IS THERE ANY NECESSITY FOR A FORWARD MOVEMENT?
A GREAT work must be done, and the Lord will have it accomplished by somebody. At the rate people are dying from tuberculosis in this country, there are ten millions of people in the United States to-day who must finally succumb to this disease, yet three fourths of these are ignorantly inviting tuberculosis by their wrong habits of life. We, as a people to whom God has committed so much light on these questions, are to keep as many of these people alive as possible, yet we have not half sensed our responsibility. We are to repeat John the Baptist’s work. John the Baptist was intensely in earnest. He had an experimental knowledge of what he said, and was thus enabled to stir human hearts to their very depths. He had no time to sit down and grieve over real or imaginary wrongs that some one might have inflicted upon him. Suppose your sister were inside a burning building, and you, finding several of your brethren in a hot dispute over some trivial matter, should earnestly appeal to them to help you rescue your sister from a horrible death; but, instead of immediately coming to her relief, suppose they should quietly tell you that they had abandoned the notion of doing such things; in fact, should remind you that you have not treated them right in the church, and consequently they had decided that from henceforth they would not save people from burning buildings. What would you think of them? And yet, is it a more terrible fate to perish in the flames, which only takes about fifteen seconds, than to spend several years, day and night, coughing the life away with tuberculosis? The chances for saving some of these people from dying with tuberculosis are far greater than are the prospects of saving a human life in the average burning building. What would you think of a man who stood calmly by the water’s edge, watching men and women go down to a watery grave, yet not even reaching down to toss them the life preservers that lay at his feet? Instead, he was busy circulating false reports about some of his brethren, who, with their coats off and their sleeves rolled up, and with looks of despair on their faces, were trying to save a few from the awful wreck. Suppose the feet of the workers do slip occasionally; they are down where it is difficult to stand. The criticizing brethren, who do not even wet their feet in their work, know nothing of the soul agony that is felt by those who comprehend the real situation. The time has fully come to throw life-preserving truths out to perishing and suffering humanity. This opportunity is rapidly slipping from our fingers, and God is inspiring other voices to give the trumpet the certain sound, while we calmly sleep on. If our people everywhere, the moment they learn that some one in their community is breaking down physically, would write to our health institutions and have catalogues sent to the suffering, thousands of lives might be saved. Of course it would cost a penny for a postal card, and two minutes’ time, but it is an opportunity not to be neglected. Have you some real or imaginary grudge laid up against our health institutions which would hinder you from doing this cheerfully? If so, just imagine your brother sinking in the quicksand; you cannot reach him, but you see some one near who has the necessary appliances to rescue him. However, you refuse to allow him this opportunity because you have heard on “good authority” some unfavorable things about him; and so you allow your poor brother to die a lingering death, while you wonder that you do not get more good out of the prayer-meetings. Perhaps you conclude that there ought to be another leader appointed who can “put life into the meeting.” But God is declaring, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” If your neighbors are not able to take advantage of the opportunities afforded at our health institutions, perhaps some of our health literature would contain just the information that they need to help them gain health. However, our health journals do not reach one in ten of the homes of our own people. Some who have not looked inside of a copy for years declare that they do not take any of them because they cannot approve of all there is in them. But while they are waiting for God to raise up men who can edit a perfect health journal, they and the members of their families are being destroyed for lack of the very knowledge that they could secure from these imperfect journals. A few days ago I met one of the most magnificent-looking young men that I ever saw. He said that a few years ago he was a physical wreck, but in some way a copy of Good Health fell into his hands, and he was converted. He persuaded his mother to change her style of cooking, and was finally the means of converting the whole family; while, by taking regular exercise and eating pure food, he attained perfect health. This young man is a student in the70University of Chicago. The truths that God has given him are so sweet and dear to him that he cannot keep them to himself. He has not yet grasped all the truth that some of us have, but who dares say that he has not made good use of what he has? And is his case not better even this day in the eyes of a just God than that of many of our young people who have known these things from childhood, yet regard them lightly, or perhaps hold them in contempt? Yet these same young people expect one of these days to stand where a thousand fall on one side and ten thousand on the other side. We are in the time, thank God, when “a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time.” Isa. 60: 22. God will exalt and give wonderful opportunities.