Duty to the Poor
265
Many who can but barely live when they are single, choose to marry
and raise a family when they know they have nothing with which to
support them. And worse than this, they have no family government.
Their whole course in their family is marked with their loose, slack
habits. They have but little control over themselves, and are passionate,
impatient, and fretful. When such embrace the message, they feel that
they are entitled to assistance from their more wealthy brethren; and if
their expectations are not met, they complain of the church and accuse
them of not living out their faith. Who must be the sufferers in this
case? Must the cause of God be sapped, and the treasury in different
places exhausted, to take care of these large families of poor? No. The
parents must be the sufferers. They will not, as a general thing, suffer
any greater lack after they embrace the Sabbath than they did before.
[274]
There is an evil among some of the poor which will certainly prove
their ruin unless they overcome it. They have embraced the truth with
their coarse, rough, uncultivated habits, and it takes some time for
them to see and realize their coarseness, and that it is not in accordance
with the character of Christ. They look upon others who are more
orderly and refined as being proud, and you may hear them say: “The
truth brings us all down upon a level.” But it is an entire mistake to
think that the truth brings the receiver down. It brings him up, refines
his taste, sanctifies his judgment, and, if lived out, is continually fitting
him for the society of holy angels in the City of God. The truth is
designed to bring us all up upon a level.
The more able should ever act a noble, generous part in their deal
with their poorer brethren, and should also give them good advice, and
then leave them to fight life’s battles through. But I was shown that a
most solemn duty rests upon the church to have an especial care for
the destitute widows, orphans, and invalids.
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