God has qualified His people to enlighten
the world. He has entrusted them with faculties by which they
are to extend His work until it shall encircle the globe. In
all parts of the earth they are to establish sanitariums, schools,
publishing houses, and kindred facilities for the accomplishment
of His work.
The closing message of the gospel is to
be carried to "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and
people." Revelation 14:6. In foreign countries many enterprises
for the advancement of this message must yet be begun and carried
forward. The opening of hygienic restaurants and treatment rooms,
and the establishment of sanitariums for the care of the sick
and the suffering, is just as necessary in Europe as in America.
In many lands medical missions are to be established to act as
God's helping hand in ministering to the afflicted.
Christ co-operates with those who engage
in medical missionary work. Men and women who unselfishly do
what they can to establish sanitariums and treatment rooms in
many lands will be richly rewarded. Those who visit these institutions
will be benefited physically, mentally, and spiritually--the
weary will be refreshed, the sick restored to health, the sin-burdened
relieved. In far-off countries,
from those whose hearts are by these agencies turned from the
service of sin unto righteousness, will be heard thanksgiving
and the voice of melody. By their songs of grateful praise a
testimony will be borne that will win others to allegiance to
and fellowship with Christ.
The conversion of souls to God is the greatest,
the noblest work in which human beings can have a part. In this
work are revealed God's power, His holiness, His forbearance,
and His unbounded love. Every true conversion glorifies Him and
causes the angels to break forth into singing.
We are nearing the end of this earth's
history, and the different lines of God's work are to be carried
forward with much more self-sacrifice than is at present manifest.
The work for these last days is in a special sense a missionary
work. The presentation of present truth, from the first letter
of its alphabet to the last, means missionary effort. The work
to be done calls for sacrifice at every advance step. From this
unselfish service the workers will come forth purified and refined
as gold tried in the fire.
The sight of souls perishing in sin should
arouse us to put forth greater effort to give the light of present
truth to those who are in darkness, and especially to those in
fields where as yet very little has been done to establish memorials
for God. In all parts of the world a work that should have been
done long ago is now to be entered upon and carried forward to
completion.
Our brethren generally have not taken the
interest that they ought in the establishment of sanitariums
in the European countries. In the work in these countries, the
most perplexing questions will arise because of the circumstances
peculiar to the various fields. But from the light given me,
institutions will be established which, though
at first small, will, by God's blessing, become larger and stronger.
Our institutions for any land are not to be
crowded together in one locality. God never designed that the
light of truth should be thus restricted. For a time the Jewish
nation was required to worship at Jerusalem. But Jesus said to
the Samaritan woman: "Believe Me, the hour cometh, when
ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship
the Father." The hour cometh, and now is, when the true
worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for
the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and
they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
John 4:21, 23, 24. Truth is to be planted in every place to which
we can possibly gain access. It is to be carried to regions that
are barren of the knowledge of God. Men will be blessed in receiving
the One in whom their hopes of eternal life are centered. The
acceptance of the truth as it is in Jesus will fill their hearts
with melody to God.
To absorb a large amount of means in a
few places is contrary to Christian principles. Every building
is to be erected with reference to the need for similar buildings
in other places. God calls upon men in positions of trust in
His work not to block the way of advance by selfishly using in
a few favored places, or in one or two lines of work, all the
means that can be secured.
In the early days of the message very many
of our people possessed the spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice.
Thus a right beginning was made, and success attended the efforts
put forth. But the work has not developed as it should have developed.
Too much has been centered in Battle Creek and in Oakland and
in a few other places. Our brethren should never have built so
largely in any one place as they have in Battle Creek.
The Lord has signified that His work should
be carried forward in the same spirit in which it was begun.
The world is to be warned. Field after field is to be entered.
The command given us is: "Add new territory; add new territory."
Shall we not as a people, by our business arrangements, by our
attitude toward a world unsaved, bear a testimony even more clear
and decisive than that borne by us twenty or thirty years ago?
Upon us has shone great light in regard
to the last days of this earth's history. Let not our lack of
wisdom and energy give evidence of spiritual blindness. God's
messengers must be clothed with power. They must have for the
truth an elevating reverence that they do not now possess. The
Lord's solemn, sacred message of warning must be proclaimed in
the most difficult fields and in the most sinful cities--in every
place where the light of the third angel's message has not yet
dawned. To everyone is to be given the last call to the marriage
supper of the Lamb.
In proclaiming the message, God's servants
will be called upon to wrestle with numerous perplexities and
to surmount many obstacles. Sometimes the work will go hard,
as it did when the pioneers were establishing the institutions
in Battle Creek, in Oakland, and in other places. But let all
do their best, making the Lord their strength, avoiding all selfishness,
and blessing others by their good works.