Isaiah 58:9, commentary and pictures

God pledges that when His people call and cry He will answer without delay by drawing near and declaring His presence and help. That answer is conditional on taking away oppression and imposed burdens, scornful accusing pointing with harsh condemning words, and empty false proud speech, and on keeping the true fast of mercy to the hungry and afflicted. Belief must become doing, with one hand taking hold of God while the other relieves the needy, feeds the hungry, houses the homeless, clothes the naked, and breaks every yoke. When those conditions are met light breaks forth, health springs up, righteousness goes before, divine glory guards behind, and God guides continually and satisfies like a watered garden. The same work joins mercy to the final message by repairing the breach, honoring the Sabbath as delight, and proclaiming truth while serving suffering humanity.

Words and Historical Setting

The yoke to be taken away is oppression and burdens imposed on others, including censuring and reproaching people in hardship with unfeeling words and actions, quarreling and disputes, unjust agreements and binding contracts and confederacies that become bondage, misuse of authority, and human-made yokes that keep servants from following light when God alone is to guide His work and His property. The putting forth of the finger is scornful, accusing and contemptuous pointing, with harsh condemning words, mockery and sarcasm, refusing to become a judge of a fellow man brought into straight places, to accuse him of mistakes, reproach his course and pass sentence upon him while exalting superior wisdom, and refusing to press the afflicted soul whom Satan seeks to dishearten, discourage and destroy. Speaking vanity is empty, false, proud and self-exalting speech, criticism that magnifies others' faults, scolding and fretting and exercising arbitrary authority over souls, working for praise, and self-pleasing comparisons that bruise others, with faultfinding itself being sin to be replaced by improving oneself. These wrongs are not small but are weighed in judgment, offend God, violate love of neighbor, discourage workers, trample the law and tread underfoot a plain Thus saith the Lord, and must be put away by humility, gentleness, not exalting self or claiming superior wisdom, abiding in Christ, returning to loyalty, receiving advanced truth involving self-denial, and keeping His commandments.

The passage describes a people who have forsaken and forgotten God, chosen other gods and followed corrupt ways, broken the everlasting covenant, trampled His law and despised His Sabbath, so that God has turned from them. It exposes the condition of the United States during the Civil War as a most unrighteous war brought by forgetting God and breaking that covenant, with calamity coming for that reason. The fourth commandment is a golden link designed as a bond of union uniting man to man and connecting earth to heaven and finite man to the infinite God, which the man of sin exalted above God and sought to break but could not, and which will continue as long as the new heavens and earth remain. Because of this national disobedience Sabbathkeepers could not expect God to go before armies to give victory as He did for ancient Israel when consecrated ones bore the ark containing the ten precepts and angels fought with them, and must not engage in that terrible war while the desolating power of God is upon the earth to rend and destroy with sword, famine and pestilence. The chapter is also cited to show that those who walk in the light of God's commands are the ones being maligned and persecuted, not those who enforce false worship.

The chapter is a trumpet call to show God's people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins, to be read entire and considered in the present time, enjoining upon every soul receiving Bible truth enthroned in the heart as the only power keeping the heart with all diligence against Satan's deceivableness of unrighteousness and unrighteous action by judges and rulers. It is a message of reproof and correction in righteousness that plainly marks out the way of the Lord, calls for decided, deep and thorough repentance and reformation not only among young people but among instructors of the young, and exposes sin as guilt against the Son of God rather than treating it as small. It rebukes mere profession and zeal in a false faith and outward exactness while persisting in sin, calling instead for practical godliness and Bible religion, doing justice and mercy and ever elevating the purest principles of the kingdom of God. It calls erring churches that broke the law back through confession and obedience as the basis of peace, applies to those who oppose warnings and need to humble themselves before God, and warns against soothing people with claims of peace when they are turning away from God.

Promise of Answered Prayer

Then the one who calls is answered by the Lord, and the one who cries hears Him say, Here I am, in declared nearness and presence and help. The answer is conditional on taking away from the midst the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity, and on practicing the true fast of mercy to the hungry and afflicted. When those conditions are met God hears without delay or silence, and the promise may be claimed in prayer.

