p. 13 | Review and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 52. (12/30/1902)

Every Believer a Soul-Winner

In Andrew Murray’s book, “The Key to the Missionary Problem,” we find the following striking statement concerning the possibilities of personal work:—

“If there were only one Christian in the world, and he worked a year and won a friend for Christ, and if these two continued each year to win another, and if every man thus led into the kingdom of Christ led another every year, in thirty-one years every person in the world would be won for Christ.”

“Some may doubt the wisdom of calculations which lie altogether beyond the range of possibility or the promises of God’s Word. Others may question the correctness of a calculation which appears to count upon all who become Christians living all through the thirty-one years, while we know that something like one thirtieth of the earth’s population dies each year. Leaving such questions aside, I wish simply to take the principle which forms the basis of the calculation, and to point out what the effect would be if the substantial truth it contains were really believed, and preached, and practiced. That truth is this, that Christ meant every believer to be a soul-winner. Or rather—for this is the deeper truth in which the former has its root and strength—that every believer has been saved with the express purpose that he should make the saving of other souls the main, the supreme, end of his existence in the world.”

Gospel Liberty

GOSPEL liberty is the liberty that God gives men through the gospel. It expresses God's idea of freedom. It is the freedom seen in nature, and in all the works of God's hands. It is the freedom of the winds, blowing where they list; it is the freedom of the flowers, scattered everywhere through wood and meadow; it is the freedom of the birds, soaring unrestrained through the heavens; the freedom of the sunbeam, shooting from its parent orb; the freedom of the celestial orbs, sweeping ceaselessly on through infinite space. This is the freedom that flows out from the great Creator through all his works. It is sin that has produced what is narrow and contracted and circumscribed,—that has erected boundary lines, and made men stingy and niggardly. But sin is to be removed, and then perfect liberty will be realized once more in every part of creation. Even now this freedom may be tasted, by having sin removed from the heart. To enjoy this freedom through eternity is the glorious privilege now offered in the gospel to all men. Who that claims to love liberty can let this opportunity pass unimproved?—Selected.

The Model Religious Life

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

E. J. WAGGONER

Every reader naturally exclaims at once, “That is the life of Christ, of course,” and then as naturally begins, consciously or unconsciously, to put a wide gulf between himself and Christ, assuring himself that nobody can live such a life on this earth as Christ lived. The life of Christ is indeed regarded by most people as a model to be set up on a pedestal, and looked at and admired from a distance, rather than to be lived every day. This is part of the legacy that we have received from the Church of Rome, which has represented Christ as so far removed from human sympathies that no humble mortal can presume to come directly to him, or expect to receive anything from him except through the intercession of Mary or the glorified saints. This sentiment, so deeply embedded in the mind, is one of the last papal fetters to be thrown off. But Christ himself, who calls us to learn of him, always identifies himself with us, by the term Son of man, which he so much loved, and says, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” He is the living representative of God the Father, who says: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.” Isa. 57: 15. And he has also made the way very simple and plain for us, by setting specially before us as the model, not the man skilled in meeting the sophistries of the scribes and doctors of the law, but the little child subject to its parents. “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, . . . Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 18: 2–4. What do we know of the life of Jesus?—Only this: “And he went down with them [Joseph and Mary], . . . and was subject unto them.” Luke 2: 51. That is the whole, and it is enough. It shows the little child always ready to run errands or to render such household service as tender hands could perform; the child whose ear was quick to catch the first sound of the call to duty, and whose highest pleasure was found in being useful. That is the religion of childhood, and it is the religion for the mature man as well.

This was the religion of the child Samuel. “Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child.” “And the child Samuel ministered unto [served] the Lord before Eli.” What did he do?—Just what a little child could do, and nothing more. He was not a priest, he could not enter into the holy place and offer incense. But he could wait on the priests. We read that after God had called him and spoken to him by night, he “lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord.” There we get a glimpse of him at his daily service. His work was to make himself generally useful, no matter how lowly the task; and in the faithful discharge of those humble duties he was ministering unto the Lord.

