Comfort for the Poor by Joseph Clarke

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 16, 1868

Comfort for the Poor.

By Joseph Clarke

We can breathe the pure air of heaven just as freely as the rich, or quaff the water from the cool spring; our food is just as wholesome, and as well relished, as if it were served upon the costly tables of luxury.

We can improve our minds, and be as intelligent and just as refined, as if we were in the receipt of ten thousand per year.

God is just as ready to hear our prayers, as if we were enabled by millions of golden crowns. We can read our Bibles, can be sanctified by the truth therein contained, and can live it out just as well, with only enough to satisfy our wants, as if we had the mines of California at our disposal.

Parent, you can set just as holy an example before your child, and you can instruct him for Heaven, just as well in your poverty as in any other condition.

Do you think your lot is very hard? Then you have a greater and more striking opportunity for letting your light shine; for greater attainments only constitute fitness for martyrdom. The man who frets and worries, loses his claim to that honor.

Though one may be poor, he may be as patient, as lovely, as honorable, as Christlike, as happy, as fit for translation, as if he possessed his millions.

JOSEPH CLARKE.