Chapter 22—The Poor of the World
To Supply the Wants of the Poor—All around us we see want
and suffering. Families are in need of food; little ones are crying for
bread. The houses of the poor lack proper furniture and bedding. Many
live in mere hovels, which are almost destitute of conveniences. The
cry of the poor reaches to heaven. God sees; God hears.—
Testimonies
for the Church 6:385
.
While God in His providence has laden the earth with His bounties
and filled its storehouses with the comforts of life, want and misery
are on every hand. A liberal Providence has placed in the hands
of His human agents an abundance to supply the necessities of all,
but the stewards of God are unfaithful. In the professed Christian
world there is enough expended in extravagant display to supply the
wants of all the hungry and to clothe the naked. Many who have
taken upon themselves the name of Christ are spending His money for
selfish pleasure, for the gratification of appetite, for strong drink and
rich dainties, for extravagant houses and furniture and dress, while to
suffering human beings they give scarcely a look of pity or a word of
sympathy.
What misery exists in the very heart of our so-called Christian
countries! Think of the condition of the poor in our large cities. In
these cities there are multitudes of human beings who do not receive
as much care and consideration as are given to the brutes. There are
thousands of wretched children, ragged and half starved, with vice
and depravity written on their faces. Families are herded together in
miserable tenements, many of them dark cellars reeking with dampness
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and filth. Children are born in these terrible places. Infancy and youth
behold nothing attractive, nothing of the beauty of natural things that
God has created to delight the senses. These children are left to
grow up molded and fashioned in character by the low precepts, the
wretchedness, and the wicked example around them. They hear the
name of God only in profanity. Impure words, the fumes of liquor and
tobacco, moral degradation of every kind, meet the eye and pervert the
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