It is not what is done, but how it is done, that determines whether or not one is ministering unto the Lord. The person who slights his task, or performs it unwillingly, wishing that his work were something “more honorable,”—something that would attract more attention, or command greater pecuniary reward,—is not serving the Lord, no matter what nor where his work may be, even though it be in the temple itself. For that person is not a free man, but a slave; and God has no slaves in his employ. All God’s servants are free; they are kings. God is King of kings, and has no one in his service or in his kingdom of lower rank than king. Therefore every one who is the servant of the Lord is master of his work, and never allows it or circumstances to master him.

Servants, no matter how menial their service, are to obey orders in singleness of heart, as unto Christ; “not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.” Eph. 6: 5, 7. “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” Col. 3: 23. This was the characteristic of Jesus, who said, “I delight to do thy will, O my God” (Ps. 40: 8), and he was doing God’s will just as much when he was assisting Mary in her household tasks, or Joseph in the carpenter’s shop, as when he was preaching to the multitudes, and healing the sick. The first was the preparation for the last.

Elisha was a prophet of the Lord, performing many wonderful miracles, yet for years he was but a servant, and “poured water on the hands of Elijah.” 2 Kings 3: 11. That was his “training for the ministry;” for how can one train for any calling better than in the exercise of that calling? and that lowly service, done willingly from the heart, was the true ministry. Elisha never served the Lord better than when he waited on Elijah.

So it was when Samuel was doing his childish tasks with a faithful, willing spirit, that he was called to the highest service that could be given to a man — that of bearing a message from God to the high priest of God. Yet this service was in reality no higher than the other.

What sweet simplicity is seen in the child Samuel! Prompt to answer every call, he rose from his bed without hesitation, time after time, to wait upon the aged Eli, who he supposed was needing assistance. Then, with the artlessness and graceful trust of childhood, he followed Eli’s instructions, and said, when he heard the voice, “Speak; for thy servant heareth.” Yes, he heard because he was alert to hear, like the angels that excel in strength, that “do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.” In that is summed up the perfect Christian life. How many there are who miss “the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,” simply because they despise the day of small things. “Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not;” for “with the lowly is wisdom.”

“O, give me Samuel’s ear — The open ear, O Lord! Alive and quick to hear Each whisper of thy word; Like him to answer at thy call, And to obey thee first of all. “O, give me Samuel’s heart! — A lowly heart that waits When in thy house thou art, Or watches at thy gates. By day and night — a heart that still Moves at the breathing of thy will.”

— J. A. Baker

By J. A. Baker

“Mizpah”

Go thou thy way, and I go mine, Apart, yet not afar; Only, when evil hangs between The pathways where we are, May God keep watch ’tween thee and me, This is my prayer; He looketh thy way, he looketh mine, And keeps us near.

I sigh sometimes to see thy face; But since this may not be, I’ll leave thee to the care of him Who cares for thee and me.

“I’ll keep you both beneath my wings,” This comforts, dear— One wing o’er thee, and one o’er me, So we are near.

And though our paths be separate, And thy way is not mine, Yet, coming to the mercy seat, My soul will meet with thine, And “God keep watch ’tween thee and me,” I’ll whisper there; He blesseth thee, he blesseth me, And we are near.

— J. A. Baker

Work of the British Bible Society

THE British and Foreign Bible Society's alliance with foreign missions, it is said, was never more intimate and indispensable. One example will serve to illustrate what takes place in almost all non-Christian countries. Our Egyptian agency last year supplied nearly thirty different missionary societies — British and American, Swedish, Dutch, and German — with the Scriptures which they required. Across this picturesque and polyglot field, which extends from Malta to Mozambique, and embraces both Aleppo and Uganda, the missions of Anglicans and Presbyterians, of Friends and Methodists, of German Lutherans and German Evangelicals, besides a number of undenominational societies, have all alike drawn their munitions from our stock. And here, as elsewhere, through this means, the books have passed into the hands of the people practically without cost to the missions themselves.— Bible Society Reporter.

