56
A Solemn Appeal
neighbors, with which they have nothing to do. They will not engage
in the fashionable gossip from house to house, dwelling upon the faults
and inconsistencies of their neighbors. They will feel so great a burden
of care for their own children that they can find no time to take up
a reproach against their neighbor. Gossipers and news-carriers are a
terrible curse to neighborhoods and churches. Two-thirds of all the
church trials arise from this source.
God requires all to do the duties of today with faithfulness. This is
much neglected by the larger share of professed Christians. Especially
is present duty lost sight of by the class I have mentioned, who imagine
that they are of a higher order of beings than their fellow-mortals
around them. The fact of their minds’ turning in this channel, is proof
that they are of an inferior order, narrow, conceited, and selfish. They
feel high above the lowly and humble poor. Such, Jesus says he has
called. They are forever trying to secure position, to gain applause, to
obtain credit for doing a work that others cannot do, some great work.
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But it disturbs the fine grain of their refined organism to associate with
the humble and unfortunate. They mistake the reason altogether. The
reason they shun any of these duties not so agreeable, is because of
their supreme selfishness. Dear self is the center of all their actions
and motives.
The Majesty of Heaven, whom angels worshiped, who was rich
in honor, splendor, and glory, came to the earth, and when he found
himself in fashion as a man, he did not plead his refined nature as an
excuse to hold himself aloof from the unfortunate. He was found in
his work among the afflicted, the poor, distressed, and needy ones.
Christ was the embodiment of refinement and purity. His was an
exalted life and character, yet he was found in his labor, not among
men of high-sounding titles, not among the most honorable of this
world, but with the despised and needy. “I came,” says the divine
Teacher, “to save that which was lost.” Yes, the Majesty of Heaven
was ever found working to help those who most needed help. May the
example of Christ put to shame the excuses of that class who are so
attracted to their poor self that they consider it beneath their refined
taste and their high calling to help the most helpless. Such have taken
a position higher than their Lord, and in the end will be astonished
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to find themselves even lower than that class, to mingle with, and to
work for whom, shocked their refined, sensitive natures. True, it may