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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
lack if a still greater interest were manifested in this case? Here are
her two boys, aged about nine and eleven years, who need homes.
Who are willing to give them homes for Christ’s sake? The mother
should be released from this care and close confinement to her needle.
These boys are in a village, their only guardian their hard-working
mother. They need to be taught how to work as their age will admit.
They need to be patiently, kindly, lovingly instructed. Some may
say: “Oh, yes, I would take them and teach them how to work.”
But they should not lose sight of other things which these children
need besides being taught to work. They need to be instructed how
they shall develop good Christian character. They want love and
affection, they need to be fitted to become useful here, and finally
to be prepared for heaven. Disrobe yourselves of selfishness, and
see if there are not many whom you can help and bless with your
homes, your sympathy, your love, and in pointing them to the Lamb
of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. Do you wish to make
any sacrifice to save souls? Jesus, the dear Saviour, is preparing a
home for you; and why will not you in your turn prepare a home
for those who need it, and in thus doing imitate the example of your
Master? If you are not willing to do this, when you shall feel that
you need a habitation in the heavens, none will be awarded you. For
Christ declares: “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of
these, ye did it not to Me.” You that have been selfish, studying your
own ease and advantage all your life, your hours of probation are
fast closing. What are you doing to redeem your life of selfishness
and uselessness? Wake up! wake up!
[31]
As you regard your eternal interest, arouse yourselves, and begin
to sow good seed. That which you sow, you shall also reap. The
harvest is coming—the great reaping time, when we shall reap what
we have sown. There will be no failure in the crop; the harvest is
sure. Now is the sowing time. Now make efforts to be rich in good
works, “ready to distribute, willing to communicate,” laying up in
store for yourselves a good foundation against the time to come,
that ye “may lay hold on eternal life.” I implore you, my brethren
in every place, rid yourselves of your icy coldness. Encourage in
yourselves a love of hospitality, a love to help those who need help.
You may say you have been taken in and have bestowed your
means upon those unworthy of your charity, and therefore have