The answer is certain because it comes from One who never makes a mistake, whose treasure-house is full and never exhausted and whose abundant grace provides what is needed. He is close beside the caller, with His eye constantly upon comings and goings, answering even while speaking, so there is no need to send far for counsel but to tell everything to Him, praise Him, and let others know prayers are answered. He answers the sincere cry of the oppressed and downtrodden to uplift and deliver in temptation and trial, reveals Himself as present help especially amid last-days perils, and offers personal direct communion through watchful prayer to all who see their need.

God allows matters to come to crisis so that in extremity His people look to Him alone, and He reserves interposition until human wisdom fails so deliverance is marked and He receives glory even before enemies. When workers face perplexity, lions in the way, and problems that cannot be settled, they are to go forward in faith, call and move rather than fold the hands, and He goes before as righteousness, light and truth, giving skill, bearing the whole burden, forgiving mistakes, giving wisdom, and turning captivity. He sends trial to humble and lead through affliction to see weakness and draw near, bears long with impenitence, and graciously receives those who turn.

Fasting and prayer accomplish nothing while the heart is estranged by a wrong course, and to answer such prayers would prove ruin. Before praying for the afflicted, especially where Satan controls the mind, there must be close self-examination, repentance, confession and forsaking of sin, deep humility, and reliance on Christ's blood alone, with heart work and good works from love. The promise belongs to humble contrite hearts, to those who come as little children in new-birth conversion as on the Day of Atonement, when God by the Spirit strips self-righteousness and hardness and reveals Christ's life. It requires yielding mind, heart and will, honoring the holy law, lifting the voice against sin, and turning from half-hearted work and inward wickedness joined to high profession.

Those who surrender body, soul and spirit in unselfish service, work on the right side to help others, and consecrate themselves as impartial witnesses receive immediate answer and the inexhaustible supplies of heaven with new physical, mental and spiritual power by Christ's Spirit. When prayers seem unanswered the remedy is to relieve necessities around and work for the oppressed. Those who stop brooding over ailments and consider others find Christ at their side giving what the soul hungers for and asking what He can do. The sick who stop requiring sympathy, cast weakness upon Christ, open to His love, lighten others' trials, and aim to bless receive the Here I am.

The promise belongs to obedient children and to parents who instruct children at home in the Word, train them in obedience, kindness and love, study the instruction in the home, and carry out God's will, a work concerning eternal life that joins heaven to earth. Breaking every yoke is home missionary work that prepares children and an army for foreign fields to restore God's moral image. Christ invites sinners to come while mercy is heard, to draw nigh daily so He draws nigh with light and life, entering by meekness and sanctification where the discouraged find an open door and assurance He will be found.

In a specific need for a meetinghouse, His ear is open to earnest prayer to open the way, calling for saying little to others, telling everything to the Lord, and pressing forward without delay. Those who seek Him with the whole heart receive strength, grace and righteousness, and need never be discouraged nor work out salvation by self but rest in His help. The one who calls in faith makes God, not another person, the dependence and trust.

Compassion God Requires

The fast God has chosen that brings the answer is to loose the bands of wickedness, undo heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, break every yoke, deal bread to the hungry, bring the homeless and outcast poor into the house, cover the naked, and not hide from one's own flesh, and to take away the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity, and to draw out the soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul. When this is done calling is met with answering and crying with Here I am, with light breaking forth as the morning and rising in obscurity, darkness becoming as noonday, health springing forth speedily, righteousness going before and the glory of the Lord guarding behind as rereward, and with continual guidance, satisfaction in drought, strength and fatness of bones, and life like a watered garden and unfailing spring whose waters fail not. The whole chapter is of the highest importance and defines the work for today, showing what must be done to gain physical and spiritual strength, including attentive compassionate care for children, youth, widows and fatherless near at hand, and it is to be studied, practiced, and used to call men to cooperate with Christ by grace, leading on to building old waste places, raising foundations of many generations, and honoring the Sabbath.

