When the Lord laid upon Moses the work of leading the children of Israel from Egypt, He gave him the assurance: “Certainly I will be with thee.”“My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”Exodus 3:12; 33:14. The same assurance is given to those who go forth to work for the Lord in the Southern field.
(7T 221.1)
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My brethren and sisters, commune with God, that you may be imbued with His Spirit, and then go forth to bestow on others the grace you have received. The example of the Saviour should inspire us to put forth earnest, self-sacrificing effort for the good of others. He came to this world as the unwearied servant of man’s necessity. Love for the lost race was manifested in all that He said and did. He clothed His divinity with humanity, that He might stand among human beings as one of them, a sharer of their poverty and their griefs. What a busy life He led! Day by day He might be seen entering the humble abodes of want and sorrow, speaking hope to the downcast and peace to the distressed. This is the work that He asks His people to do today. Humble, gracious, tenderhearted, pitiful, He went about doing good, lifting up the bowed-down and comforting the sorrowful. None who came to Him went away unhelped. To all He brought hope and gladness. Wherever He went he carried blessing.
(7T 221.2)
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We need to humble ourselves before God because so few of the members of His church are putting forth efforts that in any wise compare with the efforts that the Lord desires them to put forth. The opportunities that He has given us, the promises that He has made, the privileges that He has bestowed, should inspire us with far greater zeal and devotion. Every addition to the church should be one more agency for the carrying out of the plan of redemption. Every power of God’s people should be devoted to bringing many sons and daughters to Him. In our service there is to be no indifference, no selfishness. Any departure from self-denial, any relaxation of earnest effort, means so much power given to the enemy.
(7T 221.3)
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The proclamation that freed the slaves in the Southern States opened doors through which Christian workers should have entered to tell the story of the love of God. In this field there were precious jewels that the Lord’s workers should have searched for as for hidden treasure. But though the colored people have been freed from political slavery, many of them are still in the slavery of ignorance and sin. Many of them are terribly degraded. Is no message of warning to reach them? Had those to whom God has given great light and many opportunities done the work that He desires them to do, there would today be memorials all through the Southern field—churches, sanitariums, and schools. Men and women of all classes would have been called to the gospel feast.
(7T 222.1)
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The Lord is grieved by the woe in the Southern field. Christ has wept at the sight of this woe. Angels have hushed the music of their harps as they have looked upon a people unable, because of their past slavery, to help themselves. And yet those in whose hands God has placed the torch of truth, kindled from the divine altar, have not realized that to them is given the work of carrying the light to this sin-darkened field. There are those who have turned away from the work of rescuing the downtrodden and degraded, refusing to help the helpless. Let the servants of Christ begin at once to redeem their neglect, that the dark stain on their record may be wiped out.
(7T 222.2)
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