Results Are God’s, Not Ours

“It would be wonderfully comforting if we could but realize that in all our efforts for good we have nothing to fear for the results. Results are God’s, not ours, and he never failed to bring to pass the best that can be got out of the feeblest efforts.”

The House

By Stephen Tracy Livingston

It hath no costly luxuries, This little house of hers, No ancient heirlooms here are found, No Orient fabric stirs; Nay, its caparisons are all So simple and so plain That one would say the dweller here In poor demesne doth reign.

Yet hath she wealth more beautiful Than any gold can buy; Hers is a kingdom in whose bounds Life’s dearest treasures lie, For love, it is a humble thing, And yet so wondrous fair That where’er it doth enter in, It makes a palace there.

O thou who knowest grimy days, And chafest under fate, Learn of this queenly soul the way Thy palace to create. What though thy lot ungenerous be, And thou of crownless line, If God himself doth dwell with thee, He makes his riches thine.

— Stephen Tracy Livingston, in The Era.

The Morals of the Family

By Kate Lindsay

KATE LINDSAY, M. D.

WHEN Lot chose the fertile plains in the Jordan valleys, and left to Abraham the more barren hills and mountains, he no doubt thought that he made a very wise choice, for this world at least. A few years later we find him fleeing from the doomed city of Sodom, bereft of his wife and half his children, and without any of the great riches he had acquired during his stay in that wicked city.

Decay of morals means decay of physical stamina and depreciation of health. It is true now, as it was in the days of the psalmist, that the wicked do “not live out half their days.” Children’s mental powers will either be developed in the ways of righteousness, or they will run into the paths of evil. From the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the food they eat, as well as the sunshine and humidity of the atmosphere about them, the growing bodies must be built and repaired. A structure is either good or bad, perfect or defective, in construction, according to the material of which it is made. Living in a city tenement, amid the squalor and dirt of these congested centers of civilization, either kills the tender human plants in the first months or years of their existence, or produces weak and puny children, and makes weak, sickly, and helpless men and women, or worse still, criminals, paupers, drunkards, and mental defectives, who are at war with all that is good and true in the world, and from whom come every species of criminal. They are what they have been made by heredity and early education.

Even in the country and in the most healthful climate, a home may be selected, which, by its location, will blight the future of all the children born into it.

All are acquainted with the reputation of Switzerland as a health resort. Every year thousands flock to its sunny mountain sides to enjoy the bright sunshine, and the fresh air wafted from its frozen rivers, glaciers, and snow-capped mountains. Yet thousands of the Swiss people live in dark valleys, where the sunlight never comes, and where the air is damp and heavy. Because of these unhealthful surroundings, this hardy mountain race is rapidly degenerating, both physically and mentally.

When one selects a home where he is to spend perhaps a lifetime, and where children are to be born and raised, he should remember that the soil, the air, the sunshine, the dryness or dampness of the atmosphere where the home is located, also the amount of unrestricted out-of-door life the little ones can get, are to enter into the mind- and body-forming influence of the coming man or woman. It were vain to expect to raise fine stock, and not intelligently look after all the details of the care of these domestic animals when young. The fancy-stock raiser will tell you that he can never make a prize cow of a badly raised, stunted calf. Badly fed, stabled, and pastured the first year, it will always be inferior to the animal that has a good start. Even when the home is a rented one, the hygiene of the house and its location should be well looked to. If the house is built where surface water runs toward it, not from it, and the basement is damp and moldy, and especially if the sunlight is shut out by other buildings, or by too many shade trees, it is a dangerous place to live in. In an epidemic of smallpox which I met with in New York City, more than three fourths of the cases were on the shady side of the street.

Next in importance is the water supply. If that is doubtful, as is the case with so many cities at the present time, all the water used for drinking and about the food, should at least be boiled.

