Needs of the Southern Field
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a busy life He led! Day by day He might be seen entering the humble
abodes of want and sorrow, speaking hope to the downcast and peace
to the distressed. This is the work that He asks His people to do
today. Humble, gracious, tenderhearted, pitiful, He went about doing
good, lifting up the bowed-down and comforting the sorrowful. None
who came to Him went away unhelped. To all He brought hope and
gladness. Wherever He went he carried blessing.
We need to humble ourselves before God because so few of the
members of His church are putting forth efforts that in any wise com-
pare with the efforts that the Lord desires them to put forth. The
opportunities that He has given us, the promises that He has made,
the privileges that He has bestowed, should inspire us with far greater
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zeal and devotion. Every addition to the church should be one more
agency for the carrying out of the plan of redemption. Every power of
God’s people should be devoted to bringing many sons and daughters
to Him. In our service there is to be no indifference, no selfishness.
Any departure from self-denial, any relaxation of earnest effort, means
so much power given to the enemy.
An Appeal for the Colored Race
The proclamation that freed the slaves in the Southern States
opened doors through which Christian workers should have entered
to tell the story of the love of God. In this field there were precious
jewels that the Lord’s workers should have searched for as for hidden
treasure. But though the colored people have been freed from political
slavery, many of them are still in the slavery of ignorance and sin.
Many of them are terribly degraded. Is no message of warning to reach
them? Had those to whom God has given great light and many oppor-
tunities done the work that He desires them to do, there would today
be memorials all through the Southern field—churches, sanitariums,
and schools. Men and women of all classes would have been called to
the gospel feast.
The Lord is grieved by the woe in the Southern field. Christ has
wept at the sight of this woe. Angels have hushed the music of their
harps as they have looked upon a people unable, because of their
past slavery, to help themselves. And yet those in whose hands God
has placed the torch of truth, kindled from the divine altar, have not