Varied will
be the circumstances and needs of those who will beseech our aid, and none who
come to us must go un-helped. From us need to flow a stream of healing power,
and in body and mind and soul men are to be made whole.
Our work must not be restricted to any time or place. Our compassion must be without limit. Every place where the sick could be brought to us, is to be our hospital. In every city, every town, every village, through which we pass, we are to bring the blessings of healing. Wherever there are hearts ready to receive us, we are to comfort them with the assurance of healing. All day we must minister to those who come to us; in the evening we must give attention to such as through the day must toil to earn a pittance for the support of their families.
In all things we must bring our wishes into strict abeyance to our mission. We must glorify our life by making everything in it subordinate to be a blessing and saving lives. This will make our life one of constant self-sacrifice. We may not have home in this world except as the kindness of friends provided for us as a wayfarer. We may have to live the life of the poorest and to walk and work among the needy and the suffering. Unrecognized and unhonoured, we are to walk in and out among the people for whom we are responsible.
We must always be patient and cheerful, and the afflicted should hail us as a messenger of life and peace. We are to see the needs of men and women, children and youth, and to all give the invitation, “Come to Us.”
During our
ministry, we are to devote more time to healing the sick than to preaching. Our
ministry must testify to the truth that we are here to bless and save lives.
Wherever we go, the tidings of our goodwill must precede us. Where we pass, the
objects of our compassion must rejoice in health. As we pass through the towns
and cities, we are to be like a vital current, diffusing life and joy.
We are to make each work of healing an occasion for implanting principles that spread peace, harmony, and happiness. This should be the purpose of our work. We are to impart blessings of health, that we might incline the hearts of men to receive the power to transform our mind, character, and personality towards sustaining all life and nature.
We might occupy the highest place among the teachers of our nation, but must prefer rather to be among the poor. We are to go from place to place, that those in the highways and byways might hear the words that bring peace, harmony, and happiness. Often we are to be in locations, that people of all beliefs can be blessed.
We are to
arrest the attention of the people. We are not to dwell upon tradition, upon
human theory and speculation. Often that which men teach and write are put in
place of the self-evident truth. The subject of teaching must be the
self-evident truth. We are to meet questioners with the self-evident truth. At
every opportunity when an interest was awakened by either friend or foe, we are
to present the self-evident truth. With clearness and power, we are to proclaim
the message that brings peace, harmony, and happiness. Our words must shed a
flood of light - also the teachings of the past available texts and help
hearers perceive and appreciate the depth of meaning that brings the needed blessings
to all mankind.
We are to be
evangelist with loving service. We may be occupying the highest position, but
must humble ourselves that we might meet men where they are. To all people,
rich and poor, free and bond, we are to build relationships bringing the
tidings of peace, harmony, and happiness. Then are to work such that the sick
will came to the places through which we would pass, that they might call on us
for help. Hither, too, will come many anxious to hear our words and to receive
a touch of healing. We are to go from city to city, from town to town,
preaching peace, harmony, and healing, and healing the sick — meeting people
where they are, though will occupy a high position in the society.
We are to attended the great yearly festivals of the nation, and to the multitude absorbed in outward ceremony we are to speak of things that sustain all life and nature. To all we are to bring treasures from the storehouse of wisdom. We are to speak to them in language so simple that they could not fail of understanding. We are to use methods that will help all who are in sorrow and affliction. With tender, courteous grace we are to minister to bringing healing and strength.
We are to
seek access to the people by the pathway of their most familiar associations.
We are to present in such a way that ever after it will be to hearers
intertwined with their most hallowed recollections and sympathies. We are to
teach in a way that make them feel the completeness of our identification with
their interests and happiness. Our instruction is to be direct, our
illustrations so appropriate, our words so sympathetic and cheerful, that
hearers are charmed. The simplicity and earnestness with which we address the
needy, must hallow every word.
Yes, it is a
busy life! Day by day we must be seen entering the humble abodes of want and
sorrow, speaking hope to the downcast and peace to the distressed. Gracious,
tender-hearted, pitiful, we are to go about lifting the bowed-down and
comforting the sorrowful. Wherever we go, we must carry blessings.
While we minister to the poor, we must study also to find ways of reaching the rich. We must seek the acquaintance of the wealthy and cultured teachers, the nobleman, and the rulers. We are to accept their invitations, attended their feasts, make ourselves familiar with their interests and occupations, that we might gain access to their hearts, and reveal to them the imperishable riches.
We are to
show by practicing healthy living, man can live an unsullied life. With
un-wearying patience and sympathetic helpfulness, we are to meet people in
their necessities. By the gentle touch of grace, we are to banish from the soul
unrest and doubt, changing enmity to love, and unbelief to confidence.
We should be
able to say to whom we please to follow life that brings peace, harmony, and happiness,
and the one addressed will follow. The spell of the world’s enchantment must break.
At the sound of our loving call, the spirit of greed and ambition must fly from
the heart, and they must arise, emancipated, to follow.
BROTHERY LOVE
We must recognize
no distinction of nationality or rank or creed. We must not desire to make a
local and a national benefit of the blessing we have, and to exclude the rest
in the world. We must strive to break down every wall of partition. We are to
show that our blessings are unconfined as the air, the light, or the showers of
rain that refresh the earth.
Our life
must establish a system in which there is no caste, a system by which all, free
and bond, are equally linked in a common brotherhood. No question of policy
must influence our movements. We must not make any difference between
neighbours and strangers, friends, and enemies. That which appeals to our heart
must be a soul thirsting for the healing waters sustaining life.
We are not to pass by any human being as worthless, but seek to apply the healing remedy to every soul. In whatever company we find ourselves, we are to present a lesson appropriate to the time and the circumstances. Every neglect or insult shown by men to their fellow men should make us more conscious of their need of sympathy. We are to seek to inspire with hope the roughest and most unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character advancing peace, harmony, and happiness.
Often, we
will meet those who seem to have drifted under a demonic control, and who have
no power to break from the snare. To such a one, discouraged, sick, tempted,
fallen, we are to speak words of tenderest pity, words that are needed and
could be understood. Others we meet may be fighting a hand-to-hand battle to
overcome from falling into strong, deceiving temptations. These we are to
encourage to persevere, assuring them that they would win and our support whenever
in need.
We are to be among those outcasts of the society. We are to be at their table as honoured guests, and by our sympathy and social kindliness show that we recognize the dignity of humanity; and behave such as they long to become worthy of our confidence. Upon their thirsty hearts our words must fall with blessed, new life-giving power. New impulses must be awakened, and to these outcasts of society, there must open the possibility of a new life.
Though we
may belong to the elite class, we are to mingle freely with the despised,
setting at nought the customs that cause divisions and therefore hatred and
eventual bloodshed. In face of prejudice, we are to accept the hospitality of
the despised people. We must be willing to be under their roofs, eat with them
at their tables, — partaking of the food prepared and served by their hands, —
teach in their streets, and treat them with the utmost kindness and courtesy.
While we draw their hearts by the tie of human sympathy, we also strive to
bring them to that path advancing peace, harmony, and happiness.
We must not neglect any opportunity of proclaiming the pathway to advance peace, harmony, and happiness. We must manifest great interest even to one person - though despised by the society. Our words must be earnest and eloquent. We cannot estimate the influence of such compassionate words to many in the past, present and future. Wherever hearts are open to receive, we must to ready to serve them. We must reveal to them the life sustaining characters, and serve such as to help recognize and follow the system advancing peace, harmony, and happiness.