Individual Independence
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always been in harmony with the work of God as carried on by your
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American brethren. You have not seen as they see nor been in union
with their manner of proceeding. You have had very little acquaintance
with the work in its different departments. You have not felt very
anxious to become acquainted with the various branches of the work.
You have looked with suspicion and distrust upon the work, and upon
God’s chosen leaders to carry it forward. You have been more ready
to question and surmise and be jealous of those upon whom God has
laid the heavier responsibilities of His work, than to investigate and to
so connect yourself with the cause of God as to become acquainted
with its workings and advancement.
God saw that you were not fitted to be a shepherd, a minister of
righteousness to proclaim the truth to others, until you should be a
thoroughly transformed man. He permitted you to pass through real
trials and feel privation and want, that you might know how to exercise
pity and sympathy, and tender love for the unfortunate and oppressed,
and for those borne down with want and passing through trial and
affliction.
While you prayed in your affliction for peace in Christ, a cloud of
darkness seemed to blacken across your mind. The rest and peace did
not come as you expected. At times your faith seemed to be tested to
the utmost. As you looked back to your past life, you saw sorrow and
disappointment; as you viewed the future, all was uncertainty. The
divine Hand led you wondrously to bring you to the cross and to teach
you that God was indeed a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Those who ask aright will receive. He that seeketh in faith shall find.
The experience gained in the furnace of trial and affliction is worth
more than all the inconvenience and painful experience it costs.
The prayers that you offered in your loneliness, in your weariness
and trial, God answered, not always according to your expectations,
but for your good. You did not have clear and correct views of your
brethren, neither did you see yourself in a correct light. But, in the
providence of God, He has been at work to answer the prayers you
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have offered in your distress, in a way to save you and glorify His own
name. In your ignorance of yourself you asked for things which were
not best for you. God heard your prayers of sincerity, but the blessing
granted was something very different from your expectations. God
designed, in His providence, to place you more directly in connection