Hearing the word is not enough, for doing brings the great reward, and belief must become works by serving the unfortunate, doing medical missionary work, removing oppression and neglect, educating others to serve, walking in light across the pathway, and living faith that works by love and purifies the soul from selfishness. Sincere kindness to the hungry, homeless, naked and suffering, done from pity and love without thought of reward or show but for service, will not fail of recompense, for God Himself is the great Reward embracing every other, received and enjoyed only as the soul becomes like Him in character by giving itself to God for humanity. As one makes room in heart and life for the stream of blessing to flow to others as a channel, he receives a rich reward in himself and loses nothing but is repaid a hundredfold like land and hillsides and plains enriched by the stream carried to the sea, with dawning light, speedy healing, continual guidance, satisfaction in dry times, and a life made fresh and fruitful. Prayer and abstinence from food without resolute work for the needy avail nothing, for the acceptable fast is to feed the hungry and house the poor, not waiting for them to come and plead but searching for them, bringing them in, and drawing out the soul in sympathy, with one hand reaching up by faith to take hold of the mighty arm that brings salvation while the other hand of love reaches the oppressed to relieve them, since none can cling to God's arm with one hand while the other is used for self-pleasure.

The work embraces children, youth, widows, fatherless, aged, homeless, burdened mothers, the sick, suffering, unconverted and backslidden, neighbors and associates, and needy children to be given homes, and every laborer for their good will have calling and crying met with answering presence. Patients in sanitariums are to see these principles carried out through practical Christlike work, for those who have accepted truth are to practice it because it is true and preserve its sacred influence, marked by justice, mercy and truth. In medical work this means dealing honestly with patients and charging fairly, and in church life it means caring for sick and poor members, using God-given abilities, helping other churches when needed, relieving distressed families and those cast out or suffering for truth, cleansing marketplaces, courts, offices and medical work from robbery and fraud, and honoring the Sabbath sign by honest practice after Christ's tender healing example. A church's piety, spiritual knowledge and growth are proportionate to the zeal, piety and missionary intelligence brought into it and carried out in this self-denying work, by which selfishness that bound souls is overcome, increase of moral resources comes, blessing and power attend labor, and light goes to the world in clear bright rays of living faith and godly example, requiring unselfish love and practical help rather than mere profession.

Self-denial is required, resisting taste for frivolous things and useless ornaments, binding about supposed wants, giving up luxuries, fancies and expensive gratification, exercising powers less expensively instead of buying what can be done without, and setting means flowing to clothe the poorly clad, comfort destitute houses, support destitute missions, open new fields in regions beyond, and build humble houses of worship for poor believers whose souls are just as precious. Church members are to care directly for the poor, orphans and aged among them rather than passing the work to others, denying themselves luxuries and ornaments so the needy may be made comfortable, and afterward to help suitable cases outside the faith wisely so they can help themselves. Turning from selfishness and covetousness to live unselfishly brings God's answer with blessing, including a sure remedy for poor health, with satisfaction in denying inclination for souls for whom Christ died and for whom He has made them responsible, and such Christlike service brings praise and thanksgiving to God from those helped.

As Christ fed the multitude, disciples must feel compassion for those seeking salvation, give opportunity to hear life, neglect none weary and hungry, do all so none are sent faint and discouraged, study best ways to help, and never make the way to Christ wearisome. Reading and practicing produces prayer in the Spirit, loving God wholly and neighbor as self, with evidence of divine inditing, and keeping the chosen fast of self-denial and self-sacrifice for the needy, including medical missionary work, brings answered prayer and present help while cooperating with God against the enemy, clinging to Christ as personal Saviour and Intercessor, putting on Christ, and standing as His co-laborers to uplift the sorrowing and distressed. Action brings reaction, for as goods lent on trust are imparted more is received to impart by grace given for grace, treasure is laid up before the throne, blessing comes, and praise rises from the helped.

The instruction exposes the emptiness of trusting fasting and prayer while neglecting mercy and love, showing claimed connection with God by doing right to others. Those who only talk truth without living it, whose lives are destitute of good, noble, generous actions and characterized by selfishness and stinginess and serving self, are not entitled to blessing until they change course and work diligently in self-denying benevolence to secure heavenly treasure. A praying professing people whose prayers are unanswered and zeal unobserved lack fruit and neglect positive duties for body and soul, and unless performed God cannot answer according to His glory, for remaining in obscurity praying without finding Jesus comes from neglecting that work, while turning from harmful conduct and self-interest to help the needy belongs to God's prescription and sure remedy for sickness of body and soul.

