Isaiah 58:11, commentary and pictures

The verse promises constant divine guidance and wisdom, inner satisfaction and sustaining care in times of trial and spiritual drought, renewed strength of body and mind, and a flourishing, fruitful life like a watered garden and an unfailing spring of water.
Its blessing is conditional on the fast God has chosen, loosing wickedness and oppression, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless poor, clothing the naked, caring for one's own kin, and satisfying the afflicted soul.
The condition also requires putting away oppression, accusation and evil speaking, humbling the heart before God, consecrating all to His service, and joining unselfish beneficence with obedience to His commandments and honoring the seventh-day Sabbath.
When that work is done, light breaks forth, righteousness goes before, prayer is answered, and doing good brings back guidance, peace, health of soul and body, and unfailing fruitfulness upon the giver.
The promise belongs inseparably to united gospel and medical missionary work for the poor, sick and suffering, which restores God's image, repairs the breach in His law, and makes the refreshed soul a channel of refreshment to others.

Chapter Setting and Rebuke

Isaiah 58:11 belongs to a chapter whose message calls church members to recognize and repent of sin rather than trust in outward religious practices, exposing fasting and worship as empty when joined with pride, injustice, selfishness and oppression. Fasting and prayer alone prove nothing about relationship with God, and cannot prove a right standing when mercy and love for others are neglected, for claimed connection with God is shown by doing works of righteousness for other people. The chapter is reproof and correction in righteousness that plainly marks out the way of the Lord, calling not for mere profession and zeal in a false faith but for practical godliness and Bible religion that does justice and mercy and elevates the purest principles of the kingdom of God. Those who complain they are not blessed while continuing in unbelief and sinful indulgence do not receive blessing because they do not heed God's words.

The chapter is a solemn message of warning, reproof and correction that must be repeated over and over, with both direct warning and encouragement for those who follow God's directions and follow the Lord and the Bible rather than giving priority to worldly pursuits. It is warning and instruction calling for decided, deep and thorough repentance and reformation, pointing out the evil and the remedy for the diseased soul, needed not only among youth but among instructors of the young. Those carrying great responsibilities are urged to study the chapter because they have neglected the Lord's reproofs and duties, for it delineates the case of men who need to repent and humble themselves before God, calling them to recognize their errors and turn back to Him. It calls God's people to purity and holiness, to reject human-made yokes, to put their service in order and do the work He has appointed, and to recognize that they are accountable to God who bought them with His blood.

Part of the chapter was applied to the nation's present condition and the reason for its calamity in the Civil War. The chapter also foretells the work of exposing transgression and giving the last warning message to save a perishing world, a call to arouse and to understand what needs to be done and do it in right lines because time is passing rapidly. That specified work in Isaiah 58:9-13 is to be done by carrying truth into regions beyond where truth is unknown, holding the exceeding sinfulness of sin before the people just as it is as guilt against the Son of God depriving Him of glory instead of cloaking sin as a matter of little consequence, and then showing the uplifted Saviour and teaching that immortality comes only through belief in Christ and receiving Him as a personal Saviour, found in Christ alone.

The chapter vindicates those who walk in the light of God's commands, showing they are not the ones to be maligned and persecuted while those who enforce worship of the beast upon men insult God and face His judgment. It is a profitable chapter to memorize and recall when temptation turns the mind toward earthly and sensual things, for its inspired instructions help restrain the mind and resist temptation with God's word.

Conditions of the True Fast

The promise is conditional on the fast God has chosen, and that fast is practical righteousness: loosing bands of wickedness, undoing heavy burdens, letting the oppressed go free, breaking every yoke, dealing bread to the hungry, bringing the cast-out and homeless poor into the house, covering the naked, not hiding from one's own flesh, drawing out the soul to the hungry and satisfying the afflicted soul. When that work is done, light breaks forth and rises in obscurity, darkness becomes as noonday, health springs forth speedily, righteousness goes before, the glory of the Lord guards behind, and prayer is answered with Here I am. Then continual guidance, satisfaction of soul in drought and hardship, renewed strength of bones, and a fruitful unfailing life like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not are given. This replaces outward ceremony, bodily humiliation for show, and self-seeking with humbling the heart before God, proving the Spirit is working in the heart and bringing sinners to repentance.

