[Aug. 23 – Aug. 29 : Pure Religion Defined]
I was … naked, and ye clothed me. Matthew 25:35, 36
Christ … says, It was I who was hungry and thirsty. It was I who was a stranger. It was I who was sick. It was I who was in prison…. While you crowded your wardrobe with rich apparel, I was destitute. While you pursued your pleasures, I languished in prison.
When you doled out the pittance of bread to the starving poor, when you gave those flimsy garments to shield them from the biting frost, did you remember that you were giving to the Lord of glory? All the days of your life I was near you in the person of these afflicted ones, but you did not seek Me. You would not enter into fellowship with Me.
In the professed Christian world there is enough expended in extravagant display, for jewels and ornaments, to supply the wants of all the hungry and clothe the naked in our towns and cities; and yet these professed followers of the meek and lowly Jesus need not deprive themselves of suitable food or comfortable clothing. What will these church members say when confronted in the day of God by the worthy poor, the afflicted, the widows and fatherless, who have known pinching want for the meager necessities of life, while there was expended by these professed followers of Christ, for superfluous clothing, and needless ornaments expressly forbidden in the Word of God, enough to supply all their wants?
In the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah the work that the people of God are to do in Christ’s lines is clearly set forth. They are to break every yoke, they are to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked…. If they carry out the principles of the law of God in acts of mercy and love, they will represent the character of God to the world, and receive the richest blessings of Heaven.
