The Missionary's Pattern
By Mrs. E. G. White
"Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth." There is need for every soul to study the Pattern, Christ Jesus. Those who follow His methods of labor will have freedom in utterance and earnestness in manner. They will be inspired by the sacred themes of truth. Christ understood the needs of all classes, and was successful in preaching the gospel to the poor. He understood all their temptations. We need to study methods whereby we may preach the gospel to the poor and downtrodden and degraded of humanity. But let no one think that God will approve of a method which will require a man to act the part of a clown, or like a man who has lost his senses. Such methods as these are wholly unnecessary and inappropriate. Take your text from the Word of God, and make use of the scenes of nature, and of events and objects about you, to make the meaning plain, and find your way to the hearts of the people, and angels of God will make a personal application of the truth to the hearts of those who are ignorant. You need not be formal or mechanical. You need not depend upon notes, neither need you be rough and uncouth, and use coarse language and slang expressions, thinking that in this way you will reach the uneducated classes. Look at the manner in which Jesus addressed the poor. His language was pure, but it was simplicity itself, and through the imagination and the heart He reached the hearts of the people. Boisterous gesticulation, jumping up and down, and pounding on the desk, is not after the order of Christ, and the good that has been accomplished has not been on account of these things, but in spite of them. Personal labor is far more effective than is preaching, and yet this essential feature of the work has been strangely neglected. The ministers of different denominations do little personal labor; but we should not wait for needy souls to come to us. We should go forth to seek and to save that which is lost. We should seek individual intercourse with the wealthy as well as with the poor; for generally the rich are poorer in spiritual knowledge and experience than are the poor. The sermons that they hear do not touch them, and laborers are needed who will dare not only to seek out the jewels from among the low and degraded, but who will also go to the rich, and bring to them a knowledge of the Word of the Lord. There are some who have had a knowledge of the Word of God who have once been in high position, but have become poor through misfortune and failure, and are obliged to occupy a position among the very poor. In circumstances of this kind some are seeking to keep alive the feeble flame that they have kindled at the divine altar. There are also souls who, through intemperance, have been brought very low, who are in misery hardly to be conceived of by those who have never acted the part of a true missionary. There are souls in the strongholds of sin who have nothing to give them a ray of hope, or inspire in them a spark of courage that they may live a better life. O, that all who claim to be Christians might have a view of the misery, the destitution, of those who are low down in the scale of humanity, and might realize at the same time that these are souls for whom Christ died! God understands every wo. His heart is touched with human wo and sorrow, and it is time that all Christians should wear His yoke, and work in His line, identifying themselves with human sympathy in the way in which He identified Himself with our fallen race. Whatever may be your office, your position, your wealth, if you are a laborer together with Christ, you will seek out the needy and the distressed, the bereaved and afflicted, and will make their interests your own. You will possess the spirit of self-sacrifice and self-denial which led Jesus to yield up His life as a sacrifice for man on Calvary's cross. You will carry forward His work, and walk in His footsteps, and will look upon all as the purchase of the blood of the Son of God. Jesus died for every son and daughter of Adam, that "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The love of Christ in the heart will be manifested in unselfish missionary labor, and will be more mighty to deal with the evil-doer than will the sword and the courts of justice. These are necessary to strike terror to the heart of the law-breaker, but the loving missionary can do more than this. The medical missionary can take up his appointed work, and relieve not only the physical maladies, but, through the grace and love of Christ, can lead the sinner to the great Physician, who can heal the soul of its leprosy of sin. However much we may deserve rebuke, the heart will harden under reproof; but it will melt under the love of Christ. It is to manifest His love to the fallen that Jesus has enlisted every follower of His, that the transgressor may be brought back to allegiance to God. Jesus accepts all who will give themselves to His service, who will cooperate with heavenly agencies, as they seek to restore the moral image of God in man. The work we are given is to bid the sinner hope in God, and not feel that he is an outcast in the world, a discouraged, desperate sufferer, but that he is a prisoner of hope. Let your words to him be, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Present before him a love that can not be measured, and bring the lost back to faith in God. He who is actuated by the love of Jesus will see in every soul, whether rich or poor, a value that can not be computed, in comparison with which the world sinks into insignificance. O, the love that God has revealed for the soul is infinite, beyond estimation! He who is a partaker of the divine nature will love as Christ loved; he will work as Christ worked, and will manifest sympathy and compassion. He will not fail nor be discouraged. This love can exist and be kept pure and refined and elevated only by continual communion with Jesus Christ. All coldness and hardness of heart will pass away from those who come into the sunshine of Christ's presence; and those who abide in Him, and let Him abide in them, will naturally, willingly, obey His injunction, "Love one another as I have loved you."