The condition requires putting away oppression and the yoke, the pointing finger, accusation, contempt, scornful and vain speech, evil speaking, strife and selfishness, and living no longer shut in with self. Taking away those evils and drawing out the soul in compassion to the hungry and afflicted brings the Lord present at the side to answer prayer and give the very thing the hungry soul wants. Even those in obscurity who pray without finding Jesus receive light, and Christ's words continuing with them keep them from darkness. God Himself stands behind the promise even when faith feels too weak to reach Christ, and victory comes not by human effort but by seeing God behind the promise and believing and trusting Him and taking hold of infinite power by faith, because He is faithful to what He has promised. Together with its context the verse lays down the conditions for receiving God's blessings, understanding His Word, and receiving power from on high, while disobedience works against God and leaves churches without understanding.

The promise belongs to those who relieve oppression and care for the hungry, afflicted, homeless, poor, needy and suffering in general, and who do so unselfishly rather than living self-centered. These works of mercy show genuine connection with Christ. To such the Lord gives continual guidance and direction, sustains and satisfies them in drought, want and times of need, renews and strengthens them, and makes their lives flourish, fruitful and life-giving like a well-watered garden and an unfailing spring that never runs dry. Everyone who trusts in Jesus and drinks the water He gives has within a well springing up to everlasting life.

Beneficence is joined inseparably with obedience, keeping God's commandments and honoring the seventh-day Sabbath as the memorial of creation, and with faith in Jesus Christ as personal Saviour who pardons sins and transgressions, keeps from sin, and leads in His footsteps. That faith works by love and purifies the soul from selfishness, with faith and works combined in loosing wickedness, freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, sheltering the poor, clothing the naked, and not hiding from others. Christ is their righteousness going before them as they follow Him in loving service and compassion for the needy, bringing many from the darkness of error into the light of present truth. Genuine medical missionary work rightly performed in this spirit restores the moral image of God in man and repairs the breach made in His law.

Fasting and prayer accomplish nothing while the heart is estranged from God by a wrong course of action; mere praying and abstinence from food avail nothing without the work of mercy. Before engaging in prayer there must be the closest self-examination to discover sins, with repentance, confession and forsaking of them, deep humility of soul before God, firm humble reliance upon the merits of the blood of Christ alone, yielding of mind, heart and will to God, and careful prayerful investigation of motives and actions. What God requires is heart work, good works springing from a heart filled with love, putting service in order and doing the work He has appointed rather than relying on fasting and prayer alone. Reading and practicing this instruction produces prayers in the Spirit, in love for God with heart and soul and mind and strength and for neighbors as self, bearing evidence of divine inditing and heard and answered, and when His people follow His Word He will guide and sustain them and will not fail to fulfill what He has promised.

Meeting the condition requires consecrating body, soul and spirit to God's service, surrendering to Him in unselfish service for humanity in cooperation with Him, yielding to the Holy Spirit, and laboring together with Christ in self-denying, self-sacrificing service following Christ's pattern, not a life of ease, selfish indulgence, self-care or ministering to self-pleasure. It requires loving justice, receiving a heart of flesh, and not waiting for the needy to come and entreat for help but searching for them and bringing them in, drawing out the soul in sympathy toward them, reaching up with one hand to take hold by faith of the mighty arm that brings salvation while reaching the oppressed with the other hand of love to relieve them. It is impossible to fasten upon the arm of God while the other hand is employed in ministering to self-pleasure, and less self-care with greater benevolence opens the way for the soul to flourish like a watered garden whose waters do not fail. To such consecrated workers He pledges constant direction, provision and inner satisfaction in times of need, renewed physical strength, and continual fruitfulness and refreshment that never runs dry, meaning constant reception of a new endowment of physical, mental and spiritual power with the inexhaustible supplies of heaven at command, Christ imparting the breath of His own Spirit and the life of His own life, and the Holy Spirit putting forth His highest energies to work in heart and mind.

