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The Ministry of Healing
Holy Spirit He would be even nearer to them than when He walked
visibly among men.
The work which the disciples did, we also are to do. Every
Christian is to be a missionary. In sympathy and compassion we
are to minister to those in need of help, seeking with unselfish
earnestness to lighten the woes of suffering humanity.
All may find something to do. None need feel that there is no
place where they can labor for Christ. The Saviour identifies Himself
with every child of humanity. That we might become members of
the heavenly family, He became a member of the earthly family. He
is the Son of man, and thus a brother to every son and daughter of
Adam. His followers are not to feel themselves detached from the
perishing world around them. They are a part of the great web of
humanity, and heaven looks upon them as brothers to sinners as well
as to saints.
Millions upon millions of human beings, in sickness and igno-
rance and sin, have never so much as heard of Christ’s love for them.
Were our condition and theirs to be reversed, what would we desire
them to do for us? All this, so far as lies in our power, we are to do
for them. Christ’s rule of life by which every one of us must stand
or fall in the judgment is, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do
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to you, do ye even so to them.”
Matthew 7:12
.
By all that has given us advantage over another,—be it education
and refinement, nobility of character, Christian training, religious
experience,—we are in debt to those less favored; and, so far as lies
in our power, we are to minister unto them. If we are strong, we are
to stay up the hands of the weak.
Angels of glory that do always behold the face of the Father in
heaven, joy in ministering to His little ones. Angels are ever present
where they are most needed, with those who have the hardest battles
with self to fight, and whose surroundings are the most discouraging.
Weak and trembling souls who have many objectionable traits of
character are their special charge. That which selfish hearts would
regard as humiliating service, ministering to those who are wretched
and in every way inferior in character, is the work of the pure, sinless
beings from the courts above.
Jesus did not consider heaven a place to be desired while we
were lost. He left the heavenly courts for a life of reproach and