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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
all classes, there is danger that this work will eclipse the message that
God has given us to bear in every city—the proclamation of the soon
coming of Christ, the necessity of obedience to the commandments
of God and the testimony of Jesus. This message is the burden of
our work. It is to be proclaimed with a loud cry and is to go to the
whole world. In both home and foreign fields the presentation of health
principles must be united with it, but not be independent of it or in any
way take its place; neither should this work absorb so much attention
as to belittle other branches. The Lord has instructed us to consider the
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work in all its bearings, that it may have a proportionate, symmetrical,
well-balanced development.
The truth for this time embraces the whole gospel. Rightly pre-
sented, it will work in man the very changes that will make evident
the power of God’s grace upon the heart. It will do a complete work
and develop a complete man. Then let no line be drawn between the
genuine medical missionary work and the gospel ministry. Let these
two blend in giving the invitation, “Come, for all things are now ready.”
Let them be joined in an inseparable union, even as the arm is joined
to the body.
Consider the Cause as a Whole
The Lord has need of all kinds of skillful workmen. “He gave
some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some,
pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in
the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
Ephesians 4:11-13
.
Every child of God should have sanctified judgment to consider the
cause as a whole and the relation of each part to every other part, that