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The Ministry of Healing
We may give to the poor, and harm them, by teaching them to
be dependent. Such giving encourages selfishness and helplessness.
Often it leads to idleness, extravagance, and intemperance. No man
who can earn his own livelihood has a right to depend on others.
The proverb “The world owes me a living” has in it the essence of
falsehood, fraud, and robbery. The world owes no man a living who
is able to work and gain a living for himself.
Real charity helps men to help themselves. If one comes to our
door and asks for food, we should not turn him away hungry; his
poverty may be the result of misfortune. But true beneficence means
more than mere gifts. It means a genuine interest in the welfare
of others. We should seek to understand the needs of the poor and
distressed, and to give them the help that will benefit them most. To
give thought and time and personal effort costs far more than merely
to give money. But it is the truest charity.
Those who are taught to earn what they receive will more readily
learn to make the most of it. And in learning to be self-reliant, they
are acquiring that which will not only make them self-sustaining, but
will enable them to help others. Teach the importance of life’s duties
to those who are wasting their opportunities. Show them that Bible
religion never makes men idlers. Christ always encouraged industry.
“Why stand ye here all the day idle?” He said to the indolent. “I
must work ... while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can
work.”
Matthew 20:6
;
John 9:4
.
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It is the privilege of all to give to the world in their home life,
in their customs and practices and order, an evidence of what the
gospel can do for those who obey it. Christ came to our world to give
us an example of what we may become. He expects His followers
to be models of correctness in all the relations of life. He desires the
divine touch to be seen upon outward things.
Our own homes and surroundings should be object lessons,
teaching ways of improvement, so that industry, cleanliness, taste,
and refinement may take the place of idleness, uncleanness, coarse-
ness, and disorder. By our lives and example we can help others to
discern that which is repulsive in their character or their surround-
ings, and with Christian courtesy we may encourage improvement.
As we manifest an interest in them, we shall find opportunity to
teach them how to put their energies to the best use.