The Lord’s Poor by E. A. A.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 4, 1870

The Lord’s Poor.

By E. A. A.

A SHORT article on “The Lord’s Poor,” in a recent number of the REVIEW, has led one of our readers to send in the following beautiful selection for publication.

There is a beautiful painting of a consoling Christ. Gathered about a figure whose whole attitude and expression indicate divine compassionateness, is a group of afflicted persons.

A mother with bowed and aged form, is weeping over the pallid, upturned face of a dead son. A cured lame man, in the first excitement of his new found strength, is seen leaping and shouting. A woman, pale and emaciated by disease, with lips pressed closely to the hem of his mantle, is lifting her trusting eyes to the Consoler’s face. A father, grasping tightly a ferocious and demoniacal boy, is pressing through the crowd to gain the gracious Healer’s ear. Fair motherly forms, clusters of timid, sweet-faced children, and scores of tottering, wretched, pain-worn, and care-stamped creatures, over whose countenances joy and health is breaking, as the sunshine sometimes flushes the dark and rugged face of storm-clouds, are all eagerly waiting to receive the blessings which are falling from the uplifted hands of the consoling Christ.

But there is one gift which fails to be represented. No earthly possessions, or human honors are being conferred upon that company. The humble bearing and the mean array of the Consoler speak too plainly of his inability to bestow worldly treasures. He stands there to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to comfort the distressed, to bless the little ones, to loose the prisoner from the demon’s grasp, and free the sinner from his bands of sin,—but his only answer to the ambitious supplicant who seeks pre-eminence for her children, is the reproving word, “Ye shall drink of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but for whom is it prepared of my Father.” Matt. 20: 23.

It is worthy of note, that the only two occasions on which our Lord refused to grant the blessings which fallen humanity besought at his hand, were when ambition and avarice presented their pleas. At all other times his benevolent heart responded to the needs of the hungry, the griefs of the distressed, the yearnings of the weary, and the weaknesses of the tender.

From those days when the consoling Christ walked the earth forgiving sin and dispensing comfort, until the present hour, the followers of Jesus have ever been more familiar with poverty, than they have with wealth. And the brightest examples of patient, trusting humanity, have always been found in lowly dwellings, amidst poverty and obscurity. Of that great company of worthy ones “who, through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, and obtained promises,” it is written, “They wandered about in sheepskins, and goatskins, being destitute.” Yet this suffering of poverty in the Christian has always had a peculiar dignity and luster. It has been the privilege of their calling, and the foundation for their rejoicing.

“Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him.” Nor have they been called to bear the sorrows of such an inheritance alone. They but follow Him who was cradled by poverty, nurtured by toil, and buried by charity. “How can she feel for me, when she has never been through what I have?” said a poor woman of a rich one. But of Christ we can say, “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be made rich.” We best love those who understand our needs; so Jesus stooped down to our condition, and took our poverty that he might shew there was sympathy in Heaven, and might bridge over the distance between our wretchedness and the Father’s wealth.

Courage, then, ye children of want! While the Bible abounds in promises for the poor, it contains only threats and cautions for the rich. Yours is the poverty which maketh many rich. “Do not be surprised, brother,” said a wealthy lady to a fashionable young man who found a humble clad woman in his elegant parlour; “This is a king’s daughter, but she has not on her fine clothes.”

Soon the days of suffering will be over. God will not “forget the congregation of his poor forever.” They shall yet be satisfied with the fatness of his house. Foot-sore and weary, with sad hearts and toil-worn faces, in soiled and mean apparel, beneath burning suns or chilling frosts, we now travel the rounds of urgent duty or of needful labor, while the rich, full of leisure, in their gay equipages and costly raiment, with their bright faces and careless hearts, in scorn, pass us by. But a time of dreadful change approaches; and I shed more tears for them than for myself as I think of it. You who have followed the Lamb in his lowly ways, esteeming his reproach greater riches than the world’s treasures, shall then “hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on you, nor any heat.” But the day which brings refreshment and plenty to you, shall bring wretchedness and desolation to those “who have been rich and lived in wantonness on the earth.” Blessed poor! happy sharers in Christ’s humiliation! forget your woes, and your wants, and with some of your Lord’s yearning for the lost, pity and pray for the rich.—E. A. A.