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Welfare Ministry
right that which during the interval had gone wrong in the social and
political economy of the nation.
These regulations were designed to bless the rich no less than the
poor. They would restrain avarice and a disposition for self-exaltation
and would cultivate a noble spirit of benevolence; and by fostering
good-will and confidence between all classes they would promote
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social order, the stability of government. We are all woven together
in the great web of humanity, and whatever we can do to benefit and
uplift others will reflect in blessing upon ourselves. The law of mutual
dependence runs through all classes of society. The poor are not more
dependent upon the rich than are the rich upon the poor. While the one
class ask a share in the blessings which God has bestowed upon their
wealthier neighbors, the other need the faithful service, the strength of
brain and bone and muscle, that are the capital of the poor....
There are many who urge with great enthusiasm that all men should
have an equal share in the temporal blessings of God. But this was
not the purpose of the Creator. A diversity of condition is one of
the means by which God designs to prove and develop character.
Yet He intends that those who have worldly possessions shall regard
themselves merely as stewards of His goods, as entrusted with means
to be employed for the benefit of the suffering and the needy.
Christ has said that we shall have the poor always with us, and He
unites His interest with that of His suffering people. The heart of our
Redeemer sympathizes with the poorest and lowliest of His earthly
children. He tells us that they are His representatives on earth. He has
placed them among us to awaken in our hearts the love that He feels
toward the suffering and oppressed. Pity and benevolence shown to
them are accepted by Christ as if shown to Himself. An act of cruelty
or neglect toward them is regarded as though done to Him.—
Patriarchs
and Prophets, 534-536
.
Christ Sees Opportunity in Man’s Extremity—Christ’s heart
is cheered by the sight of those who are poor in every sense of the
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term; cheered by His view of the ill-used ones who are meek and of
those bowed down with the sorrows of bereavement; cheered by the
seemingly unsatisfied hungering after righteousness, by the inability of
many to begin. He welcomes, as it were, the very condition of things
that would discourage many ministers. He sees an opportunity to help