WHAT CAN WE DO? by Minnie Embree

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Sep 8, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 36.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

By Minnie Embree

As we read of the work that is being started in Oakland and San Francisco among the needy of those large cities, it makes our hearts rejoice, and we say, “I would like to help,” “If I were there, I would devote some time to the work,” or, “If I were rich I would gladly give a thousand dollars to such a worthy enterprise.” Let us ask ourselves the question, “If I were there, as a worker in the Helping Hand Mission, daily finding persons in need of clothing, persons suffering with the cold, would it not make my heart rejoice to receive a barrel or box of clothing which had been donated by some person or persons who wished to help in the good work?” or, “If I were there, finding so many hungry people, men, women, and children, babies crying for food, would it not gladden my heart should I receive a donation of beans, peas, dried fruit, etc.?”

Have you land? Has God made you the steward of a part of this earth? What do you owe to the poor? The Israelites of old were directed to leave for the poor all the products of their land every seventh year. Ex. 23:10, 11.

What can we do to help in the work of the Helping Hand Mission?—We can think of those who are suffering for food every time we sit down to our bountiful boards, and see if there is not some sacrifice we can make for the sake of the hungry and not injure our own health either. Mothers, when buying and making clothes for your children, leave off the unnecessary trimming, using the money and time to buy goods and make a dress for some poor little shivering child.

Go to your wardrobes and trunks and find the garments which have been outgrown and laid aside. If they are torn, mend them. Maybe you will find garments which some loved one has worn but will never wear again,—garments which you are keeping in memory of one whom death has called away. Keep them no longer, while people are destitute. Get your neighbors to help, and make up a box of clothing and send to the Helping Hand Mission, prepaying the freight. The children can write or print little letters or texts of Scripture to pin to the clothes which they have outgrown and which they send to needy children. They can also plant gardens, sell copies of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES and Youth’s Instructor, and do many other things to earn money with which to help.

If we do all we can, even tho it may not be very much, the Lord Jesus will say to us, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” MINNIE EMBREE.

[Any one who may wish to respond to the foregoing suggestions should send their offerings to the Helping Hand Mission, 641 Commercial Street, San Francisco, Cal.—Ed.]