p. 3 | Pure Religion by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 6, 1902

Pure Religion

By Editor

Editorial

Pure Religion

OUR actions show the quality of our Christianity. We are judged according to our works. Our eternal destiny is decided by the way in which we treat our fellow beings. To love one’s neighbor as himself “is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” It may therefore be concluded that the measure of our practical interest in the poor, the needy, and the unfortunate is the divinely established index of the reality of our Christian experience. To be a Christian is to have the experience which Christ had, to act as he acted. And “ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” He “went about doing good.” “For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.”

A Terrible Example

THINK of Judas. He was an earnest man, with more than ordinary abilities. It is evident that he was chosen treasurer of the little company of disciples because of his business qualifications. But he did not care for the poor and the unfortunate. And “there was no more fit preparation for the crime of betraying the Son of God than that of treachery toward the poor. Ah, but if we should go thoroughly into this matter, should we not probably find that many of us are guilty in some modified and yet sufficiently alarming sense of treachery to the poor? Are we not, some of us, sent to them with benefactions which never reach them, and are only unconscious of guilt because so long accustomed to look upon the goods as bestowed on us, whereas the light of God’s word would plainly reveal upon those goods the names of the poor and needy?” What would the Lord have us do?—He tells us himself. “Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?”

Organized Effort

It does not necessarily follow that we must have a large number of institutions and associations, and that we must all do this work in the same way. There is much of the organized philanthropy which is cold and heartless, and has degenerated into the mere forms of a routine business. But with all the individual and private effort, there is also an urgent demand in some places for organized effort. In our large cities, where iniquity abounds and dire poverty has so many in its grasp, it seems to require the strength which comes from union in order to cope with the conditions which exist. Such a city is Chicago, and such a work is being carried forward there under the auspices of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. Our title page speaks to the eye of this work, and quite a full statement will be found on pages sixteen and seventeen. These institutions are justly entitled to our sympathy, our prayers, and our hearty support.

The Unity of the Work

UNITY does not mean uniformity. Unity is consistent with the greatest variety. The unity of the work does not mean that all do the same sort of work in the same way, but that all effort is directed toward one result, and in the true spirit of co-operation. We may learn a lesson from the tilling of the soil. In order that there should be a unity in the work on the farm, it is not necessary that all should plow all the time, or that all should do the same sort of cultivating all the time. This would, in fact, hinder the work. The goal of all the effort is the harvest. From early spring until autumn all efforts must be directed toward this one thing. There is unity of effort and intelligent co-operation when all the laborers make their varied operations fit together to hasten the harvest. So it is in the work of the gospel. “The harvest is the end of the world,” and this takes place at the coming of the Lord. There is only one work to be done, and that is to prepare the way of the Lord. To accomplish this, every valley is to be exalted, every mountain and hill is to be made low, the crooked places are to be made straight, and the rough places a plain place, and this means an apparent difference in effort, but there is in it all the one purpose. The true unity is “the unity of the Spirit,” and this binds all hearts together, unifies all effort, and fits all the different kinds of labor together for the accomplishment of the one purpose. “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.”

Joyous Service

WHILE the earnest call to service is being sounded abroad, there must be no such idea entertained as that this is a new gospel of hard service, or that we have entered upon a new era, or returned to the old era, of earning our own salvation. The law of the new kingdom is the law of service, not as the means of paying for life, but as the means of receiving the gift of life. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Every one who is in fellowship with the Father and with the Son must be a worker, because the life with which he is in fellowship is a life which works. That is its nature. Not to submit to its working in the building up of the kingdom of God in the earth is to close the channel against its inflowing. But this service is not the hard service of mere fleshly toil. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light. We are commanded to “serve the Lord with gladness,” and the very command makes the experience possible. It was “for the joy that was set before him” that Jesus “endured the cross, despising the shame.” And while the fullness of joy may come when the work is consummated, yet there is a present joy in whole-hearted service. The promise is, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation,” and it is also true that with joy we may give others to drink of this same water of salvation. But this joy must be the joy of the life in the soul, not dependent upon outward circumstances, but rather rising above all the power of unfavorable circumstances. This is the joy of the Lord. Not simply the same kind of joy

as he experiences, but his own joy, because he dwells in us, and his joy becomes our joy. “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”