whom they help will be led by their example to help still others. Thus the good work will deepen and broaden. Higher education is that education which leads men and women to be laborers together with God, practising self-denial and self-sacrifice. Those with such an education will be acknowledged by God in the heavenly courts, in the presence of Christ and the angels. RH December 8, 1910, par. 2
Willing to Spend and Be Spent
Every true servant of God is willing to spend and be spent for the sake of others. “He that loveth his life shall lose it,” Christ says; “and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” By earnest efforts to help wherever help is needed, he shows his love for God and his fellow beings. He may lose his life in service; but when Christ comes to gather his jewels to himself, he will find it again. RH December 8, 1910, par. 3
God has provided for every one pleasure that may be enjoyed by rich and poor alike,—the pleasure found in cultivating pureness of thought and unselfishness of action, the pleasure that comes from speaking sympathizing words and doing kindly deeds. In order to find this pleasure, it is not necessary to have a supply of ready money. Through those who perform such service, the light of Christ shines to brighten lives darkened by many shadows. RH December 8, 1910, par. 4
Christ draws aside the veil that conceals from our view the glory of God, and reveals him, not in a state of silence and idleness, but surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousands of the heavenly host, every one awaiting his orders, waiting to reveal the God of heaven in communication with every part of his kingdom. The Lord is bound up with the interests of the human family. He listens to every cry of oppression, observes every individual action, approving every deed of mercy and condemning every act of oppression. He sets his angels at work to relieve the oppressed, the discouraged, the suffering. He sends his message of mercy to tempted ones. He gives men opportunities to acknowledge him, that he may teach them how to withstand the evil of the world, and perfect Christlike characters. RH December 8, 1910, par. 5
There must be no pretense in the lives of those who have so sacred and solemn a message as we have been given to bear. The world is watching Seventh-day Adventists, because it knows something of their beliefs and of the high standard they have; and when it sees those who do not live up to their profession, it points at them with scorn. God's people should now make mighty intercession to him for help. It is the privilege of every believer, first to talk with God, and then, as God's mouthpiece, to talk with others. In order that we may have something to impart, we must daily receive light and blessing. Men and women who commune with God, who have an abiding Christ, who co-operate with holy angels, are needed at this time. The cause needs those who have power to draw with Christ, power to express the love of God. With wonderful, ennobling grace the Lord sanctifies the humble petitioner, giving him power to perform the most difficult duties. All that is undertaken is done as to the Lord, and this elevates and sanctifies the lowliest calling. It invests with new dignity every word and act, and links the humblest worker, the poorest of God's servants, with the highest of the angels in the heavenly courts. RH December 8, 1910, par. 6