Finish the Work

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Feb 25, 1904

THE forgiveness of sin and the payment of debt are closely related. When the sins are forgiven, restoration, the paying back to every man his due, naturally follows. Truly he who takes our sins, and helps us to live above sin, can enable us to pay our debts, and to live above debt. The institutions of the great message we bear ought not to be built over yawning chasms of debt. These debts will all be paid before the Lord can come to judgment, and we shall learn how to build and establish our work without debt. Every one who reads this paper knows this to be the truth.

The great changes made during the past year mean much. One thing is clear—the day, the hour, to release the oppressed, to break every yoke, has come. It is time we began to obey the divine command, “Owe no man anything, but to love one another.” O, he is able to break the shackles alike of sin and of debt! Do you know that if the Lord’s people will follow the Lord’s plan, our schools, publishing houses, and sanitariums, and we ourselves, will soon be free from sin and from debt? Free in the Lord! Glorious liberty of the sons of God! Is it possible? you ask. Possible?—Yes, certainly, if we follow the directions God has given. The work of selling “Christ’s Object Lessons” perseveringly, persistently carried out, will clear every school in our ranks from all the blight of debt. Are there not those who will at once take up this blessed work anew? Write your tract society secretary for a supply of this most excellent and easy selling book. Continue, persevere, finish the work. Can our people expect God’s blessing if this work is left unfinished? Will not the president of every conference encourage every member to continue this work, and will not the president of every conference furnish to his union conference president a statement as to the exact condition of this work in his territory, that the union conference president may be able to send me at once a complete statement of this work up to the present date, that I may be able to publish through the REVIEW the exact situation through all this country?

O, let us finish the work! You can help. A recent Testimony reads as follows:—

My brethren and sisters, why is so little being done to sell “Object Lessons”? Have you become weary in well-doing? Have all the families in your neighborhood been supplied with the book that is so full of helpful lessons both for parents and for children? Are there not some who did not buy a book last year that would buy one now? Why should we not go steadily forward with this work, until millions of homes have been supplied with “Object Lessons,” and our schools are freed from debt? . . . All will receive grace for grace, as they give what they can in time and influence, to the circulation of “Object Lessons.” J. S. WASHBURN, Secretary of Committee for Relief of Schools.