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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
of walking in the light, however crucifying to self. It is earnest effort,
prompted by love for souls, which strengthens the heart and develops
the graces.
My brother, you are naturally independent and self-sufficient. You
estimate your ability to do, more highly than it will bear. You pray
for the Lord to humble you and fit you for His work, and when He
answers your prayer and puts you under the course of discipline nec-
essary for the accomplishment of the object, you frequently give way
to doubts and despondency, and think you have reason for discour-
agement. When Brother W has cautioned and held you back from
engaging in church difficulties, you have frequently felt that he was
restraining you.
I was shown your labors in Iowa. There was a decided failure
to gather with Christ. You distracted, confused, and scattered the
poor sheep. You had a zeal, but it was not according to knowledge.
Your labors were not in love, but in sternness and severity. You were
exacting and overbearing. You did not strengthen the sick and bind
up the lame. Your injudicious harshness pushed some out of the fold
who can never be reached and brought back. Words fitly spoken are
like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Words unfitly spoken are the
reverse. Your influence will be like desolating hail.
You have felt restless under restraint when Brother W has cau-
tioned, advised, and reproved you. You have thought that if you could
be free and act yourself, you could do a good and great work. But
your wife’s influence has greatly injured your usefulness. You have
not ruled well your own house; you have failed to command your
household after you. You have thought that you understood how to
manage your home matters. But how have you been deceived! You
have too often followed the promptings of your own spirit, which has
resulted in perplexities and discouragements, and these have clouded
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your discernment and weakened you spiritually so that your labors
have been marked with great imperfection.
The labors of Brethren R and S in-----were premature. These
brethren had their past experience with its mistakes before them, which
should have been sufficient to guard them from engaging in a work
that they were not qualified to perform. There was enough that needed
to be done. It was a hard place in which to raise up a church. Opposing