THE POOR by Daniel H. Kress

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 20, 1900

THE POOR.

By Daniel H. Kress

D. H. KRESS, M. D.

While delivering lectures recently at Belfast, Ireland, my attention was called to the extreme poverty that exists there. I do not know that I have ever visited a city where more street meetings were held by well-meaning and devoted Christian workers. As I watched their methods of work, and studied the condition and needs of the people, I was fully convinced that these efforts alone will accomplish little good. The results of the work also testify to the fact that little headway is made.

At one time the Saviour was surrounded with a multitude of hungry people, who had been without food for some time. The disciples, no doubt, were in favor of having a good meeting, and of hearing the impressive and wonderful words as they fell from the lips of him of whom it is said, “Never man spake like this man.” Christ viewed matters differently. He saw before him a people upon whose faces he could trace evidences of hunger. He knew something of the pangs of hunger himself, and was able to sympathize with the people. He understood the craving of their nerves; he was acquainted with their needs. To his surprised disciples, who had only been thinking of having meetings, he said, “Give ye them to eat.”

It was food the people needed, not a discourse; and God supplied their needs by Christ Jesus. Many of the poor of our large cities are in the very condition that these people were in. Eating buns made out of white flour; the little nutriment the flour contained destroyed by fermentation; drinking tea, etc., has caused an impoverished condition of the whole system, shown by the decayed teeth, etc. In fact, we can not look upon their countenances without observing evidences of poor nutrition. Their hungry nerves are crying out for food, but in their ignorance they stupefy the nerves, or satisfy this craving, by drinking whisky, using tea, tobacco, or opiates of various kinds. There is no doubt in my mind that real hunger is the cause of more drunkenness than any other one thing. The nerves are in this way paralyzed, the craving ceases, and the persons imagine that they are fed. They are spending the little they are able to earn or steal for that which is not bread.

What do these people need? is it street meetings, or wholesome, nourishing food? It seems to me that if Christ were here, he would say to his followers to-day, “Give ye them to eat”—supply their needs. I do not mean to convey the idea that we should in a wholesale manner supply them with food, and thus encourage idleness, which is responsible for all kinds of iniquity. They, at least most of them, are able to pay for their food; for do they not manage to buy whisky and tobacco? But we can plan to supply them with wholesome foods—food that contains the requisite elements to supply the needs of their systems. In this way we may carry out the command, “Deal thy bread [the nourishing and cheap food to which God has called our attention] to the hungry.” The promise is, “Then shall thy health spring forth speedily,” etc. Small shops could be opened up, where the poor may come to buy foods already prepared from beans, peas, lentils, and the various grains. Many of these persons do not know how to prepare foods, nor do they understand the need of knowing. So they must at first be supplied with foods already prepared, and taught afterward. Equal parts of rice and beans, with the addition of peanut butter, may be baked, or boiled in tin cans under pressure by closing the cans tightly. After opening the cans, this may be cut into thin slices, and sold at a small price. Such food is as wholesome as the more expensive nut products. This is merely suggestive. Innumerable healthful combinations may be made of these wholesome, non-stimulating, and satisfying products of the earth.

Shall we not begin to plan for the poor, and develop means and ways of supplying their needs? When their needs are once supplied, their nerves will cease to cry out for food; and when this craving ceases, the whisky habit, tobacco habit, etc., will not be so difficult to overcome. When clothed and in their right minds, they may be reasoned with, and taught the way of life more perfectly.