We read that Lot’s righteous soul was vexed every day with the wicked words and acts of the people of Sodom; but he did not seem to understand that his children, born amid such surroundings, would become like those they daily came in contact with, would think their thoughts, speak the words they were used to hearing daily from their babyhood up, and act like the comrades they daily associated with. Lot loved riches and the good things of this life, and while his education with Abraham on the mountains and plains, living in tents and breathing the pure, fresh air, had educated his conscience, and given to him a standard by which to measure right and wrong, his children were so morally depraved by their education and acquaintance with vice that they married into the families of the city, and ceased to listen to the counsels of their father. His two married daughters evidently did not believe their father when he told them that the city was doomed. They chose to remain with their mocking husbands, and perished with all the other ungodly people, no doubt causing their mother to be lost also; for she must needs think of and long for her children.

Science has shed much light on the causes, not only of physical disease, but also of mental decay and crime. All our large cities have their moral plague spots, where criminals are born, and where paupers grow up to tax the generosity of the philanthropist, as well as to be plague spots from which deadly infectious diseases spread even to more favored localities. Perhaps the well-born, well-raised man or woman may, like Lot, be able to live in such surroundings without losing the power to discern between right and wrong, but it is well-nigh impossible to rear a child there from babyhood and not have it a reflection of the evils of its surroundings. In such soil the germs of physical disease grow rank and vigorous, and threaten to cut short the life of the little one, even in early infancy. The soil also yields a crop of vice-producing microbes, which as surely threaten the moral and spiritual life with extinction.

“A Reform Needed”

C. A. FREDERICK

SUCH is the title of a Testimony to this people in the REVIEW AND HERALD of May 27. Is it true that there should be a reform among Seventh-day Adventists?—So says the Lord. Then how eagerly should we devour what follows, and with the spirit of repentance bring our daily practice into harmony with his will. Listen to the opening paragraph in that warning:—

“If Seventh-day Adventists practiced what they profess to believe, if they were sincere health reformers, they would indeed be a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. And they would show a far greater zeal for the salvation of those who are ignorant of the truth.”

What an arraignment! If we practiced what we profess to believe, we should show a far greater zeal in the work the Lord has placed upon us to perform. And what is the thing that many are doing which interferes with zeal, and in which we are warned that there is a “reform needed”? Listen again:—

“Greater reforms should be seen among the people who claim to be looking for the soon appearing of Christ. Health reform is to do among our people a work which it has not yet done. There are those who ought to be awake to the danger of meat eating, who are still eating the flesh of animals, thus

endangering the physical, mental, and spiritual health. Many who are now only half converted on the question of meat eating will go from God’s people, to walk no more with them.”

How plain and direct, and how terrible the consequences of disobedience! Many who ignore the loving admonition of Christ will “go from God’s people, to walk no more with them.” And what does that mean? Well may God’s people stop and consider. Again:—

“In all our work we must obey the laws which God has given, that the physical and spiritual energies may work in harmony. Men may have a form of godliness, they may even preach the gospel, and yet be unpurified and unsanctified. Ministers should be strictly temperate in their eating and drinking, lest they make crooked paths for their feet, turning the lame—those weak in the faith—out of the way. If while proclaiming the most solemn and important message God has ever given, men war against the truth by indulging wrong habits of eating and drinking, they take all the force from the message they bear.”

Are you pursuing such a course, my brother? are you violating this injunction, and “teaching men so” by your example? Are you, by wrong habits, taking all the force from the message you bear? God now calls upon both priests and people to humble themselves before him, and earnestly and prayerfully begin this reform that is needed. What is the result if we refuse? We shall turn the lame out of the way, the thing our Saviour is warning us against doing. How shall we answer God if we refuse to do and teach this truth? Hear again:—

“Those who indulge in meat eating, tea drinking, and gluttony are sowing seeds for a harvest of pain and death. The unhealthful food placed in the stomach strengthens the appetites that war against the soul, developing the lower propensities. The diet of flesh meat tends to develop animalism. A development of animalism lessens spirituality, rendering the mind incapable of understanding truth.”

