Life's Most Precious Privilege
By E. R. Palmer
The call to service of which we have recently been talking so much, is more than an organized movement in order to get the people to work. It is a distinct call from God to his people, and means everything to us. Salvation is a personal work. You cannot elect officers who will perform the work and secure your salvation, who will be saved for the church, and the church be saved through them. Salvation means the individual taking God and getting right before him. I was present a few months ago at a large missionary meeting in Melbourne, Australia. Hudson Taylor was present with his wife, his son, and his son's wife, all missionaries from Central China. The son's wife came forward before that great congregation,—a beautiful woman, with her soul in her face. She said that her friends had spoken of her burying herself in Central China. Then stretching out her hands, she said: “Life holds no privilege so precious as to give itself in behalf of the lost.”6 I think that is the most wonderful expression of self-sacrifice I ever heard. The words thrilled through me, because it was so evident that it was a complete gift. This is the high privilege of every child of God. Therefore our work, our service, should be as wide as salvation is. Our personal service is surely an index to our salvation and our life; for the soul that has been won, separated from the world, and given itself without reserve to the Master, must express itself in this great gift of itself in service. I believe God is calling our attention to this great principle in order that he may enlist us all in some department of this great work. There is something for every one to do. There is the book canvassing work, the sale of our periodicals, the tract and missionary work, and various other branches. “Come; for all things are now ready.”