p. 4 | The Call of Our Large Cities by DAVID PAULSON, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 7, 1910

The Call of Our Large Cities

By DAVID PAULSON, M. D.

DAVID PAULSON, M. D.

OUR large cities are to-day the modern wilderness in which we must search diligently for the lost sheep. A considerable portion of New York City contains nearly a thousand persons to the acre; and it is a sad fact that where the population is most concentrated, the churches are moving away, the vacated buildings often being used for livery stables, storerooms, and even for saloons and gambling dens.

The concentration of sin in the large cities is almost beyond comprehension. Chicago’s seven thousand saloons, if placed side by side, would make a solid wall of sin nearly sixty miles in length. In addition there are nearly three thousand questionable resorts in this great city; and during the last two years there has sprung up an almost incredible number of nickel theaters, which are accustoming the eyes of tens of thousands of young people, and even of mere children, to scenes of sin and iniquity.

A former assistant United States attorney, Clifford Roe, who has been employed by Chicago’s business men to put down the white-slave traffic, told me recently that as a result of this crusade eight hundred men who had made a business of procuring young women under all sorts of laudable pretenses, and then selling them at varying prices in that city’s market of sin, had been driven out of Chicago.

Can any one question for a moment that our large cities have about reached the condition of Sodom, and hence must soon have meted out upon them the doom of Sodom? But just as certainly as this is true, there must be Abrahams who will plead with God to spare these cities for the sake of the Lord’s children who are still in them. We have reached the time when there must be men and women who are inspired with such a love for human souls that they will search out the modern Lots, and seek to arouse them from the lethargy of sin, even if they have to lay hold of their hands, as angels did of the hands of Lot and his family, to bring them forth.

Our hearts are touched as we read of Christ weeping over Jerusalem as its day of probation was hastening to its close. So to-day every true follower of Christ, who has really caught his Master’s spirit, and who realizes the importance of the hour in which we live, must again weep with him over the present condition of the large cities.

But Christ did something more than weep. He entered Jerusalem, cleansed its temple, and preached the gospel,—and laid down his life while doing this work. So to-day it is not enough for us to weep over our large cities: some must enter them, and again heal the sick, preach the gospel, and perhaps lay down their lives—and then fail in saving the city, even as Christ himself failed; for the servant is not greater than his Lord.

As we look at these large cities, walled up to heaven with sin and sinful practises, we can understand a little better the feeling of the ten spies when they said, “We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” “We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” Num. 13:31, 33. But those whom God will use to do the final and decisive work in our large cities will possess the spirit of Caleb and Joshua, who “wholly followed the Lord,” and knew that he would go before them and fight for them.

Seeking Business Instead of Souls

The Lord said to Jonah: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.” But Jonah had a greater burden to go to Tarshish than he had to go to Nineveh. To his mind the “gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks” (1 Kings 10:22) for which Tarshish was famous, seemed more attractive to him than did the lost souls of Nineveh. It was not because he lacked courage; for the man who could say, without hesitation, “Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea” (Jonah 1:12), had all the courage that a city missionary needs. What he lacked was a compelling passion for souls.

It is often difficult for the Bible worker to secure entrance into the homes of the city dweller; but when the heavy hand of sickness lays some loved one low in one of these homes, that same Bible worker, if prepared to treat and care for the sufferer, will not only be welcomed into the home, but will have a far better opportunity, after the Lord has used her to heal the sick, to invite the lost soul to Christ. As soon as we adopt literally the Saviour’s original plan, we shall have no lack of opportunities to present the saving gospel for this time.

The expense of securing the ordinary trained nurse is entirely beyond the reach of nine tenths of the sick poor in our large cities. Hence here is an open door for consecrated workers who are prepared to enter with healing for the body in one hand, and healing for the soul in the other; and in most instances they will be able to be more than self-supporting while engaged in this work.

Looked upon from a human view-point, there are few young women who possess the genuine consecration that will be needed to resist the commercial allurements that lie before the trained nurse, and who will dedicate their lives so unreservedly to the saving of souls that God will go out before them, prepare hearts for them, have his holy angels attend them, and thus make their work effective. But God will unquestionably raise up just such genuine missionary workers.

Hinsdale, Ill.