In the Footsteps of the Master
83
given to communicate light and to present the gospel to all classes and
all grades of society. God wants the ministers and the church members
to take a decided, active interest in the medical missionary work.
To take people right where they are, whatever their position or con-
dition, and help them in every way possible—this is gospel ministry.
Those who are diseased in body are nearly always diseased in mind,
and when the soul is sick the body also is affected.—
Testimonies for
the Church 6:300, 301
.
The fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah contains present truth for the
people of God. Here we see how medical missionary work and the
gospel ministry are to be bound together as the message is given to
the world. Upon those who keep the Sabbath of the Lord is laid the
responsibility of doing a work of mercy and benevolence. Medical
missionary work is to be bound up with the message, and sealed with
the seal of God.—
Manuscript 22, 1901
.
North, South, East, and West—Why has it not been understood
from the Word of God that the work being done in medical missionary
lines is a fulfillment of the scripture, “Go out quickly into the streets
[122]
and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed,
and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as
thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said unto
the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to
come in, that my house may be full.”
This is a work that the churches in every locality, north and south
and east and west, should do. The churches have been given the
opportunity of answering this work. Why have they not done it?
Someone must fulfill the commission.
A work which should have been done has been left undone. Those
who have been engaged in the medical missionary work have been
doing the very class of work the Lord would have done....
Oh, how much, how very much remains to be done, and yet how
many that might use their God-given talents aright are doing almost
nothing besides caring for and pleasing themselves. But the hand
of the Lord is stretched out still, and if they will work today in His
vineyard, He will accept their service.—
Manuscript 18, 1897
.
Keep a Proper Balance—Medical missionary work should be
carried forward by the church in well-organized efforts. It should be
to the cause of God as the right hand is to the body. But the medical