Blessings That Follow Obedience

Obedience brings the full train of blessings that follow the promise, for light breaks forth as the morning and rises in obscurity, darkness becomes as the noonday, health springs forth speedily, righteousness goes before and the glory of the Lord guards behind, the Lord guides continually, satisfies the soul in drought, makes fat the bones, and makes life like a watered garden and unfailing spring. These blessings belong to mercy and to putting away evil, to true heart religion replacing mere ceremony, and to giving the soul to feed the hungry with words of truth and righteousness, the bread of life. They are wisdom and enlightenment to everyone who wishes to do the will of God, setting forth abundant opportunity to minister to suffering humanity while bringing the light of truth before a perishing world, so that medical missionary work and the gospel ministry remain united in the work of the third angel's message carried on in right lines, with neither the ministry left inferior nor the poor and sick neglected, because God has joined them and no man should divorce them. They are conditional on removing oppression, accusation and empty speech and on caring for the hungry and afflicted by relieving need and working for the oppressed, and on honoring God and His Sabbath, and the verse is assurance to trust in trouble even when help is not felt, because God has said it, addressed even to unfaithful shepherds and ministers who trample the law and refuse advanced truth involving self-denial, telling what it is their privilege to become if they return to loyalty, receive truth and keep the commandments.

Health and true joy come by the acceptable service of dealing bread to the hungry, bringing the homeless poor into the house and covering the naked, and doing good brings healing to giver as well as receiver. Good deeds are twice a blessing, and consciousness of right-doing is among the best medicines for diseased bodies and minds. A mind free and happy from duty well done and from giving happiness to others brings a cheering uplifting influence and new life to the whole being, surrounds with a helpful atmosphere, relieves spiritual and bodily distress, and gives happiness and health of soul and body with the peace craved by all. Hearing the word is not enough, for doing the commandments in self-sacrificing sympathy and compassionate acts toward the poor, the suffering and the unfortunate brings great reward and relieves sufferers.

Faithful acts bring light in darkness with continual guidance even in hardship, satisfaction, strength, renewal and comfort of grace, and the soul becomes like a watered garden with health restored quickly and the glory of the Lord seen upon him. Righteousness goes before and is made known wherever such workers are, His glory guards behind them, their light rises and shines to hungry souls and to backslidden and careless people around them so an impression is made on the world and sinners are converted with full purpose of heart. Keeping every gift of God fresh in memory strengthens faith to claim and receive more and more, since the smallest blessing personally received gives greater encouragement than all accounts of the faith and experience of others. The blessing is God's prescription for maladies of body and soul and a sure remedy for poor health and chronic spiritual sickness, laying the sacred duty to receive God's grace in order to give it to others, with every faithful performance of duty registered in the books of heaven and receiving more than an earthly reward, and with satisfaction experienced and peace created in the soul of more value than gold. It belongs to every church claiming to give present truth to the world as the reward of all who engage in His service, marking spiritual life and the spirituality of the church as seen by the world, and it comes to workers who do not keep going over the same ground to gain more knowledge for themselves but go to souls in darkness of error, meet physical necessities with sympathetic care and then present present truth as it is in Jesus without startling strange doctrine, teaching in dependence on Christ, searching Scripture diligently, and helping the fallen, degraded and perishing, so the Holy Spirit stays close, cooperates with human effort to arouse moral powers and awaken mental powers, kindles love of God in the ministering soul, and brings many poor souls to a rock foundation for faith to be saved in the kingdom.

