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of temperance, not in a narrow or arbitrary way, but in the light of God’s
great purpose for humanity. Could the principles of true temperance
be thus brought before them, there are very many of the higher classes
who would recognize their value and give them a hearty acceptance.
There is another danger to which the wealthy classes are especially
exposed, and here also is a field for the work of the medical missionary.
Multitudes who are prosperous in the world and who never stoop to
the common forms of vice, are yet brought to destruction through the
love of riches. Absorbed in their worldly treasures, they are insensible
to the claims of God and the needs of their fellow men. Instead of
regarding their wealth as a talent to be used for the glory of God and
the uplifting of humanity, they look upon it as a means of indulging
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and glorifying themselves. They add house to house and land to land,
they fill their homes with luxuries, while want stalks the streets, and
all about them are human beings in misery and crime, in disease and
death. Those who thus give their lives to self-serving are developing
in themselves, not the attributes of God, but the attributes of Satan.
These men are in need of the gospel. They need to have their eyes
turned from the vanity of material things to behold the preciousness
of the enduring riches. They need to learn the joy of giving, the
blessedness of being co-workers with God.
Persons of this class are often the most difficult of access, but
Christ will open ways whereby they may be reached. Let the wisest,
the most trustful, the most hopeful, laborers seek for these souls. With
the wisdom and tact born of divine love, with the refinement and
courtesy that result alone from the presence of Christ in the soul, let
them work for those who, dazzled by the glitter of earthly riches, see
not the glory of the heavenly treasure. Let the workers study the Bible
with them, pressing sacred truth home to their hearts. Read to them
the words of God: “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption.” “Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich
man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise
loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in
these things I delight, saith the Lord.” “In whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of