The Bible as Our Guide in City Work by DAVID PAULSON, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 13, 1910

The Bible as Our Guide in City Work

By DAVID PAULSON, M. D.

DAVID PAULSON, M. D.

WE shall meet no perplexing problem in city work that has not been anticipated in the Bible, and by diligent search we can find its solution; for “what hath been, that is now, and that which is to be has already been; for God requireth all things to revolve.” Eccl. 3:15, Spurrell. For a dime the worker can buy a street directory, but only in the Bible can he learn what to do on those streets; for “it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Jer. 10:23. As one begins actually to believe this, Bible study becomes more interesting than is the study of a guide-book to the traveler.

Insurmountable Obstacles

As we contemplate going in and possessing these cities for Christ, we are compelled, like the spies of old, to recognize that they are walled up to heaven with difficulties. On the first floor of every sky-scraper office building is an officer in uniform, who forbids us to enter with our literature. At the front door of every great apartment-house is a servant to prevent us from reaching the people who dwell within.

From a human standpoint they are stronger than we; and as soon as the city worker loses his hold on God, he becomes possessed of the same spirit which actuated the ten spies, and he will soon be able to offer even better excuses than they gave for not being able to go up and possess these cities. But if the Word of God is in the worker’s heart, it will be a lamp to his feet and a light to his path; and he will, in the spirit of Caleb and Joshua, constantly affirm in the face of the most despairing obstacles: “We are well able to overcome it.” “The Lord is with us: fear them not.” Num. 13:30; 14:9.

Commercial Inducements

Every Christian who is drawn into the large cities by commercial inducements rather than by a love for perishing souls, will do well to study carefully the experience of Lot. The grass land near Sodom seemed attractive to him; but he was never able to get his cattle away from Sodom. Yet Lot felt no more at home in Sodom than do our brethren who to-day are in our large cities for purely commercial reasons. He “was tormented with the filthy conduct of the lawless; for that upright man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing from day to day, was distressed in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds.” 2 Peter 2:7, 8, Syriac. But when he left Sodom, he had no harvest of souls to take with him. He was not even able to persuade all his own family to go with him.

Many are in danger of making the equally great mistake of permitting financial opportunities to keep them from enlisting in this final soul-saving campaign for the large cities. The Bible furnishes a striking illustration of this. The word came to Jonah, as it will certainly come to many who read these lines, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.” Jonah 1:2. But the gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks, for which Tarshish was famous (2 Chron. 9:21) looked more attractive to Jonah than did the lost souls in Nineveh.

His distressing experience should be a warning to those who this very day are repeating his sad mistake. On the other hand, the fact that God gave him a second chance, and made him one of the most successful city workers the world has ever seen,—for he used him to evangelize a great and wicked city in three days’ time,—should be an encouragement for backslidden workers to return, and receive anew from the hands of God an inspiring message to the lost.

How to Secure Openings

What Paris is to the modern world, that was Damascus to the ancient world. Ananias, a worker in that city, lived so near the Lord that he could hear a voice behind him saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” He was told to go up to a definite house on the street that was called Straight, and there he would find a praying soul who was longing for light. Acts 9:11. Saul was probably the only man in that block, or even in that ward, who was ready for Ananias that day. This incident was put into the Bible for our learning; and it is a cheering beam of light on the pathway of the faithful city worker.

But a few weeks ago one of our workers was out in the Stockyards district in Chicago, inviting children into our little Sunday-school in that region. In one home entered she found two men bending eagerly over a Bible; and when she invited their children to come to the Sunday-school, they asked who was back of this effort. When she told them, they wanted to know who the Adventists were, and what the word meant. She replied they were people who were looking for the Lord’s soon coming. They then remarked that that was just what they were studying their Bibles about, and they wanted to know if she could give them some light. This she was glad to do.

As we come nearer to the end, and also nearer to the Lord, he will more and more frequently send us directly to the very homes of those who are eagerly thirsting for the water of life.

A Small Beginning

Paul in vision saw a man of Macedonia pleading for help. He made an immediate response, and went to Philippi, the leading city of that country. He walked about its crowded streets for several days, and there was apparently no man nor set of men who desired to hear the gospel. There were no openings for him to preach to a great crowd in the public square. On the Sabbath day, perhaps to escape the spiritually benumbing scenes of city life, he went out to the river, and there he observed a little group of women who were having an outdoor prayer-meeting. He might have reasoned that it was a man who beckoned for him, and these were only women, but instead he accepted the very first opportunity that presented itself, knowing that by so doing he would be opening the door to greater opportunities.

A woman who sold dyestuff was converted, and then greater opportunities began to present themselves, including a song service at midnight in prison under the most disheartening circumstances. But it required that kind of experience to raise up the great Philippian church.

Self-Supporting City Workers

Paul was essentially a city worker. He visited all the great centers of population in Asia Minor and Europe. While Jonah in a single instance was the most successful city worker, yet Paul was by far the greatest and the most ideal, and it is a noteworthy fact that he was a self-supporting worker. Picture to yourself this great world-winner literally being consumed by the fire of the great message that was burning within him. As you sit beneath the spell of that matchless presentation of the gospel which made Felix tremble, and even reached the heart of bloodthirsty Nero, ask yourself if you are willing to share with Paul the necessary work and toil, that you also may become a self-supporting city worker.

The successful city worker will need to learn much from Paul if he shall ever be able to say with him, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” 2 Tim. 4:7.

Hinsdale, Ill.