It is needed, too, of lay members of the church, to do much in searching
out the destitute and the dying, who exist in multitudes, even about
their own dwellings; to give here a word of warning, and there a word of
consolation; to add here a helping hand, and impart there the restoring
effect of sympathy and kindness; in short, to employ some hours in the
day in going everywhere, as the early disciples did, from house to house
and street to street, and in communicating, in an appropriate way, the
simple truths of Jesus. Laymen, too, are needed in great numbers in
the foreign service. There are reasons numerous and urgent, which I
cannot here name, why lay members in the church should go abroad.
But notwithstanding this call for personal effort, it is too often that
we meet with church members who are completely engrossed, from early
dawn to the close of day, in accumulating wealth; and who deny
themselves the luxury of spending either hour of the twenty-four, in
conversing with souls, and leading them to Jesus. Such persons will give
somewhat of their substance, when called upon; and press on, almost out
of breath apparently, in the cares of the world, not thinking to say to
this man or that, on the right hand and the left, that there is a heaven
above and a hell beneath, and death is at the door. You would almost
imagine, from the conduct of some, that they would like to commit to
proxy even their own faith and repentance. Now this entire engrossment
in worldly cares, even though professedly for Christ's sake, will never
illumine the dark recesses of the earth--will never usher in the
millenial day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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