Meaning of Promised Blessings

The Lord shall guide continually means steady divine direction, wisdom and leading at all times, so there is no need to depend on personal judgment alone. When the way is unclear and the course to take is unknown, He gives light, skill and understanding, discernment to recognize righteousness, to reject what He has forbidden and to understand His working, and He resolves perplexities. Angels serve as part of the abundant aid He supplies in difficulty to those who follow the work described in the surrounding verses. The promise stands with God Himself behind it even when faith feels too weak to reach Christ, for victory comes not by human effort but by seeing God behind the promise and believing and trusting Him, taking hold of infinite power by faith because He is faithful to what He has promised. It is fulfilled when His directions are followed, oppression and harmful speech are removed, the hungry and afflicted are cared for, the way of everlasting life is walked, and blessings are used to bless others.

Satisfy the soul in drought means inner satisfaction, provision and sustaining care in hard, dry times of trial, want, famine and need. The drought includes spiritual hunger and dearth of soul, a starving for the Word of God, and He satisfies with what the soul hungers for, giving the very thing wanted, through living connection with God as from a heavenly fountain. When the yoke, the pointing finger, accusation, contempt, scorn and vain speech are taken away and the soul is drawn out in compassion to feed the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul instead of living shut in with self, prayer is answered at once with Here I am, darkness becomes as noonday, and obscurity cannot remain while Christ's words continue. This blessing belongs to the call to return to loyalty and faithfully care for those in need, giving the hungry words of truth and righteousness, the bread of life, and refusing idleness while lifting the falling and carrying a burden for souls. Receiving and living by God's Word continually refreshes and satisfies in this way, its principles reviving, strengthening and encouraging through grace.

Make fat the bones means renewed bodily strength, vigor and health. It means constantly receiving a new endowment of physical, mental and spiritual power, with the inexhaustible supplies of heaven at command. Christ imparts the breath of His own Spirit and the life of His own life, and the Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind in all who consecrate body, soul and spirit to God's service. These promises are to be fulfilled as the Lord works with people in their efforts at reform, while abiding in Christ with Christ abiding within by eating the bread of life brings a healthy, growing experience in individual Christian work that leaves faultfinding behind.

Thou shalt be like a watered garden means a flourishing, fruitful, fresh and beautiful life that does not fail in parching heat. It is like hillsides, plains and river banks that channel mountain streams and are clothed with fresher green, richer trees, abundant flowers and a line of verdure in heat, picturing those who give themselves as a channel for His grace. Kindness to the poor shown in sincerity from pity and love — dealing bread to the hungry, housing the outcast poor, clothing the naked, not hiding from needy kin, without thinking of reward or making a show — does not fail of recompense, because God Himself is the great Reward embracing every other, received and enjoyed only as the giver becomes like Him in character by giving for the service of humanity. No one can open heart and life as a channel for God's blessing to flow to others without receiving a rich reward within, suffering no loss but being repaid a hundredfold. The soul responding to His grace has its spiritual health spring up quickly, its light rise in darkness, the Lord's glory seen in it, and remembering His gifts strengthens faith to receive more, while a holy life in communion with God drawing nourishment from Jesus the living vine exerts a holy influence.

Like a spring of water whose waters fail not means unfailing spiritual life and refreshment through the life-giving grace and water of life from Jesus Christ, received by trusting Him and drinking. It becomes within a well springing up to everlasting life, and when Christ lives within the person is continually refreshed and becomes a source of spiritual refreshment to others, so that those won to Him share in immortal life. His presence in the heart cannot remain hidden but brings a gentle, softening influence to those around, with words and actions pointing others to Him. The heart receiving God's Word is continually supplied like a mountain stream fed by unfailing springs, not losing its store like a pool that evaporates or a broken cistern, but with living supply refreshing the weary, thirsty and heavy-laden. Turning from self-centered brooding over personal ailments to consider others and work in Christ's lines brings this double health of body and spirit, with spiritual sinew and muscle, the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ going before and the glory of the Lord guarding behind.

