p. 2 | Starved into the Work

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 27, 1916

Starved into the Work

Less than a year ago the REVIEW received a letter from a brother who was blessed with a large family and harassed with many expenses. But after carefully studying all the circumstances associated with his affairs, he was constrained to admit that his embarrassing situation was providential. He believed the Lord was starving him into the work of giving the message. Those in charge of the REVIEW believed his conclusions were well founded, and wrote him the following letter:—

“We have thought carefully upon your statement concerning your being ‘starved into the work.’ If that is what the Lord is working out in your case, you may be sure you are not the only believer who has been in this way yoked up with the workers in giving the message. We have remembrance of a large number of our members who have been thus dealt with by the Lord. We say ‘by the Lord,’ because everything connected with these other cases indicated that the circumstances clustering about these individuals were providential. There could not have been any other overruling power.

“We sincerely hope you will not be hard to starve into a good work like giving the message for this day and age. In reality, every Seventh-day Adventist ought to be, in some way, connected with the work of the message. We have quite a large number of avenues through which our members can work at the present time, and when all others are closed, one of the very best is always open. That is the preaching of the message in the most effective way possible through the circulation of our literature. While this method, we admit, does not have so many attractions as other lines of work, neither are the best efforts of men put forth in this world surrounded by the flowers of life.

“Some of the best and most important work men are called to do in the world requires the individual undertaking it to pass over mountains, through hedges of thorns and meadows of thistles. It is not always by the rose-lined paths of life that the greatest opportunities lie. If we will remember this, and will lay our hands upon the first thing that comes to us, we shall be following the opening providences of the Almighty, who will finally settle our destinies, choose our vocations unerringly, and place us where we are best fitted to accomplish the greatest amount of good.

“We hope that you will surrender easily, and that you will soon find yourself in the work—in the place selected by Him who makes no errors in connection with the placing of a laborer.”

Under date of April 9, 1916, the REVIEW received a letter from this brother, in which he stated that through the reading of the REVIEW he found the help that enabled him to quit farming and enter the colporteur work. He is not starving now, physically, mentally, or spiritually. He is prospering, and is helping lead others who are having a hard time to get along, to cast about for evidences of providential guidance.

The REVIEW may be as valuable to all our members as it was and is to this one whom it encouraged to enter the work. It will be worth to the conference all the time and effort bestowed upon it. A laborer visiting a church may devote an entire meeting to getting the REVIEW in the homes of all the members of that church, and for that one hour’s time the REVIEW pays back fifty-two weeks of hours in continuous, effective work for each member of the church. Through the REVIEW the workers of a conference may multiply their personal efforts by the number of members in their conferences.