258
Testimonies for the Church Volume 6
Some are worried and perplexed because they see that the medical
missionary work is becoming disproportionate, because in receiving
so much talent and means, this work far exceeds the work being done
in other lines. What is the matter? Is it that the leaders of the medical
missionary work are doing too much, or that the leaders in other lines
of work are doing too little? It is presented to me that in many lines of
work we are doing but a small part of what ought to be done. Faith,
zeal, and energy are not manifested as they should be in the work of
the ministry. The efforts of many are tame and spiritless. It is evident
that light given us by God regarding our duty and privileges has not
been acted upon. Men have supplanted God’s plans with their own
plans. I am commissioned to say that the prosperity of the medical
missionary work is in God’s order. This work must be done; the truth
must be carried into the highways and byways. And ministers and
church members should awake and see the necessity of co-operating
in this work.
With earnest, untiring energy those who have felt the burden of
the Christian help work have testified by their works that they are not
content to be mere theoretical believers. They have tried to walk in the
light. They have put their belief into practice. They have combined
faith and works. They have done the very work the Lord has specified
should be done, and many souls have been enlightened, and convicted,
and helped.
The indifference among our ministers in regard to health reform
and the medical missionary work is surprising. Even those who do not
profess to be Christians treat the subject with greater respect than do
some of our own people, and these are going in advance of us.
Why, I inquire, are some of our ministerial brethren so far behind in
proclaiming the exalted theme of temperance? My brethren, the word
[300]
given to you is: “Take hold of the work of health reform; go forward.”
If you think that the medical missionary work is assuming undue
proportions, take the men who have been working in these lines with
you into your fields of labor, two here and two there. Receive these
medical missionaries as you would receive Christ, and see what work
they can do. You will not find them dwarfs in religious experience. See
if in this way you cannot bring much of heaven’s vital current into the
churches. See if there are not some who will grasp the education they
so much need, and bear the testimony: “God, who is rich in mercy, for