The images together promise healthfulness of soul and a sunshiny experience to those who put the chapter's rules and principles of love into practice. In working to benefit and bless others a sense of satisfaction is experienced and the Lord creates peace in the soul, which is of more value than gold, with every faithful performance of duty registered in heaven and receiving more than earthly reward, and it is sacred duty owed to God to receive His grace in order to give it to others. Christians eager and hungry to search, compare and meditate upon God's Word and conform life to its principles and promises, and ministers inspired by divine truth whose prayers are earnest and filled with divine assurance, are guided continually and have souls satisfied with truth interwoven with life as a fresh running stream, refreshed and revived by showers of grace, forgetting weariness and toil while basking in sunlight from the heavenly atmosphere, strengthened and encouraged by words of inspiration, and spiritually fruitful with unfailing inner supply. Letting the light of the Sun of Righteousness into the heart and responding by telling the love of Christ and talking of His power makes health spring forth speedily, light rise in obscurity, the glory of the Lord follow as reward, and peace rest upon them, so that they enjoy God's blessing and have a heaven in this world to go to heaven in. Diligent searching of Scripture lets the Spirit speak through it with joy and consolation, making the heart like a watered garden.

Sabbath Law and Restoration

The promise stands joined to building the old waste places and being called the repairer of the breach and the restorer of paths to dwell in. That building and repairing is the repairing of the breach made in God's law by the man of sin, and the lifting up of the trodden-down fourth commandment by keeping the Sabbath holy and raising up the foundations of many generations. It is the work that prepares a people to stand in the breach, to be worked unselfishly in all places with no part of the vineyard neglected, while the most neglected portion calls for the most wide-awake missionaries. The instruction is definite and its fulfillment marked, given as direct warning and encouragement to be repeated over and over, belonging to the last part of Isaiah 58 and calling believers and unbelievers alike. When the chosen fast is kept by loosing wickedness, undoing heavy burdens, freeing the oppressed, breaking every yoke, feeding the hungry, housing the poor, clothing the naked, and putting away contempt and vanity, then continual guidance, satisfaction in drought, renewed strength, and fruitfulness like a watered garden and unfailing spring are given, with God's power resting on the soul in earnest desire for the conversion of souls and with rich blessings reacting back upon those who bless others.

Honoring the seventh-day Sabbath belongs with the promise, for the whole chapter emphasizes the Sabbath as God's memorial. It is the Sabbath of Exodus 31, a sign between God and His people, sealed with the seal of God, and keeping it holy shows recognition of God as the One who created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Those who refrain from labor on the Sabbath and call holy the day God calls holy may claim its divine comforts and consolations, with continual guidance and sustaining care. Those who keep God's commandments and obey what He commands may claim the promises of verses 11-14 and gain knowledge of what constitutes true sanctification. The chapter is present truth and is recommended for teaching the Sabbath, showing that those who keep the Lord's Sabbath carry the responsibility of mercy and benevolence, with medical missionary work and the gospel ministry bound together and the message to be borne earnestly and untiringly lest time pass and people be left unwarned.

The blessing is received by taking up the duties close at hand, turning from the faults condemned in ancient Israel, and turning from wrongdoing to seek the Lord in calm, unwavering trust in Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Consecrating oneself to God bears fruit in right speech and good deeds, like a tree that remains green and fruitful through drought, reflecting the sustaining care in drought that is promised. These blessings are associated with honoring God's ordinances and Sabbath, including faithfulness in tithes and offerings rather than robbing God. Willfully disregarding the Sabbath means losing a blessing God desires to give and separating oneself from God, the source of good.

