p. 10 | Personal Work

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · May 3, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 18.

Personal Work.

In a recent sermon, Rev. J. B. Silcox, of Sacramento, Cal., gave the following timely advice to his hearers:—

“If you want to follow Jesus, do this: Single out some one family, one individual, one outcast, and by personal sympathy and service care for and save that one. Quit talking about saving the masses, and focus your energies and interest on some one needy soul. Go after the one lost sheep. Seek diligently for the one lost coin. Welcome home the one lost prodigal. Take some blind man by the hand and guide him. Take some weak sister by the hand and strengthen her. . . . If this world is ever to be redeemed from ignorance to intelligence, from vice to virtue, from sin to holiness, it must be done in the way Jesus began. The high must minister to the low; the strong must carry the weak. There must be personal interest, personal sympathy, personal service. When a woman asked Carlyle how she might serve humanity, the wise old sage said to her, ‘Hunt up some lonely, neglected Scotch lassie and be kind to her.’

“To be a Christian as Jesus taught it means that those who are high shall minister to those who are low. The lower a man is and the greater his need, the greater is his claim. His need is his claim.

“In proportion as God has blessed you with wealth or culture or strength, to that degree He requires you to serve your fellow-men. Those who have most are to serve most. Ability determines responsibility. Rank imposes obligation. The higher you rise in wealth and wisdom, the greater is your obligation to serve those below you. Christianity is not separation. It is impartation. Man’s rank in the kingdom of God is his power to benefit and uplift humanity. The genius that distributes wealth is higher and diviner than the genius that accumulates it. The prayer, ‘Lord, use me,’ ought to be on our lips oftener than any other.”