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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 26, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 4.

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Personal Work

By B. M. Heald

B. M. HEALD
“COMFORT ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem.” Isa. 40:1, 2, A. R. V., margin. No other message given to the human family is so comforting as the threefold message of Revelation 14. An outline of this message is given in Isa. 61:1-3. It is the gospel message that breaks the heart of stone and mends the broken heart; and when the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, we shall hasten to tell the good tidings of the gospel to the hearts of our neighbors, friends, and relatives.
The threefold message of Revelation 14 is the message for this generation. It meets the needs of all classes,—the “meek,” the “broken-hearted,” the “captives,” those who “mourn,”—and it proclaims the “acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God.”
The Holy Ghost, speaking through Isaiah, says that this message is to be spoken “to the heart.” Again, James teaches “that pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” It is, therefore, important to visit the “fatherless and widows,” and those who “mourn” and are “broken-hearted,” as well as to keep unspotted from the world.
This is a visiting message. “Visit your neighbors, and show an interest in the salvation of their souls. Let your cheerful, encouraging words show that you have certainly found the higher way. This is genuine missionary work, and as it is done, many will awake as from a dream.” “Of equal importance with special public efforts is house-to-house work in the homes of the people.”
Personal effort, heart-to-heart work, is effectual in getting men and women to surrender to Christ. To get into the homes and hearts of the people is the work of the messenger. “In large cities there are certain classes that can not be reached by public meetings. These must be searched out, as the shepherd searches for his lost sheep.” For the worker to have power with men, he must have power with God, and then the life of Christ through the messenger will have a telling effect on men. There are hundreds who will see Christ only as they see him in the life of the Christian.
The writer, when in attendance at a council of the Federation of Churches, Nov. 29, 1910, in Philadelphia, was much impressed with the importance of personal work. Dr. McCawley, general secretary of the Church Federation movement, stated that inasmuch as there were five hundred thousand non-church-going persons in Philadelphia, it was necessary that systematic, house-to-house work be done. He emphasized the thought that these people must be reached in their homes. Steps are being taken to enter the home of every resident in the city, searching out the people in a systematic way, ward by ward, street by street, house by house.
The Church Federation organization recognizes the importance of this work. How much more should we, with the light of this glorious gospel message, put forth special effort to meet the people in their homes! “It is not learned, eloquent speakers that are needed now; but humble, Christlike men and women, who have learned from Jesus of Nazareth to be meek and lowly, and who, trusting in his strength, will go forth into the highways and hedges to give the invitation, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’”
Philadelphia, Pa.