Sabbathkeepers are to follow Christ's methods, for He came to reveal the Father's heart of tender compassion. Their work, including medical missionary work, is to combine cleansing from all dishonest transaction with compassionate healing, as when the blind and the lame were healed in the temple after its cleansing. God will not be a party to any dishonest transaction. The soul who keeps the Sabbath is stamped with the sign of God's government and must not dishonor this sign.

United Medical and Gospel Work

Isaiah 58 gives wisdom and blessing for doing the will of God, and it clearly sets forth the union that should exist between medical missionary work and the ministry. The two lines are united by God and no one is to divorce or separate them, but they are to be carried on together in right lines. In that united work there is abundant opportunity both to minister to suffering humanity and to be an instrument in bringing the light of truth before a perishing world. When so carried on, the ministry is not given an inferior place and the poor and sick are not neglected.

The verse defines medical missionary work as the unselfish drawing out of the soul to the hungry and satisfying of the afflicted soul, to be done in all places with no part neglected. The most neglected portion of the vineyard needs the most wide-awake missionaries, and those who labor in this way are promised continual divine guidance, satisfaction in time of need, renewed strength, and flourishing like a watered garden and an unfailing spring. That work prepares a people to build the old waste places and to stand in the breach. Its principles are to be visible in conduct and in the care patients receive in sanitariums, including small sanitariums, simple remedies, care for the sick, and service under Christ's direction, with students prepared for that service. Those trained for service are to do justice and uphold truth while caring for people who are despised or rejected, lifting up the oppressed and strengthening the weak so that people may honor and glorify God. Hospitals and sanitariums are to be established to relieve suffering with physical relief and to present the bread of heaven, the Word of the living God, revealing the covenant-keeping God in goodness and tender compassion, with His mercy, love, and benevolence reflected in His representatives. Means are to be given for this good instead of hoarded to the destruction of the soul, for the value of worldly treasure is measured in heaven by the good done with it here, like the breaking of the box of precious ointment whose fragrance fills the whole house for refreshment.

Continual guidance, satisfaction, and unfailing spiritual life like a watered garden are the blessing given at this time when the beneficence enjoined in the chapter is joined inseparably with keeping the commandments, especially the seventh-day Sabbath as the memorial of creation. Genuine medical missionary work rightly performed restores the moral image of God in man, repairs the breach made in His law, and brings rich blessings to the church as the end approaches. Feeding the hungry and helping suffering people are part of Christ's benevolent, life-giving ministry of generous, active care for people in need. That benevolence is to be joined with the third angel's message, not put in its place, giving clear guidance for doing God's will and blessing humanity while keeping the soul's spiritual needs prominent. The promised guidance and renewal accompany relieving oppression and burdens and serving others as part of that message.

Applied to Christ feeding the five thousand, the true fast of loosing wickedness, lifting heavy burdens, freeing the oppressed, breaking every yoke, feeding the hungry, bringing the outcast poor into the house, clothing the naked, not hiding from needy kin, and drawing out the soul to the hungry brings light rising in obscurity with darkness turned to noonday, with continual guidance, satisfaction in need, renewed vigor, and unfailing fruitfulness. That miracle teaches the compassion and interest to be felt for fellow men seeking salvation, as evidence that Jesus is the world's Redeemer with omnipotent power. It makes it Christian duty to make interested efforts so anxious seekers have opportunity to hear the Word of life, to do all possible so the weary and hungry are not neglected or sent away faint, weary, and discouraged, to study the best ways of helping people, to give both physical bread and the bread from heaven for hunger of soul, and to remove everything that makes the way to Christ wearisome, objectionable, and obstructive.