Those who give themselves wholly to God's service may call with confidence that He will answer and be present, receiving renewed physical, mental and spiritual strength, healing, light and continued care. Piety, knowledge and growth are proportionate to the zeal and missionary intelligence put into self-denying work, for carrying out the wide field of work opened by the chapter brings spiritual growth, blessing and power, overcomes selfishness, and makes the church's faith and example with bright rays of living faith shine to the world while gaining moral resources. Taking up the very duties around avoids the faults condemned in ancient Israel and brings the specified blessings, marking out a right and a wrong course to be met with calm unwavering trust in Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. A healthy spiritual life comes from practicing God's principles of love and caring for others, opening the heart to Jesus so the sunshine of His righteousness fills the soul, and workers gain fuller understanding of the Word by studying diligently and putting it into practice as they teach and serve, which kindles the love of God in the worker.

The verse points the discouraged to healing help and gives light for those who rejoice in hope of the soon-coming morning. It shows the Lord's desire to send reviving healing beams of His sunshine, speaking through preaching to ears while God speaks to hearts, subduing and breaking hearts in tears and confession and testimony, revealing power and presence, bringing Jesus very near with light and peace and joy, and giving the word of grace as manna and precious promises as food abundantly satisfying the hungry soul. It points to the world to come that endures forever when the fashion of this world passes away, to infinite bliss and boundless joy of the righteous, to mansions Christ has gone to prepare for the faithful, and to the immortal inheritance and everlasting kingdom possessed forever by those who love God, keep His commandments, take Him at His Word by faith and hold fast their profession.

Failure to do the required work and going to extremes is why special blessing is not realized, for everyone to whom God grants breath of life from day to day has the duty to understand and meet the will and way of the Lord. When duties including repairing the breach made in the law of God and carrying out all principles of the chapter are met as God requires, He fulfills His promise shortly and does not fail. Neglect brings complaint against God, as with those who do not heed His words, continue in unbelief and sinful indulgence, and then complain when they are not blessed, while proving God by earnest seeking, stopping complaining and every evil work, examining neglected duty and fulfilling every responsibility resting on those preparing for His courts in these last days prepares the way for Him to manifest His power in conviction and conversion of souls.

Sabbath and Final Message

Isaiah 58 belongs to all church members, to true missionaries, to believers in the third angel's message, and to all who turn away from Sabbath-breaking. The kindly work it enjoins is God's own appointed work required of His people at this time, to be carried forward now with increasing urgency as the end approaches, and rightly performed it brings rich blessings to the church. Its marked fulfillment is building the old waste places and repairing the breach made in God's law by displacement of the seventh-day Sabbath, the memorial and sign of God's creative work. Genuine medical missionary work is bound up inseparably with keeping God's commandments, especially the Sabbath, and with restoring the moral image of God in man. That ministry brings life to churches through generous giving and practical labor for people in need, for helping the suffering and feeding the hungry belong to Christ's benevolent ministry, to be done unselfishly in every place with special attention to neglected fields rather than concentrating resources and workers in one center. Loyal people who keep the Sabbath help repair the breach made in God's law, turning from self-directed words and actions on the holy day, worshiping God on the Sabbath, and they are named in heaven as repairers of the breach and restorers of the paths to dwell in, with power to bring souls to conversion.

Ministry to suffering people and ministry of God's truth are joined in this chapter and no man should divorce them. Service to those in need is an opportunity to bring truth to the world, giving wisdom and blessing to workers, enlightening everyone who wishes to do the will of God, and setting forth abundant opportunity to minister to suffering humanity while being an instrument to bring the light of truth before a perishing world. The work of the third angel's message carried on in right lines leaves the ministry in no inferior place and leaves the poor and sick in no way neglected, because God has joined these two lines of work. That benevolent care for people in need keeps the spiritual needs of the soul prominent and is to be joined with, not replace or overshadow, the third angel's message. It is present truth laying upon those who keep the Lord's Sabbath the responsibility of a united work of mercy and benevolence, sealed with the seal of God, to be borne earnestly and untiringly lest time pass and people be left unwarned.

The chapter applies to the time of the end and is to be fulfilled then, to be studied carefully as present truth exposing sin rather than soothing with peace. It foretells the work of presenting a warning message and showing God's people their transgression, including departure from the Lord's ordinances and conformity to worldly principles. With Isaiah 55 and Isaiah 56 it calls God's people to arouse themselves to give the last note of warning to save a perishing world. The promise of God's answering presence when oppression, accusation, and empty speech are put away and the soul is drawn out to feed the hungry and care for the afflicted makes mercy, kindness, and justice especially the duty of those living in earth's last days, which God counts and rewards.

