Your ShelfYour Projects

Inasmuch

13%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 13, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 3.

Read the full edition

Inasmuch

By Mrs. D. A. Fitch

MRS. D. A. FITCH
As I read the urgent appeal of Sister Burroway for a school costing only $1,000, my heart was touched, and I exclaimed, “I wish I could live without eating, and the money expended for my food could go to help build this school.” Then this thought ran through my mind: If the more than seventy thousand Seventh-day Adventists in the North American Division Conference would each deny himself one luxury that costs ten cents, and the means thus saved were to be put into the proper channel, more than one such school could be built.
Leaving out of the question those who are not expending money needlessly (and there are some), we should still soon have enough to build such a school as Sister Burroway desires, where children could be taught of the Saviour, and saved for his kingdom.
Some who read this department might be just as well off with a few cents’ worth less of ribbon, lace, and other unnecessary trimmings. Care in the preservation of things already in possession might help out considerably. While shabby or uncomfortable attire is not to be advised or recommended, yet when love of others is the actuating motive, there is a blessing in retrenchment. In articles of diet much more is expended than is good for us or the missionary basket. Soft drinks, ice cream, cake, gum, candy, and the like, now much used by our people, are not essential to our well-being. Pure water is much to be preferred to the questionable drinks from the soda fountain.
Should one estimate the difference between the expense of a loaf of cake and one of bread, he would readily see that to eat the bread and do without the cakewould result in the saving of several cents that might be used in soul-saving work, and he would be the better, both spiritually and physically, because of the self-denial. The plan of salvation was laid in sacrifice.
Those associated with Nehemiah said, “Let us rise up and build.” They strengthened their hands for the good work, and so may we if we will practice. And let us never forget that self-denial for others is not a penalty but a privilege, not a hardship but a happiness, not a judgment but a joy.
Santurce, Porto Rico.