In carrying forward the Lord's work at
home and abroad, those in positions of responsibility must plan
wisely, so as to make the best possible use of men and of means.
The burden of sustaining the work in many of the foreign fields
must be largely borne by our conferences in the homeland. These
conferences should have means with which to assist in opening
new fields, where the testing truths of the third angel's message
have never yet penetrated. Within the past few years, doors have
been thrown open as if by magic; and men and women are needed
to enter these doors and begin earnest work for the salvation
of souls.
Our educational institutions can do much
toward meeting the demand for trained workers for these mission
fields. Wise plans should be laid to strengthen the work done
in our training centers. Study should be given to the best methods
for fitting consecrated young men and young women to bear responsibility
and to win souls for Christ. They should be taught how to meet
the people and how to present the third angel's message in an
attractive manner. And in the management of financial matters
they should be taught lessons that will help them when they are
sent to isolated fields where they must suffer many privations
and practice the strictest economy.
The Lord has instituted a plan whereby
many of the students in our schools can learn practical lessons
needful to success in afterlife. He has given them the privilege
of handling precious books that have been dedicated for the advancement
of our educational and sanitarium work. In the very handling
of these books, the youth will meet with many experiences that
will teach them how to cope with
problems that await them in the regions beyond. During their
school life, as they canvass for these books, many may learn
how to approach people courteously and how to exercise tact in
conversing with them on different points of present truth. And
as they meet with a degree of success financially, some will
learn lessons of thrift and economy, which will be of great advantage
to them when they are sent out as missionaries.
The students who take up the work of selling
Christ's Object Lessons and Ministry of Healing will need to
study the book they expect to sell. As they familiarize their
minds with the subject matter of the book in hand and endeavor
to practice its teachings they will develop in knowledge and
spiritual power. The messages in these books contain the light
that God has revealed to me to give to the world. The teachers
in our schools should encourage the students to make a careful
study of every chapter. They should teach these truths to their
students and seek to inspire the youth with a love for the precious
thoughts the Lord has entrusted to us to communicate to the world.
Thus the preparation for handling these
books, and the daily experiences gained while bringing them to
the attention of the people, will prove an invaluable schooling
to those who take part in this line of effort. Under the blessing
of God the youth will obtain a fitting up for service in the
Lord's vineyard.
There is a special work to be done for
our young people by those bearing responsibility in local churches
throughout the conferences. When the church officers see promising
youth who are desirous of fitting themselves for usefulness in
the Lord's service, but whose parents are unable to send them
to school, they have a duty to
perform in studying how to give help and encouragement. They
should take counsel with parents and youth, and unite in planning
wisely. Some youth may be best fitted to engage in home missionary
work. There is a wide field of usefulness in the distribution
of our literature and in bringing the third angel's message to
the attention of friends and neighbors. Other youth should be
encouraged to enter the canvassing work to sell our larger books.
Some may have qualifications that would make them valuable helpers
in our institutions. And in many instances, if promising youth
were wisely encouraged and properly directed, they could be led
to earn their own schooling by taking up the sale of Christ's
Object Lessons or Ministry of Healing.
In selling these books the youth would
be acting as missionaries, for they would be bringing precious
light to the notice of the people of the world. At the same time
they would be earning money to enable them to attend school,
where they could continue their preparation for wider usefulness
in the Lord's cause. In the school they would receive encouragement
and inspiration from teachers and students to continue their
work of selling books; and when the time came for them to leave
school, they would have received a practical training fitting
them for the hard, earnest, self-sacrificing labor that has to
be done in many foreign fields, where the third angel's message
must be carried under difficult and trying circumstances.
How much better is this plan than for students
to go through school without obtaining a practical education
in field work, and, at the end of their course, leave under a
burden of debt, with but little realization of the difficulties
they will have to meet in new and untried fields!
How hard it will be for them to meet the financial
problems that are connected with pioneer work in foreign lands!
And what a burden someone will have to carry until the debts
incurred by the student have been paid!
On the other hand, how much might be gained,
if the self-supporting plan were followed! The student would
often be enabled to leave the educational institution nearly
or wholly free from personal indebtedness; the finances of the
school would be in a more prosperous condition; and the lessons
learned by the student while passing through these experiences
in the home field would be of untold value to him in foreign
fields.
Let wise plans be laid to help worthy students
to earn their own schooling by handling these books, if they
so desire. Those who earn sufficient means in this way to pay
their way through a course at one of our training schools will
gain a most valuable practical experience that will help fit
them for pioneer missionary work in other fields.
A great work is to be done in our world
in a short time, and we must study to understand and appreciate,
more than we have in past years, the providence of God in placing
in our hands the precious volumes, Christ's Object Lessons and
Ministry of Healing, as a means of helping worthy students to
meet their expenses while in training, as well as a means of
liquidating the indebtedness on our educational and medical institutions.
Great blessings are in store for us as
we wisely handle these precious books given us for the advancement
of the cause of present truth. And as we labor in accordance
with the Lord's plan we shall find that many consecrated youth
will be fitted to enter the regions beyond as practical missionaries;
and, at the same time, the conferences
in the home field will have means with which to contribute liberally
to the support of the work that shall be undertaken in new territory.
God desires that the sale of Christ's Object
Lessons shall be recognized by all our people as His method of
relieving our schools from debt. It is because this plan has
been neglected that we now feel so keenly our lack of means for
the advancing work. Had the schools availed themselves of the
provision thus made for them, there would be more money in the
school treasuries, and more money in the hands of God's servants,
with which to relieve the necessities of other needy departments
of the cause; and, best of all, teachers and students would have
received the very lessons that they needed to learn in the Master's
service.
In the cities within easy reach of our sanitariums and training schools a mission field is open to us that we have as yet only touched with the tips of our fingers. In some of these places, a good beginning has been made. But it was God's purpose that by the sale of Ministry of Healing and Christ's Object Lessons much means should be raised for the work of our sanitariums and schools, and that our people might thereby be left more free to donate of their means for the opening of the work in new missionary fields. If our people will now engage in the sale of these books as they ought, we shall have much more means than we now have to carry the work in the way the Lord designed that it should be carried.