HOW

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Apr 16, 1901

The King's Messenger

WHAT can be done to really bless? How can we be made a real blessing — the channel through which the Comforter can comfort the hearts and homes of the comfortless in palace or in flat, without having the instrument prominent and unpleasantly seen?

In all our plans we have failed, because there has been too much of us. We have been charitable until the word has become a byword and hissing to those whom we would reach and benefit. We have been patronizing and soft and loving until our words and actions have become disgusting, and Christian charity has caused a nausea and a dislike, so that every one feels that he wants none of it.

How can we elevate, never degrade? How can we develop, never repress, the kindlier feelings, the higher emotions of life? We do not know, we can not tell; our wisdom or experience does not reach. We understand that Jesus, the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, received the Holy Ghost, and became a lowly, humble, meek, and gentle man, who went about doing good, unostentatiously, to the rich and the poor without distinction — healing, comforting, and blessing. His were not deeds of pumped-up charity. His were not pharisaical benefactions. His was the work of the Holy Spirit. The blind see, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the lame walk, the poor have the gospel preached to them.

The Jesus life, the Holy Ghost life, is the only life that wins. Let His life live in you, through you reach others. He only can do this work. You — we — are a failure. Our charity is cold, mean, selfish. His love is pure, true, blessed,— His love, unmixed with your cant or profession,— simple love, sweet, unsordid, unselfish love,— the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit given to us.

How? — Receive Him and let Him overflow. Don't you do it. He will do it naturally; do it effectually; do it and bring glory to himself and grace to others. Don't organize and do it; organizations have small souls. Be great hearts by giving Him place. The Holy Ghost and us is a good company. Work with Him by letting Him work. Everybody needs Him — the wealthy as well as the indigent, the toiler as well as the invalid, the cultured as well as the illiterate.

The Comforter is the need. We simply need to introduce Him, which is a delightful, easy work, and He will do it all, in His own time, and that is now.