Adventism—a Unique, Worldwide Movement
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grow up and die. They see nothing of the beauty of natural things that
God has created to delight the senses and uplift the soul. Ragged and
half-starved, they live amid vice and depravity, molded in character by
the wretchedness and sin that surround them. Children hear the name
of God only in profanity. Foul speech, imprecations, and revilings
fill their ears. The fumes of liquor and tobacco, sickening stenches,
moral degradation, pervert their senses. Thus multitudes are trained to
become criminals, foes to society that has abandoned them to misery
and degradation.
Not all the poor in the city slums are of this class. God-fearing men
and women have been brought to the depths of poverty by illness or
misfortune, often through the dishonest scheming of those who live by
preying upon their fellows. Many who are upright and well-meaning
become poor through lack of industrial training. Through ignorance
they are unfitted to wrestle with the difficulties of life. Drifting into
the cities, they are often unable to find employment. Surrounded by
the sights and sounds of vice, they are subjected to terrible temptation.
Herded and often classed with the vicious and degraded, it is only by
a superhuman struggle, a more than finite power, that they can be pre-
served from sinking to the same depths. Many hold fast their integrity,
choosing to suffer rather than to sin. This class especially demand
help, sympathy, and encouragement.—
The Ministry of Healing, 189,
190
.
Home missions prosper when there is liberality with foreign
missions—The home missionary work will be farther advanced in
every way when a more liberal, self-denying, self-sacrificing spirit is
manifested for the prosperity of foreign missions; for the prosperity of
the home work depends largely, under God, upon the reflex influence
of the evangelical work done in countries afar off. It is in working
actively to supply the necessities of the cause of God that we bring
our souls in touch with the Source of all power.—
Testimonies for the
Church 6:27
.
Work for those suffering as a result of their own course of ac-
tion should not hinder the work of foreign missions—Men’s feel-
ings may become greatly moved as they see human beings suffering
as the result of their own course of action. There are those who are
specially impressed to come into direct contact with this class, and the
Lord gives them a commission to work in the worst places of the earth,