Loyal Workers

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 31, 1913

Loyalty to God is not mere sentiment. It cannot be expressed alone in pleasant platitudes or by mere profession. More than by word of mouth, it is represented in the life. Of this loyalty many believers in this message have given definite assurance. For one to give all to Christ, sacrificing, if need be, position, property, and every personal consideration to give to his fellows the gospel of saving grace, to spend and to be spent, to wear out in such service, to lay his very life upon the altar,—in this kind of experience many connected with this movement are giving evidence of their highest loyalty to God and to his work.

We were impressed with this afresh as we bade good-by last week to Prof. and Mrs. H. R. Salisbury, who sailed for India to devote their lives to gospel work in that great and needy mission field. Brother Salisbury had just been elected by the General Conference as educational secretary for the next quadrennial term. His wife was a teacher and preceptress in the Foreign Mission Seminary. In these lines of educational work there was much to appeal to these workers,—comparatively pleasant environment, agreeable associations, favorable climate, and scores of other considerations which enter into the enjoyment of life among one's personal friends and acquaintances. These were willingly sacrificed, however, to answer the call to labor in a land of heathen darkness, where many conveniences and pleasures will be denied them. In this spirit of devotion they give evidence of their loyalty to God and their love for the souls of their fellows.

On the same boat sailed Dr. and Mrs. H. C. Menkel, returning to continue their work in India, after a furlough of two years made necessary by impaired health in a tropical climate. They, too, placed on the altar of service every worldly prospect, and equally with their traveling companions have given evidence of their loyalty to Christ and their devotion to his service.

But in the exercise of this spirit this company of workers now en route for India are not alone. They belong to a noble class of laborers in the great harvest-field who are daily giving the same evidence of the genuineness of their devotion to duty's call. Workers in every foreign land are doing this, and none the less are workers in the fields at home doing it. Every worker, wherever he may be laboring, in field or office or institution, whatever may be the line of work in which he is engaged, if he has placed all upon the altar, if he has dedicated himself, his plans, his hopes, his purposes to God and to the extension of his work, is surely counted as belonging to this class of loyal workers by the great God of heaven.

And this spirit of loyalty is manifested as well by many who are not actively engaged in regular lines of church work. God counts today no less loyal the brother who in his shop or on his farm is doing the best he can to hold up the light of truth, and who is giving of the fruits of his industry for the support of the gospel. It is by the offerings of these faithful men that our conference workers both at home and abroad are supported.

God counts not one whit less loyal the faithful housewife, the sacrificing mother, who in her own home and in her neighborhood circle is doing the best she can to train her children for God and to let her light shine forth into the hearts of others. The reaping will come by and by. The reward will be bestowed at the close of the day's labor. The Lord of the harvest at that time will deal faithfully and impartially with every one of his true and tried children. Wherever we are today let us prove by our lives our loyalty to Christ and to his blessed gospel.