The chapter outlines work for preparing people for the day of the Lord and for His coming, including supporting workers who carry the truth to new places where it has not been heard and helping establish places of worship. All who believe present truth are to labor together with Christ in proclaiming mercy, using entrusted talents for God's glory, treating the world as the vineyard to be cultivated in every city and village and highway near and far, sowing seed in good works that benefit those without the light of present truth, and going forth to all classes with equal care in Christ's righteousness and sanctified lives, free from selfishness and regarding the whole world as the field. The truth as it is in Jesus in all its bearings is to be proclaimed after God's order, with evangelistic labor in all the cities to bring converts and reach all classes including the higher classes. That includes sacred temperance work before the highest authority, to close saloons and end the evil of poisoned liquor that creates madness and bloodshed, and carrying the message of the law of God on the Sabbath question to the whole world, handled in a wise way at camp meetings. Truth is to be publicly proclaimed to crowded congregations, and those who proclaim it in trust in God and patient waiting for Him receive sustaining strength, grace, mercy, and evidence of His presence, with angels sustaining them and the Holy Spirit witnessing to the word, giving clear voice and power even in physical weakness and sickness. The gospel is to be proclaimed and its life-saving principles put into practice through faithful service belonging to everyone, with those unable to serve on a large scale still doing smaller duties and helping individuals, using each entrusted ability for service so that faithful, wise use prepares for greater work and responsibility.

Fervent prayer joined with busy hands and with labor keeps the soul constantly refreshed like a watered garden. Satan does not find ready access to such a praying worker, and the soul is not lifted up unto vanity. Angels delight to be near such souls and their continual presence is encouraged. A power attends the truths published by them, with divine rays of light from the heavenly sanctuary attending the precious truths sent forth, so those who read are refreshed and strengthened and souls opposed to truth are convicted and compelled to say these things are so and cannot be gainsaid.

Those who have means are called to help in the Lord's work and supply the needs of the sanitarium, not to spend all their efforts merely in commercial lines but to lay up treasure beside the throne of God.

Fruit in Life and Service

Unselfish service brings health of soul and body as God's promised reward, with continual guidance, satisfaction in hard times, bodily strength, and unfailing life like a watered garden given for the acceptable service of feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and cast-out poor, clothing the naked, caring for one's own kin, removing oppression and scornful speech, and ministering to the afflicted soul. The consciousness of right-doing is medicine for diseased bodies and minds, and a cheerful mind freed by duty well done uplifts the whole being. The promise is a prescription for chronic spiritual maladies that have reached the physical and mental powers, more useful than drugs, curing dearth of soul by turning money and time from gratifying taste for frivolous things and useless household ornaments into channels that glorify God and relieve the poorly clad, hungry, and homeless. God gives this sure remedy for poor health to those who practice self-denial and liberality toward the needy cause of God instead of spending on personal fancies and self-gratification, who exercise physical powers in simple less expensive ways, and who bind about supposed wants and deny inclination to give means for destitute missions and humble houses of worship for poor new believers whose souls are precious. Such benevolence not only relieves sufferers but brings happiness to the giver and secures health of soul and body as the reward for hearing the word and doing the commandments, not hearing alone.

When that work is done, light breaks forth as morning and rises in obscurity, darkness becomes as noonday, health springs forth, righteousness goes before as Christ's imputed righteousness, the glory of the Lord guards behind, and prayer is answered with Here I am. This blessing is conditional on the chosen fast of loosing wickedness, undoing heavy burdens, freeing the oppressed, breaking every yoke, removing oppression, accusation, contemptuous pointing and unkind or vain speech, feeding the hungry, satisfying the afflicted soul, sheltering the homeless poor, clothing the naked, and not hiding from family need. God gives the very thing the hungry soul wants and stands behind His promise even when faith feels too weak, waiting to bless and answer all who call upon Him and seek Him earnestly. Where this true service and worship in spirit and in truth is given, it is accepted by God and becomes evidence in life and character that makes an impression on the world, lets light shine to hungry souls, and leads to sinners being converted with full purpose of heart in pledge of service with undivided affections to glorify God. Those watchful to bring joy and blessing into the lives of others by drawing out the soul to the hungry and satisfying the afflicted soul receive this rich and abundant promise.