The Sabbath truth is to be proclaimed to the world with a loud voice, clearly and distinctly, in a most earnest and decided manner, as the third angel's message with certain trumpet sound at camp meetings. The way is not to beat about the bush nor gradually prepare the way for the Sabbath question, but to give it in clear, distinct lines. Its force comes through the power of the Holy Spirit, and the impression it makes is proportionate to the earnestness with which it is given. When so preached the Lord answers by His present Spirit impressing hearts, convicting sinners to keep the Lord's Sabbath in spite of trials, bringing deep contrition and faith, hearing earnest cries in prayer and blessing hearts. Then faces reflect the Sun of Righteousness and God's people become bright, cheerful, gladsome lightbearers, with fervent petitions and praise rising as with Jesus in the midst as certainly as if seen, close by the side and everywhere present with near, felt presence.

Verses 9-14 lay down the conditions of receiving God's blessings and explain why churches do not understand the Word of God. If the yoke is taken away from the midst, with the putting forth of the finger and speaking vanity, and the soul is drawn out to the hungry and the afflicted soul satisfied, then light shall rise in obscurity and darkness be as noonday, the Lord shall guide continually and satisfy the soul in drought and make fat the bones, and they shall be like a watered garden and like unfailing springs, builders of old waste places, raisers of foundations of many generations, called repairer of the breach and restorer of paths to dwell in. If the foot is turned from the Sabbath, from doing pleasure on God's holy day, and the Sabbath is called a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, honoring Him by not doing own ways nor finding own pleasure nor speaking own words, then there shall be delight in the Lord, and God will cause them to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed them with the heritage of Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. If men would receive the Word just as it reads, power from on high would be given, and instead of working against God by disobedience they would seek to win souls to obedience. This calls for renewed, reverent Sabbath observance, confessing neglect, putting away sin, being sanctified through the truth, stopping personal work, words, and unsanctified thoughts on that day, observing it strictly according to the commandment, for those who refrain from labor may claim God's comfort and consolation, obedience brings knowledge of true sanctification, and keeping the Sabbath stamps the soul with the sign of God's government.

A breach has been made in the law of God by exalting a spurious Sabbath instead of the Sabbath of Jehovah, and soon laws will compel all to observe the first day of the week instead of the seventh. God is calling for a people to repair this breach, and He will answer them with Here I am as they meet this difficulty after taking away the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity. Taking away the putting forth of the finger and speaking vanity then means finding trouble enough from that conflict without stirring up contention among those who profess to keep God's commandments. The promise to answer when His people call is given to those who take heed to the commandments, for true worship is becoming followers of Christ by standing to keep all the commandments of God, and proclaimed as living truth with power it brings hearers out of the valley of decision to rise in obedience, and in that response victory is gained.

Service in Daily Life

Isaiah 58 defines medical missionary work as unselfishly relieving oppression in every place, especially in neglected fields rather than concentrating workers and means in one center like Battle Creek. The true fast God has chosen is to loose wickedness, undo heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, break every yoke, feed the hungry, house the homeless poor, clothe the naked, and not hide from one's own flesh. When this is done and the yoke, accusing finger-pointing, and vain speech are taken away while the soul is drawn out to the hungry, light breaks forth, health springs forth, righteousness goes before, glory guards behind, guidance continues, and life becomes like a watered garden and unfailing spring for those who build waste places and repair the breach. This is the outline of work to be done before the Lord's coming, including giving means to support workers who carry truth to new places where it has not been heard and establish places of worship as memorials to the seventh-day Sabbath, so that those who accept it can in turn support the work. Churches, publishing houses, missionary stations, and sanitariums are therefore called to heart reformation, putting away every self-exalting plan and learning this work of restoration.

