True Benevolence
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opens the heart that has been frozen by avarice; it opens the hand that
has ever been closed to human suffering; and charity and kindness are
seen as its fruits.
God requires that all of us should be self-sacrificing workers. Ev-
ery part of the truth has a practical application to our daily lives.
Blessed are they that hear the word of the Lord and keep it. Hearing
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is not enough; we must act, we must do. It is in the doing of the
Commandments that there is great reward. Those who give practical
demonstrations of their benevolence by their sympathy and compas-
sionate acts toward the poor, the suffering, and the unfortunate, not
only relieve the sufferers, but contribute largely to their own happiness
and are in the way of securing health of soul and body. Isaiah has thus
plainly described the work that God will accept and bless His people
in doing:
“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of
wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go
free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the
hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?
when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide
not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth
as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy
righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy
rearward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt
cry, and He shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst
of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted
soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as
the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy
thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a
watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”
The sympathy which exists between the mind and the body is very
great. When one is affected, the other responds. The condition of the
mind has much to do with the health of the physical system. If the mind
is free and happy, under a consciousness of rightdoing and a sense of
satisfaction in causing happiness to others, it will create a cheerfulness
that will react upon the whole system, causing a freer circulation of
the blood and a toning up of the entire body. The blessing of God is
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