p. 18 | A Call to Service and Action

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 7, 1912

A Call to Service and Action

(First Reading)

God calls for workers, for live men and women who are filled with the influence of his Holy Spirit, those who are fired with a zeal and determination to work. Christ labored untiringly to accomplish the great work for which he came to the world. During his ministry, he went about doing good. His heart was ever touched with human woe. It was his mission to help those in need of help, to seek the lost, to heal the sick, to speak words of sympathy to the sorrowing and distressed. He placed himself on the altar of service a living sacrifice. If we are truly followers of the great Master Workman, we shall catch his spirit of service. Why are we so unwilling to give ourselves to the work to which he consecrated his life?

God calls upon every church-member to enter his service. As members of the body of Christ, we have pledged ourselves to do this. Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted to others, loses its life-giving power in those who possess it. The continual impulse of the spiritual life is activity. Every child of the kingdom must learn to work, and stand in his lot and place as a burden-bearer. Christ’s example is to inspire us to put forth unceasing and self-sacrificing effort for the good of others, for the salvation of their souls.

The followers of Christ are the light of the world. God does not approve of any self-satisfied endeavor to display superior goodness. He desires that his children shall be imbued with the principles of heaven; then as they come in contact with the world, they will reveal the light that is in them. We are to be distinguished from the world because God has placed his seal upon us. The work that he will accept is the work that reflects his image.

Those who have stood on the heights above the city of Naples tell us that all the sounds arising from that gay and populous city mingle in the upper air as one unbroken minor strain, an indistinguishable moan. “There are voices of traffic and voices of command, the voices of affection and of rebuke, the shouts of sailors and the cries of venders in the streets, and the chatter and laugh of childhood, but they all come into the upper air as a plaintive, heart-rending wail. That is the voice of the world as it reaches the throne of God; that is the cry of the world for help.” Christ, who poured out his soul unto death that the world might be saved, hears this cry, and waits with longing that can not be uttered for his message to be carried to every part of this land of death. Shall we not with loyal hearts say, “Here am I; send me”?

“The restless millions wait That light whose coming maketh all things new; Christ also waits, but men are slow and late. Have we done all we could? Have I? Have you?”