706
The Desire of Ages
are. The Lord is not pleased with ignorance in regard to His laws,
either natural or spiritual. We are to be workers together with God for
the restoration of health to the body as well as to the soul.
And we should teach others how to preserve and to recover health.
For the sick we should use the remedies which God has provided in
nature, and we should point them to Him who alone can restore. It is
our work to present the sick and suffering to Christ in the arms of our
faith. We should teach them to believe in the Great Healer. We should
lay hold on His promise, and pray for the manifestation of His power.
The very essence of the gospel is restoration, and the Saviour would
have us bid the sick, the hopeless, and the afflicted take hold upon His
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strength.
The power of love was in all Christ’s healing, and only by partaking
of that love, through faith, can we be instruments for His work. If
we neglect to link ourselves in divine connection with Christ, the
current of life-giving energy cannot flow in rich streams from us to
the people. There were places where the Saviour Himself could not
do many mighty works because of their unbelief. So now unbelief
separates the church from her divine Helper. Her hold upon eternal
realities is weak. By her lack of faith, God is disappointed, and robbed
of His glory.
It is in doing Christ’s work that the church has the promise of His
presence. Go teach all nations, He said; “and, lo, I am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world.” To take His yoke is one of the first
conditions of receiving His power. The very life of the church depends
upon her faithfulness in fulfilling the Lord’s commission. To neglect
this work is surely to invite spiritual feebleness and decay. Where
there is no active labor for others, love wanes, and faith grows dim.
Christ intends that His ministers shall be educators of the church
in gospel work. They are to teach the people how to seek and save the
lost. But is this the work they are doing? Alas, how many are toiling
to fan the spark of life in a church that is ready to die! How many
churches are tended like sick lambs by those who ought to be seeking
for the lost sheep! And all the time millions upon millions without
Christ are perishing.
Divine love has been stirred to its unfathomable depths for the sake
of men, and angels marvel to behold in the recipients of so great love
a mere surface gratitude. Angels marvel at man’s shallow appreciation