Doing good gives continual guidance, satisfaction, strength and unfailing fruitfulness that reacts back upon the giver, for in working to benefit and bless others a sense of satisfaction is experienced and the Lord creates peace in the soul, which is of more value than gold. It is a sacred duty owed to God to receive His grace in order to give it to others, and every faithful performance of duty stands registered in the books of heaven and receives more than an earthly reward. The Heavenly Father still places in the pathway of His children opportunities that are blessings in disguise, and those who improve these opportunities in time of trial and want by giving sympathy and assistance to others more needy receive continual guidance, satisfaction in need, and unfailing refreshment, for His power is no less now than in the days of Elijah and the promise is no less sure. God Himself spiritually refreshes and sustains those who invest lent means and entrusted talents and riches faithfully and unselfishly for His glory, for the salvation of others, to advance His cause, and for relieving the widow and fatherless, giving continual guidance and inner satisfaction and unfailing spiritual life like a watered garden whose waters do not fail. In so doing they gather rich blessings to themselves, receive gratitude from those helped, and at reaping time will have inexpressible joy in seeing souls gathered as sheaves as the recompense of fidelity, which belongs also to repairing the breach in God's law and raising the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.

The soul thus refreshed refreshes others through joy, peace, love, kindness and glad, inspiring words, drawing people to Jesus rather than repelling them with coldness or reserve, with the love of Jesus welling up like a stream in the desert to refresh all around and win many to the cross. Remembering God's gifts strengthens faith to receive more, and diligent missionary work enlarges understanding of the Word, for ministers who impart knowledge already received instead of going over the same ground gain knowledge by practice as they teach others, searching the Scriptures as diligent students and doing the appointed work with the Holy Spirit close by every worker. The piety and advanced spiritual knowledge and growth of a church is proportionate to the zeal, piety, and missionary intelligence brought into it and carried out of it to be a blessing to those needing assistance most, and when this is done there is increase of moral resources, the church no more remains almost stationary, selfishness that bound souls is overcome, and light is given to the world in clear bright rays with blessing and power attending the labor in living faith and godly example. Those who do the specified work live in Christ and are guided by God's light as they work, receiving daily blessing and cheerfulness even under greatest suffering with a pitying Saviour constantly beside them as help in every need.

The teaching applies to caring directly for the Lord's poor within each church rather than leaving the work to others, including children, youth, widows, orphans, the fatherless, aged believers, burdened mothers, and others in need, with ministers educating families and strengthening the church for this work and other churches assisting when one is overtaxed. Members are to give up luxuries and needless ornaments and deny themselves so the suffering needy may be made comfortable, exercising tact and ingenuity for the Lord's people. This includes enlightening the world and, alongside proclaiming the message, relieving families in distress, giving special help to people who suffer because they courageously accepted the truth and caring for those cast out, and helping Sabbathkeepers who lose work. Its promise of blessing applied to caring for needy children and helping them form characters fit for heaven, placing children in homes, and using talents and means for salvation rather than personal wishes.

The promise assures comfort in discouragement and hope of the soon-coming morning with reviving sunshine and enduring joy in the world to come, with Christ's invitation to come while mercy is heard for a daily living experience. Churches that come into position of working on the right side by helping others and relieving need and taking away the yoke receive continual guidance and blessing and become spiritually flourishing and unfailing in supply, for as believers try to help others the blessing comes upon them, while failure to receive it is being shut in with self. Together with its context it lays down the conditions for receiving God's blessings, understanding His Word, and receiving power from on high, while disobedience works against God and leaves churches without understanding, calling for repentance from half-hearted work and pure unselfish benevolence that represents Christ's character and carries forward His work of reconciling the world to Himself. It speaks of spiritual life and the spirituality of the church as marked by the world, applying to every church giving present truth in the last days while preparing for the courts of God, showing the greatness of the work and responsibilities resting on the church, to neglect no duty and do the plain work required instead of complaining, and to follow the Bible, do justice, lift the oppressed, and make God's Word attractive to children apart from distracting entertainments.