Duty to the Poor
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memorial of her.” By this we are taught that Christ is to be honored
in the consecration of the best of our substance. Should our whole
attention be directed to relieving the wants of the poor, God’s cause
would be neglected. Neither will suffer if His stewards do their duty,
but the cause of Christ should come first.
The poor should be treated with as much interest and attention as
the rich. The practice of honoring the rich and slighting and neglecting
the poor is a crime in the sight of God. Those who are surrounded with
all the comforts of life, or who are petted and pampered by the world
because they are rich, do not feel the need of sympathy and tender
consideration as do persons whose lives have been one long struggle
with poverty. The latter have but little in this life to make them happy
or cheerful, and they will appreciate sympathy and love. Physicians
and helpers should in no case neglect this class, for by so doing they
may neglect Christ in the person of His saints.
Our sanitarium was erected to benefit suffering humanity, rich and
poor, the world over. Many of our churches have but little interest in
this institution, notwithstanding they have sufficient evidence that it is
one of the instrumentalities designed of God to bring men and women
under the influence of truth and to save many souls. The churches that
have the poor among them should not neglect their stewardship and
throw the burden of the poor and sick upon the sanitarium. All the
members of the several churches are responsible before God for their
afflicted ones. They should bear their own burdens. If they have sick
persons among them whom they wish to be benefited by treatment,
they should, if able, send them to the sanitarium. In doing this, they
will not only be patronizing the institution which God has established,
but will be helping those who need help, caring for the poor as God
requires us to do.
It was not the purpose of God that poverty should ever leave the
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world. The ranks of society were never to be equalized, for the diversity
of condition which characterizes our race is one of the means by which
God has designed to prove and develop character. Many have urged
with great enthusiasm that all men should have an equal share in
the temporal blessings of God, but this was not the purpose of the
Creator. Christ has said that we shall have the poor always with us.
The poor, as well as the rich, are the purchase of His blood; and among
His professed followers, in most cases, the former serve Him with