Meantime, the owners of this wealth are suffering in
mind and body for want of some grand and noble object in life. If such
could not personally live in such an establishment as is here described,
by self-denying arrangements and combination with others they could
provide and superintend one.
Our minds are created in the image of our Father in heaven, and capable
of being made happy, as his is, by the outpouring of blessings on
others. And when we are invited by our divine Lord to take his yoke
and bear his burden, it is for our own highest happiness as well as
for the good of others. And whoever truly obeys finds the yoke easy
and the burden light, and that they bring rest to the soul. But those
who shrink from the true good, to live a life of self-indulgent ease,
will surely find that mere earthly enjoyments pall on the taste, that
they perish in the using, that they never satisfy the cravings of a
soul created for a higher sphere and nobler mission.
The Bible represents that there is an emergency-a great conflict in
the world unseen-and that we on earth, who are Christ's people, are
to take a part in this conflict and in the "fellowship of his
sufferings," to redeem his children from the slavery of sin and eternal
death; and there is the same call to labor and sacrifice now as there
was when he commanded, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel
to _every_ creature.
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