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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, December 31, 1867

“IF I HAD THOUGHT IT WAS JESUS.”

A few days since, a sermon was preached in D——, from the text: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me.” The preacher set forth that Christ Jesus, the Lord, is represented in all his disciples. That if a man strike a disciple, the Lord feels the blow. That if injustice makes even the humblest Christian weep, tears of sorrow course down the Saviour’s face. On the other hand, that whatever kindness is bestowed on a disciple is all the same as if bestowed directly upon the Lord himself. Assuming this to be the doctrine of the text, the preacher exhorted his hearers to visit the poor in the spirit of liberality and kindness that would actuate them, as if it were the Saviour who received their benefactions in person.

After the service was closed, a gentleman, whose liberality is known in all the churches, remarked:

A few days since, I carried to a poor Christian woman a comforter, warm, but well worn, and two loaves of bread—good bread but a little stale. The weather was very cold, and the comforter was gratefully received. The poor woman was hungry, and the bread was better than she usually obtained. But while listening to the sermon to-day, I thought that, had I reflected that it was Jesus I was visiting, in the person of one of his disciples, I would have taken a new comforter and fresh loaves of bread.”

The remark is worthy of remembrance by Christians, when about to go on an errand of mercy, or perform a deed of good-will to man.

When the wise men came from the East to visit the new-born Lord of the universe, they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh—rich and costly gifts. Now, we cannot visit the holy manger; we cannot pour costly ointment upon the Saviour’s head; but God has placed it in our power to perform services equally acceptable to him. He sits in many a lonely hut, with the children of misfortune and misery, and all our visits to him there, and all our benefactions, will be recorded upon his holy heart, and the record will be imperishable.

On the other hand, if any man hopes to secure the favor of God by professions of personal piety, while he is guilty of an act of cruelty, injustice, or neglect—even though the person suffering thereby may be the least of human creatures—let him read the concluding passages of the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. He will find the grandest and most forcible exposition of the nature, necessity, and importance of practical religion ever recorded in any book.—Religious Telescope.