In the humanity of Christ there are golden threads that bind the believing, trusting poor person to His own soul of infinite love. He is the great Physician. In our world He bore our infirmities and carried our burdens. He is the mighty Healer of all diseases. He was poor, and yet He was the center of all goodness, all blessings. He is a reservoir of power to all to consecrate their powers to the work of becoming sons of God.
Christ has ever been the poor person’s friend. He chose poverty and honored it by making it His lot. He has stripped from it forever the reproach of scorn by blessing the poor, the inheritors of God’s kingdom. Such was His work. By consecrating Himself to a life of poverty, He redeemed poverty from itHe
knew the danger of the love of riches. He knew that this love is
ruinous to many souls. It places those who are rich where they indulge
every wish for grandeur. It teaches them to look down on those who are
suffering the pressure of poverty. It develops the weakness of human
minds and shows that, notwithstanding the abundance of wealth, the rich
are not rich toward God. s humiliation. He took His position with the poor that He might lift from poverty the stigma that the world had attached to it.
The characters of many have been molded by the false estimate placed on worldly rich people. The person possessed of houses and lands, lauded and deceived by the respect given him or her, may look down upon the poor person, who possesses virtues that the rich person does not. When weighed in the golden scales of the sanctuary, the selfish, covetous rich person will be found wanting, while the poor person, who has depended in faith upon God alone for his virtue and goodness, will be pronounced heir to eternal riches in the kingdom of God.—Manuscript 22, 1898.
Further Reflection: Why did Jesus choose to become poor, to make His lot with the powerless and the marginalized? How do I emulate Jesus’ love for the suffering and the oppressed? JNN 33
And let it not be thought that this will prevent the study of the sciences, or cause a lower standard in education. The knowledge of God is as high as heaven and as broad as the universe. There is nothing so ennobling and invigorating as a study of the great themes which concern our eternal life. Let the youth seek to grasp these God-given truths, and their minds will expand and grow strong in the effort. It will bring every student who is a doer of the word into a broader field of thought, and secure for him a wealth of knowledge that is imperishable. COL 42
You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes.—Psalm 119:68 NKJV