“A harvest of pain and death” is being sown “because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you.” Num. 11:18–20. And whosoever shall see the sword coming, and refuse to sound the warning, will there not be blood upon his garments? My brethren, we must get nearer to God, and refuse not when he calls. Our Lord will place his power upon us when we draw near to him in obedience to all his requirements, and fit us physically for his soon coming. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

The Perfect Man

“If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.” Thus we have the evidence that the perfect man is the man who can bridle his whole body, and keep it under; and we learn that the tongue is the last portion of the body to be tamed. Indeed, “The tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” But God can bridle even that if we yield ourselves wholly to him, to be controlled by his Spirit, so that we shall speak only “as the oracles of God;” “for he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure.” If only the words of God are on our tongue, we may be sure that we shall neither stumble nor cause anybody else to stumble. But remember that this desirable condition cannot be attained by anybody who does not bridle also his whole body.—Selected.

Digestion and Happiness

By John M. Tyler

A sound digestive system is the essential foundation of all clear thinking, and its condition will tinge our statement and solution of the great enigma. The same is true of our moral condition. Holiness is wholesomeness, strength; and salvation is soundness of body as well as of soul. The character of the blood depends largely, though not wholly, on the condition and work of the digestive system. If the blood is poor and thin, the muscular system is starved. We feel weak. It requires an effort to surmount small obstacles, and great ones become insuperable. We become accustomed to, and form the habit of, being defeated and thwarted. We sink into weakness, cowardice, paralysis. Only a well-fed man can bear the strain of hard and prolonged effort. And the well-fed man is not he who eats the most, but he who digests the best.

The same truth applies to the brain. Only when well nourished can it do its best work. Moreover, the brain is strongly affected by nerves reporting to it from the digestive system. We all know the dreams and nightmares arising from indigestion, and are aware that a bad condition of our internal organs molds the visions of the brain into fantastic forms. But the same condition continues through our waking hours, and forms an undercurrent to our thought all the more dangerous because we are not sufficiently aware of its source to be on our guard against its influence. The objects, relations, emergencies, and possibilities of life may be correctly seen, but the mind pictures them on too dark a background. Light and sunshine are lacking. The picture is misleading and false.

“A sick man, sir,” said Dr. Johnson, “is always a scoundrel.” The language is perhaps somewhat strong and lacking in charity, but it contains a good grain of truth. The dyspeptic, who sees the world given over to evil and daily growing worse, is very likely to think himself unable to swim against the current, and to drift to disaster.

The dyspeptic’s views of life are not only painted on too dark a background; the objects and their relations are usually distorted. A temporary fit of indigestion often cripples the intellect. It is said that Napoleon lost a campaign because of an attack of indigestion. This may or may not be true. But many a battle in life has been thus lost.

Proper cooking increases the digestibility of food, by rendering it more appetizing and more permeable by the digestive fluids. We all know that a large stick of wood is kindled with difficulty. Split into kindlings, it burns readily. The splinter offers a larger surface for contact with the oxygen of the air. So food properly prepared is opened up to the entrance and action of the digestive reagents. The same material is easily or hardly digestible according to the mode of its preparation. White of egg is ropy when raw, and hence not easily permeated by the gastric juice. Boil it slightly or beat it, and the reverse is true. Boiled hard, it remains in lumps, each one of which must be slowly attacked from its outer surface. Light bread absorbs fluid like a sponge, but a heavy, soggy article is almost as resistant as rubber. In a well-baked or boiled potato the starch grains have swollen and ruptured the sacs in which they were incased, and they float free. But, the “bone” in a half-boiled potato is almost indigestible. To digest fried ham and eggs of different degrees of leathery toughness requires a superhuman digestion. The same article of diet may be food or poison, according to the mode of its preparation.

Poorly prepared food is only partially digested by the ordinary stomach. Parts of the resistant masses ferment in the intestine, and become a source of positive injury. Even the best digestive system succumbs in time to such attacks, especially if they are repeated daily year after year. Good food can be purchased by the poorest laborer. But in a vast majority of the households, especially of the poorer classes, it is spoiled in the frying pan. Many a girl is dragged and chained to the piano who would gladly spend a part of the same time in learning how to prepare an appetizing and healthful meal. But her mother considers music and painting as more important. How can we expect better cooking before we pay to this most important of all arts and sciences some of the respect which it deserves? What of the girl who will never complete even the high-school course, but will go as soon as possible into shop or factory? When she marries, she will and must cook for her family. And all that she knows about cooking and diet has been picked up. She has never heard that heavy bread can drive a man to drink; and how to make good bread, or perhaps what constitutes good bread, she does not know. Is this a wise educational system?

