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The Work in the Cities

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 8, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 45.

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The Work in the Cities

By M. W. DE LHORBE

M. W. DE LHORBE
“I MUST write something in regard to the way in which our cities in America have been passed by and neglected,—cities in which the truth has not been proclaimed. The message must be given to the thousands of foreigners living in these cities in the home field.
“I can not understand why our people have so little burden to take up the work that the Lord has for years been keeping before me,—the work of giving the message of present truth in the Southern States. Few have felt that upon them rested the responsibility of taking hold of this work.
“Our people have failed to enter new territory, and to work the cities in the South. Over and over again the Lord has presented the needs of this field, without any special results. . . . But the Lord has a controversy with our ministers and people, and I must speak, placing upon them the burden of the Southern work, and of the cities of our land.”
“Let not the fields lying in the shadow of our doors, such as the great cities in our land, be lightly passed over and neglected. These fields are fully as important as any foreign field. God’s encouraging message of mercy should be proclaimed in the cities of America.”
“Men and women living in these cities, are rapidly becoming more and still more entangled in their business relations. They are acting wildly in the erection of buildings whose towers reach high into the heavens. Their minds are filled with schemes and ambitious devisings. . . .”
“The work in the home field is a vital problem just now. The present time is the most favorable opportunity that we shall have to work these fields. In a little while the situation will be much more difficult. . . . Are those who should appreciate the value of souls, carrying, with Christ, a burden of heaviness and constant sorrow, mingled with tears, for the wicked cities of the earth? The destruction of these cities, almost wholly given up to idolatry, is impending.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VIII, pages 30-35.
God’s judgments are now, one after another in quick succession, being visited upon the wicked cities of our world. Since Jan. 1, 1906, about fifty thousand persons have lost their lives by earthquake, fire, and storm. The loss in destruction of property by the same causes, has reached the enormous sum of nearly one billion dollars. These judgments are permitted that those who lightly regard God’s law, trample upon his authority, and spurn his love and goodness, may be led to tremble before his power, and realize their need of a preparation for the kingdom of God so soon to come.
These judgments are also designed to arouse the people of God to action, and lead them to sense the great responsibility resting upon them of warning the inhabitants of these doomed cities to flee from the wrath to come. The Lord is not willing that even one of these poor neglected souls should perish. What answer, then, can we give in the great day of final reckoning, for neglecting to warn these cities now?
Brethren and sisters, we have delayed the finishing of God’s work in the earth and the coming of the Lord many years by our indifference and lack of love and sympathy for those who are perishing in darkness.
“And the angel which I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein, that there should be delay no longer.” Rev. 10: 5, 6, margin, R. V.
And the message was again given through the spirit of prophecy a short time ago, in a Special Testimony: “There shall be delay no longer.” And again, “The work of the Lord shall no longer be delayed by the listless indifference of God’s people.” My brethren, if we do not arouse to action, God will raise up others to take our places in the work. The cities must be worked, and that without delay.
There are millions in our cities who have never heard the truth, and many of them are prepared to receive the message, but no one carries it to them. Among these are the representatives of many nations. O, may God arouse us to see the situation! We must proclaim the message of the soon-coming Saviour to the ends of the earth. A message similar to that given by John the Baptist must be given.
I would be glad to hear from any who are especially interested in city work. If brethren and sisters have copies of the Signs, Watchman, REVIEW, Life and Health, or tracts in their homes that they can spare, I would be glad to have them sent to me at Greenville, S. C., and I will see that they are placed in homes in our Southern cities, where they will be read. These papers and tracts containing present truth must and will be scattered “like the leaves of autumn” in all the cities in our land. Who will engage in this work?
Spartanburg, S. C.