A Double Opportunity by I. H. Evans

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Apr 1, 1909

A Double Opportunity

By I. H. Evans

SABBATH, April 3, is the time for our regular annual offering in behalf of the orphans and needy poor among us as a people. For many years the first Sabbath in April has been set apart as the time when an offering is taken for this great and needy work. There is much scripture in evidence urging the church to carefully help the poor in their midst. It was the Master who said, “Ye have the poor always with you.” To ancient Israel were promised rich blessings in return for their kindness to the poor and needy. Again and again Israel was charged to be kind to the poor. The prophet Isaiah, who so forcibly set forth the mission of Christ to the earth, wrote:—

“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”

From the world’s standpoint, organized charity is more helpful to the receiver than indiscriminate giving. Many reasons contribute to this result. Among Christian people, all of whom are serving the same God and trying to attain to eternal life, these conditions may not always hold. Seldom are Seventh-day Adventists imposed upon by those appealing for charity when the person is in good and regular standing in some Seventh-day Adventist church. There are many cases in conferences and union conferences requiring financial help to tide the poor over a crisis, or to assist the needy in their declining years. This charity should not be doled out with a stingy hand, as a charity begrudged, but should be given heartily, as unto the Lord. Our orphans and aged people must be cared for. Every union and local conference is under obligations to see that the needy ones among us are supplied with the necessities of life. Some of the most needy cases are those for whom it is difficult to find a private home. For this reason, oftentimes, ready money must be available to provide accommodations for those who otherwise would be thrown upon public charity.

An additional incentive to a liberal donation this year has been suggested in the plan for each union and local conference to appropriate twenty-five per cent of the total receipts from this donation for use in the erection of an orphanage for colored children at Huntsville. The desire is that our offering shall be so increased that the giving of twenty-five per cent will not lessen the amount that our conferences will have for their local use. That there are many orphans and aged people among the colored population in the South is a self-evident fact. The conditions of life imposed upon these needy people, the poverty which surrounds them from early childhood to the grave, the lack of opportunities for the acquirement of property, and the prejudice existing against them, as a people, should stir our hearts to liberality in their behalf. Having this great privilege of doing a double good, we should rise to the opportunity, and make a liberal offering. It would be most encouraging could a sufficiently large donation be made so that twenty-five per cent of it would complete the orphanage already started, and thus care for at least a few of the many colored children who would otherwise have to be supplied with charity from the world. If each member of every church will plan to make a donation to this fund on Sabbath, April 3, our brethren will experience no lack in completing their

orphanage at Huntsville, Ala., while the treasuries of our union and local conferences will not be empty. Surely we are all grateful for the opportunity of having a part in this noble, Christlike work.

I. H. EVANS.