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Testimonies for the Church Volume 6
the message. Conducted independently, it would not only consume
talent and means needed in other lines, but in the very work of helping
the helpless apart from the ministry of the word, it would place men
where they would scoff at Bible truth.
The gospel ministry is needed to give permanence and stability
to the medical missionary work; and the ministry needs the medical
missionary work to demonstrate the practical working of the gospel.
Neither part of the work is complete without the other.
The message of the soon coming of the Saviour must be given
in all parts of the world, and a solemn dignity should characterize
it in every branch. A large vineyard is to be worked, and the wise
husbandman will work it so that every part will produce fruit. If in the
medical missionary work the living principles of truth are kept pure,
uncontaminated by anything that would dim their luster, the Lord will
preside over the work. If those who bear the heavy burdens will stand
true and steadfast to the principles of truth, the Lord will uphold and
sustain them.
The union that should exist between the medical missionary work
and the ministry is clearly set forth in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah.
There is wisdom and blessing for those who will engage in the work
as here presented. This chapter is explicit, and there is in it enough
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to enlighten anyone who wishes to do the will of God. It presents
abundant opportunity to minister to suffering humanity, and at the
same time to be an instrument in God’s hands of bringing the light of
truth before a perishing world. If the work of the third angel’s message
is carried on in right lines, the ministry will not be given an inferior
place, nor will the poor and sick be neglected. In His word God has
united these two lines of work, and no man should divorce them.
There may be and there is danger of losing sight of the great
principles of truth when doing the work for the poor that it is right to do,
but we are ever to bear in mind that in carrying forward this work the
spiritual necessities of the soul are to be kept prominent. In our efforts
to relieve temporal necessities we are in danger of separating from the
last gospel message its leading and most urgent features. As it has been
carried on in some places, the medical missionary work has absorbed
talent and means that belong to other lines of the work, and the effort
in lines more directly spiritual has been neglected. Because of the
ever-increasing opportunities for ministering to the temporal needs of