Is It I? by E. J. Harvey

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Mar 16, 1905

“Is It I?”

By E. J. Harvey

E. J. HARVEY

IN Matt. 14:14-21 and John 6:5-12 we read the intensely interesting account of the feeding of many thousands of people with the few loaves and fishes supplied by a little lad. Truly it was wonderful how so many thousands of hungry men, women, and children could be fed, and still twelve basketfuls be gathered up of the fragments of the five barley loaves and two small fishes. What a lesson we have in this miracle! Jesus commanded his disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” Surely it is sinful to waste any food, even the fragments of plain food, to say nothing of the extravagant outlay on the part of many for luxuries and dainties. Shall we not follow Daniel’s example, resolving in our hearts, by God’s grace to carry out that purpose not to defile ourselves? “Dare to be a Daniel.” Now is the time for us to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;” for we are pilgrims and strangers in this world.

Think, too, of the millions of starving men, women, and children who might be fed if we would deny ourselves, and would make every effort in our power to supply their need even for plain food. We are living in the last days, of which our Saviour said, “As it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Pride, fulness of bread, abundance of idleness, and neglect of the poor and needy, brought destruction. They were, as people are now, “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” God bids us awake.

What I desire especially to call the attention of our people to at this time is a matter of still greater importance. It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Are we withholding the word of God from our fellow men? In the Pacific Union Recorder of Sept. 29, 1904, are these words from the spirit of prophecy: “The message of Revelation 14 is the message that we are to bear to the world. It is the bread of life for these last days. Millions of human beings are perishing in ignorance and iniquity. But, many of those to whom God has committed the stores of life look upon these souls with indifference. Many forget that to them has been entrusted the bread of life for those starving for salvation.”

The paper containing the words that I have just quoted had been thrown away, and I found it afterward. How many times we see papers that contain the message for this time, even the bread of life for perishing souls, torn and thrown away, wasted wantonly. Let me appeal to my dear brethren and sisters who love the truth for these last days, and the souls who are to be warned, and some of them saved, by reading and obeying the very message contained in our periodicals: O, do not waste these precious leaves, but rather, if you can not find time to experience the joy of handing them out with a pleasant word, to those within your reach, send them, post-paid, to those who are calling for them through the REVIEW, and share in the joy of seeing souls thus saved in the kingdom.