Make the Health Food Work a Blessing

For all who are engaged in the health food business I have words of counsel. I have said that food stores and hygienic restaurants should be established in cities, and that they should be so conducted that they will be the means of reaching people with the gospel message for this time. All our restaurants are to be so conducted that there will not be an accumulation of debt. If debts accumulate, even though the patronage is large, there needs to be a careful, thorough investigation of the business, and such changes should be made as will put it on a paying basis. A restaurant should not be maintained at a continual financial loss.HFM 67.2

Recently in the night season we seemed to be in a council meeting. One of authority stood among us, and questioned the workers who were bearing responsibilities in the food work. He asked, “Have you made this work merely a commercial matter? Are you carrying out the instruction that restaurants should be established to teach the people how to prepare wholesome food, and to bring them to a knowledge of the present truth? To those whom you have met from day to day have you spoken of the Christian's hope? Have meetings been appointed, and talks given on Bible subjects?”HFM 68.1

The workers in our restaurants are to hunt and fish for souls. Meetings should be appointed at some convenient place, and notice of these meetings should be given to those coming to the restaurant for their meals. Some will attend, and will thus be led to study the Bible, and to ask questions regarding the truths which they have heard.HFM 68.2

Seek the Lord in prayer, asking Him to show you the best way in which to reach the people with whom you come in contact. Remember the words of the Saviour, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Remember that different methods must be followed in dealing with different people. To some you can give a tract. To others, you can put the question, “Do you love the Lord Jesus?” In the meetings that are held, talk in a way that will interest them. Deal with the subject on which you are speaking in so simple and practical a way that they can not fail to understand. There are many so ignorant of the terms used by those who speak on spiritual subjects that they do not understand what they hear. Many who hear have so little interest in spiritual things that much of the effort put forth to give them religious instruction is like beating the air.HFM 68.3

If in your restaurant work you make no advancement in religious lines, what have you gained? Daily you are brought into association with many who perhaps all their lifetime have continued in sin. Some means of arresting their attention must be devised. They must be warned of their danger. If this work can not be done in our restaurants, let them be discontinued; for what use is it to expend means and talent in a work that consumes without producing? Of what use is it for workers to spend their time preparing temporal food for men and women, while they neglect to offer them the bread of life and the water of salvation? Merely to provide temporal food is not a savor of life unto life.HFM 69.1

The servants of God are to watch for souls as they that must give an account. If in the restaurant work more is not done to advance the work of soul-saving than has been done in the past, the workers in the restaurants would better use their talents in lines of work that will do more to draw souls to Christ. The interests of Christ's kingdom are paramount to all else. We are not to bend our energies to the establishment of food stores and food factories merely to supply people with temporal food and make money. Thousands are perishing in sin, and the energies of God's people are to be put forth to arouse souls to a sense of their danger.HFM 69.2

We can not afford to call our young men and young women into a work where they are brought in contact with the worldly element, if, instead of exerting an influence that will win souls to Christ, they are leavened by the worldliness. In every work to which the people of God put their hands, soul-saving is to be made of the first importance. Let not those engaged in the food work think that their efforts can bear the approval of God unless they do all they possibly can to reach with the truth those whom they supply with temporal food.HFM 69.3