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Conference Officials
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feed on the flesh and blood of the Son of God. Religion is not to be
cheapened in 1896 or 1897.
Come Out from Worldly Influences
Those who are partakers of the divine nature are to come out from
worldly influences, from empty festivities, and sit down with Christ,
in heart communion with their Redeemer. Cease your unbelieving
worry. When the anxious disciples saw the hungry multitudes beside
the sea, impossibilities arose in their minds, and they questioned,
Shall we go to the villages and buy, to give them to eat? Just so
in the several conferences many now ask, Shall we send to Battle
Creek for someone to come and hold meetings with us and revive us
and feed us? What said Christ? No. He commanded the multitude to
sit down on the grass in companies of fifty and one hundred. They
obeyed orders, seating themselves in long lines on the grass. Jesus
took the five loaves and two fishes out of the hands of the lad, and,
looking up to His Father, He asked His blessing upon the meager
supply. Then He put into the hands of His disciples the food to be
distributed. The scanty provision grew under the hand of Christ, and
He had constantly a fresh supply for His servants to distribute to the
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hungry multitude, until all had a sufficiency. Then the word came,
“Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” There
was a surplus of food gathered up.
This is a lesson to all in their spiritual experience. What an
amount of worry would be saved if men would only trust in God.
The bread of life is to be given to needy souls. And what a work
is often made of the matter. There are long councils for devising
plans, inventing new methods. There is a constant effort to get up
entertainments to draw people to the church or the Sabbath school.
Like the disciples, the workers raise the question, Shall we go to
the villages and buy? What is the work to be done? Come unto
Jesus. Humble faith and prayer will accomplish very much more
than your long councils. Listen to the Saviour’s invitation. Put your
neck under His yoke. Accept His burdens. Receive that which He
bestows. He says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
This anticipation of terrible difficulties need not be. We must
eat and drink the word of life, which is represented as eating and