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Counsels on Health
act, saying, “Why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on
Me.” “Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole
world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of
her.”
Mark 14:6, 9
. 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
doing so they may neglect Christ in the person of His saints.
Responsibilities of the Church
Our sanitarium was erected to benefit suffering humanity, rich and
poor, the world over. Many of our churches have but little interest in
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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
world. The ranks of society were never to be equalized; for the diversity
of conditions which characterizes our race is one of the means by