many who have not been dedicated to the ministry by the
laying on of hands.
Hundreds, yea, thousands, who have heard the message
of salvation are still idlers in the market place, when they
might be engaged in some line of active service. To these
Christ is saying, “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” and
“He adds, “Go ye also into the vineyard.” Matthew 20:6, 7.
Why is it that many more do not respond to the call? Is
it because they think themselves excused in that they do
not stand in the pulpit? Let them understand that there
is a large work to be done outside the pulpit by thousands
of consecrated lay members.
He knows the depths of the world’s misery
EDUCATION
270 CHARACTER BuiLping
He sees
on every hand souls in darkness, bowed down with sin
and sorrow and pain. But He sees also their possibilities;
He secs the height to which they may attain. Although
human beings have abused their mercies, wasted their
talents, and lost the dignity of godlike manhood, the
Creator is to be glorified in their redemption.
The burden of labor for these needy ones in the rough
places of the earth Christ lays upon those who can feel
for the ignorant and for such as are out of the way. He
will be present to help those whose hearts are susceptible
to pity, though their hands may be rough and unskilled.
He will work through those who can see mercy in misery,
and gain in loss. When the Light of the world passes
by, privilege will be discerned in hardship, order in confu-
sion, success in apparent failure. Calamities will be seen
as disguised blessings; woes, as mercies. Laborers from
the common people, sharing the sorrows of their fellow
men as their Master shared the sorrows of the whole
human race, will by faith see Him working with them.
“The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and
hasteth greatly.” Zephaniah 1:14. And a world is to be
warned.
With such preparation as they can gain, thousands
THE Lirework 271
upon thousands of the youth and those older in years
should be giving themselves to this work. Already many
hearts are responding to the call of the Master Worker,
and their numbers will increase. Let every Christian
educator give such workers sympathy and co-operation.
Let him encourage and assist the youth under his care in
gaining a preparation to join the ranks.
There is no line of work in which it is possible for
the youth to receive greater benefit. All who engage in
ministry are God's helping hand. They are co-workers
with the angels; rather, they are the human agencies
through whom the angels accomplish their mission.
Angels speak through their voices, and work by their
hands. And the human workers, co-operating with
heavenly agencies, have the benefit of their education and
experience. As a means of education, what “university
course” can equal this?
With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly
trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a cruci-
fied, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to
the whole world! How soon might the end come—the
end of suffering and sorrow and sin! How soon, in place
of a possession here, with its blight of sin and pain, our
children might receive their inheritance where “the right
cous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever;”
where “the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick,” and “the
voice of weeping shall be no more heard.” Psalm 37:29;
Isaiah 33:24; 65:19.
At the very outset of the Christian life
57 58 Christ's Object Lessons
“The Sower Went Forth to Sow”
The sowers of the seed have a work to do in preparing
hearts to receive the gospel. In the ministry of the word
there is too much sermonizing, and too little of real heart-
to-heart work. There is need of personal labor for the
souls of the lost. In Christlike sympathy we should come
close to men individually, and seek to awaken their interest
in ‘the great things of eternal life. Their hearts may be
as hard as the beaten highway, and apparently it may be
a useless effort to present the Saviour to them; but while
logic may fail to move, and argument be powerless to con-
vince, the love of Christ, revealed in personal ministry,
may soften the stony heart, so that the seed of truth can
take root.
So the sowers have something to do that the seed may
not be choked with thorns or perish because of shallowness
of soil.
At the very outset of the Christian life every be-
liever should be taught its foundation principles. He should
be taught that he is not merely to be saved by Christ's
4