We have an abundant food supply, but we do not know how to make a proper use of it. Here civilization has lagged. Ought we not to recognize that the proper selection and preparation of food is the most important of sciences and the most practical and valuable of all arts? Good food is the basis of good health.—John M. Tyler.

The Hour of Prayer

“My God, is any hour so sweet, From blush of morn to evening star, As that which calls me to thy feet — The hour of prayer?”

An Overland Trip in Brazil

By Mrs. Lula V. C. Gregory

MRS. LULA V. C. GREGORY

We have come overland, on muleback, to Rio Grande do Sul, from Brusque, where the conference was held. In fair weather this is a twelve days' ride. But we came over the road in the rainy season, and stopped at intervals to visit brethren by the way, and so were a little more than five weeks on the trip.

Our way at first lay over the mountains. This was necessarily slow and tedious, and sometimes lonely. At some places we traveled for hours through mountain trails just high enough and wide enough for one mule to pass, and then we were continually dodging the new growths which were trying to fill up the openings. One cannot appreciate a tropical jungle without seeing it. It is so full of great trees and roots and lesser trees and vines and bushes and brush, that when a road is forced through, there is a solid wall on either side, and it takes only a few weeks for a road to close up, unless it is constantly traveled.

Being the rainy season, we were not so troubled with snakes, although we killed three. At one time, as we skirted a hill, we heard the monkeys yell very close to us; but they kept themselves so well hidden in the trees that we did not see them. We frequently heard them at a distance. We also saw hundreds of wild turkeys, geese, and ducks, and ten or twelve very small species of ostrich, besides many other wild birds.

In the second half of our journey we spent three days on the seashore. Here progress was more rapid; for the sand, washed every day by the waves, made a firm, even road. During this part of the trip the Lord gave us good weather, so we were able to sleep out of doors every night but two—and part of the time this was a necessity, for there were no houses near.

Sabbath we stayed at the house of a Catholic Brazilian. He was at once interested to know why we were resting that day, as he had heard of Sabbath keepers before. After a Bible reading and some talk, he and his family said they would keep the Sabbath. On the advice of the doctor, he also promised to give up tobacco, to which all in Brazil are much addicted, and he did abstain during the remainder of our stay there. We left him tracts and a Bible, and have since sent him some papers. He promised to give the truth to his neighbors, so we know not what the end may be. He said that one man had already talked with him on the subject. This is in a part of the country where none of our people live, and where there has been neither canvasser nor preacher.

The people seem to be hungry for truth; but for many the cross to live aright is too heavy, and they cannot take it up. Others receive it gladly. We can but sound the message. May God help us to sound it faithfully.

The picture shows the bake-oven. It is made of brick and mud. Others are of mud and stones. The process of baking consists of building a big fire inside the oven, allowing this to burn down to red-hot coals, then raking these out and putting in the bread, stopping up both chimney and door. The brick and block used for this purpose may be seen in the picture, also the pole with a hoe-like attachment for raking out the coals.

The majority of the farmers' wives have no baking tins, but use large leaves, putting a huge piece of dough in the center of each one. For putting the bread in and taking it out, they have a spade-shaped stick, fastened to a pole. In all the southern part of Brazil, bread is baked in this manner. Even in the city, where some have stoves, the people never seem to think of using them. The roof of both house and oven is thatched with the leaves of a tree that grows here very abundantly.

The Lord is blessing the work and the workers here, and we feel sure that he will also use the medical work to his glory. Our prayer every day is that the Lord will keep us where he can use us. We thank him for the privilege of a part in his work. We are of good courage Although things seem to move slowly, we have learned some lessons of patience and trust.

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