God's order for proclaiming truth in Jesus in all its bearings appoints His denominated people to stand before nations and the highest authority with sacred evangelistic work in all cities. Wisely conducted camp meetings are to reach all classes and gain access to the people, especially reaching the higher classes on temperance, laboring to close saloons and end the evil of poisoned liquor that creates madness and bloodshed. The warnings of God's law on the Sabbath question are to be carried to the whole world to thousands, rather than spending means and time in unordained experiments that consume but do not produce. Restaurant work belongs to this instruction but must not become so enlarged that those who should give the gospel to souls starving for the bread of life are kept occupied in serving tables.

All who believe present truth are called to do faithfully the ministry pictured here as laborers together with Christ in proclaiming mercy to the world. They are to use God-given talents to sow seed in good works for those without light, going forth clothed in Christ's righteousness and sanctified by truth to labor for all classes with equal care, free from selfishness, regarding the whole world as the field. Light is to shine without limit to regions beyond by teaching the Word to unbelievers in the darkness of error and uniting in prayer for them. This means something more than sitting in churches Sabbath after Sabbath listening to preaching, and ministers must not hover about churches repeating the same truths to believers week after week. Studied carefully with Isaiah 54 and 55, the chapter reveals a precious extended blessed work in the last days to lift up Christ by visiting friends, neighbors and families, creating interest in present truth, planting the Word in many hearts, dealing out the bread of life to hungering souls, ministering truth in simplicity, preaching Christ crucified and winning souls, with the assurance that wholehearted service stands right with heaven when judgment decisions are made for eternity.

Following this instruction is linked with prayers that bear evidence of God's guidance and are heard and answered. Its truth gives warning and encouragement and is to be received and applied personally, read and practiced. Studied alongside God's promises of salvation and mercy, it teaches that the Lord answers those who call when oppressive burdens and harmful speech are removed, calling ministers and members to conversion and to Christ's manner of witnessing to the Lord's power. It is part of God's covenant with the people He seeks to save today, part of the terms of salvation, and part of the most valuable education today.

The work means establishing hospitals and sanitariums to relieve suffering, bringing physical relief and presenting heaven's bread, the Word of the living God, to the poor who need light, knowledge and special help. It reveals the Lord in goodness and tender compassion as a covenant-keeping God, reflecting His mercy, love and benevolence in His representatives. Those who have means are called to help the Lord's work and meet sanitarium needs, not spending all effort merely in commercial lines but laying up treasure beside the throne, since worldly treasure is valued in heaven by the good done with it here, like precious ointment broken whose fragrance fills the house for the refreshment of Jesus. It calls for mission work at home and in foreign countries, instructing needy people, explaining truths of the Word, giving Sabbath light, and missing no opportunity to work for souls, reaping rich reward when the saved testify that mists cleared from their minds and they gain entry through the gates to the tree of life.

The chapter is God's remedy for the church's selfishness and failure to work for saving souls. The remedy is presented when oppression, accusing gestures, and vain speech are removed, so that calling on the Lord receives His answer and presence. It shows lines for serving those who accept truth, keep commandments and need help, and for actively proclaiming the gospel to all peoples by faithfully doing the work God gives, even when small or limited to individuals. Proclaiming is thus linked to doing the given work, and those rich in good works receive light, health, righteousness before and glory behind, guidance, satisfaction and garden life. Sacred funds are not to be spent on lines such as slum work that yield few genuine conversions and do not strengthen fellow workers in the cause, according to those who held that application.

Righteousness going before and glory guarding behind belongs to those connected with God whose conduct brings peace and happiness to others and whose cherished truth shines to those outside, whom God leads by His Spirit to speak fitting words and bless others. Practical reform through setting matters right, not fasting and prayer alone, is required by rejecting selfish principles, removing the yoke of oppression with accusatory gestures and vain harmful speech, and acting in harmony with Christ's purposes. The directions for relieving oppression and caring for others guide how entrusted talents are to be used in serving God and saving souls. The call to carry truth where unknown includes showing sin as guilt against the Son of God rather than a small matter, then pointing sinners to the Saviour. The soul responding to grace becomes like a watered garden with health quickly restored, light rising in darkness and glory seen upon him, and keeping every gift fresh in memory strengthens faith to claim more, since the smallest blessing personally received encourages more than all accounts of others' experience.