Chapter 20—Ministry to the Poor
The Gospel in Its Greatest Loveliness—Unto the poor the gospel
is to be preached. Never does the gospel put on an aspect of greater
loveliness than when it is brought to the most needy and destitute
regions. To men of every station it delivers its precepts, which regulate
their duties, and its promises, which nerve them to the discharge of
their duties. Then it is that the light of the gospel shines forth in its
most radiant clearness and its greatest power. Truth from the Word of
God enters the hovel of the peasant and lights up the rude cottages of
the poor, both black and white. Rays from the Sun of Righteousness
bring gladness to the sick and suffering. Angels of God are there, and
the simple faith shown makes the crust of bread and the cup of water as
a banquet of luxury. Those who have been loathed and abandoned are
raised through faith and pardon to the dignity of sons and daughters
of God. Lifted above all in the world, they sit in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. They have no earthly treasure, but they have found the
pearl of great price. The sin-pardoning Saviour receives the poor and
ignorant and gives them to eat of the bread which comes down from
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heaven. They drink of the water of life.—
Letter 113, 1901
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Jesus Associated Himself With the Poor—It has become fash-
ionable to look down upon the poor.... But Jesus, the Master, was poor,
and He sympathizes with the poor, the discarded, the oppressed, and
declares that every insult shown to them is as if shown to Himself. I
am more and more surprised as I see those who claim to be children of
God possessing so little of the sympathy, tenderness, and love which
actuated Christ. Would that every church, North and South, were
imbued with the spirit of our Lord’s teaching!—
Manuscript 6, 1891
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Christ Came to Minister to the Poor—Christ stood at the head
of humanity in the garb of humanity. So full of sympathy and love
was His attitude that the poorest was not afraid to come to Him. He
was kind to all, easily approached by the most lowly. He went from
house to house, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting the
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