p. 7 | The Common People

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 24, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 26.

"The Common People."

AFTER all, the common people are the salt of the earth and the hope of the world. They are the dependable element of society—the safe and sane element. They are the multitude, the masses, the rank and file. They live and move and have their being outside of officialdom. The scribes and Pharisees and aristocrats and plutocrats are not found in the ranks of the common people.

The common people heard Christ gladly. They do yet. They have always been hospitable and responsive toward the Gospel. There is something in the Gospel which appeals to them. There is something in them which responds to the Gospel. When you hear of a revival, it is among the common people. The crowds that gather to hear the Gospel are from the common people. The fertile field for evangelism is among the common people. The churches that are throbbing with the spirit of Jesus and glowing with the fires of evangelism are churches of the common people. The common people keep the prayer-meeting and the Sunday-school going. The preachers and missionaries come, mainly, from the ranks of the common people. They are the conservators of orthodoxy. They furnish the constituency of the denominational paper. They are the great working force in the kingdom of God. Thank God for the common people.—Word and Way.