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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
faithful, true shepherd. Love is the golden chain which binds believing
hearts to one another in willing bonds of friendship, tenderness, and
faithful constancy, and which binds the soul to God. There is a decided
lack of love, compassion, and pitying tenderness among brethren.
The ministers of Christ are too cold and heartless. Their hearts are
not all aglow with tender compassion and earnest love. The purest
and most elevated devotion to God is that which is manifested in the
most earnest desires and efforts to win souls to Christ. The reason
ministers who preach present truth are not more successful is that they
are deficient, greatly deficient, in faith, hope, and love. There are toils
and conflicts, self-denials and secret heart trials, for us all to meet and
bear. There will be sorrow and tears for our sins; there will be constant
struggles and watchings, mingled with remorse and shame because of
our deficiencies.
Let not the ministers of the cross of our dear Saviour forget their
experience in these things; but let them ever bear in mind that they are
but men, liable to err, and possessing like passions with their brethren,
and that if they help their brethren they must be persevering in their
efforts to do them good, having their hearts filled with pity and love.
They must come to the hearts of their brethren and help them where
they are weak and need help the most. Those who labor in word and
doctrine should break their own hard, proud, unbelieving hearts if
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they would witness the same in their brethren. Christ has done all for
us because we were helpless; we were bound in chains of darkness,
sin, and despair, and could therefore do nothing for ourselves. It is
through the exercise of faith, hope, and love that we come nearer and
nearer to the standard of perfect holiness. Our brethren feel the same
pitying need of help that we have felt. We should not burden them
with unnecessary censure, but should let the love of Christ constrain us
to be very compassionate and tender, that we can weep over the erring
and those who have backslidden from God. The soul is of infinite
value. Its worth can be estimated only by the price paid to ransom it.
Calvary! Calvary! Calvary! will explain the true value of the soul.
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