Appendix
247
been grown help a great deal in supporting the family. The little lads
are working with their father like little farmers. They are so earnest
and full of zeal that it is amusing to look at them and see how happy
they are in their work. They have not much society besides their own
family connections, but they are in the very best school they could be
in.—
Letter 48, 1899
.
First Attention to Needy Church Members—There are families
who have lost their situations which they have held for twenty years.
One man and his wife have a large family of children which we have
been caring for. I am paying the expenses of four children in school
[337]
from this one family. We see many cases we must help. These are
excellent men we have helped. They have large families, but they are
the Lord’s poor. One man was a coachbuilder, a cabinetmaker, and a
wheelwright, and a gentleman of superior order in the sight of God,
who reads the heart of all. This family we provided with clothing from
our family for three years. We moved the family to Cooranbong. We
hoped to help them get a home this winter. I let them live in my tent,
and they put an iron roof on it and have lived in it a year. Everyone
loves this man, his wife, and children. We must help them. They have
a father and a mother they must support. Three families of this same
order are on the school premises, and oh, if we only had money to help
them build a cheap wooden home, how glad they would be! I use every
penny I have in this helping work. But it makes a difference with me
whom I help, whether it is God’s suffering poor who are keeping His
commandments and lose their situations in consequence or whether it
is a blasphemer treading under foot the commandments of God. And
God regards the difference. We should make these men and women
all workers together with God.—
Letter 45, 1900
.
“We Helped All We Could.”—In Australia we have tried to do
all we could in this line. We located in Cooranbong, and there, where
the people have to send twenty-five miles for a doctor, and pay him
twenty-five dollars a visit, we helped the sick and suffering all we
could. Seeing that we understood something of disease, the people
brought their sick to us, and we cared for them. Thus we entirely broke
down the prejudice in that place....
Medical missionary work is the pioneer work. It is to be connected
with the gospel ministry. It is the gospel in practice, the gospel prac-