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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
It is positively displeasing to God for my husband to recount his
difficulties and his peculiar grievances of the past. If he had looked
upon these things in the light that they were not done to him, but to
the Lord, whose instrument he is, then he would have received a great
reward. But he has taken the murmurings of his brethren as though
done to himself and has felt called upon to make all understand the
wrong and wickedness of thus complaining of him when he did not
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deserve their censure and abuse.
Had my husband felt that he could leave this matter all with the
Lord, and that their murmurings and their neglect were against the
Master instead of the servant in the Master’s service, he would not
have felt so aggrieved, and it would not have hurt him. He should
have left it with the Lord, whose servant he is, to fight his battles for
him and vindicate his cause. Then he would have finally received a
precious reward for all his sufferings for Christ’s sake.
I saw that my husband should not dwell upon the painful facts in
our experience. Neither should he write his grievances, but keep as
far from them as he can. The Lord will heal the wounds of the past
if he will turn his attention away from them. “For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen
are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” When
confessions are made by his brethren who have been wrong, he should
accept the confessions and generously, nobly, seek to encourage those
who have been deceived by the enemy. He should cultivate a forgiving
spirit and should not dwell upon the mistakes and errors of others, for
in so doing he not only weakens his own soul, but tortures the minds
of his brethren who have erred, when they may have done all that
they can do by confession to correct their past errors. If God sees it
necessary that any portion of their past course should be presented
before them, that they may understand how to shun errors in future,
He will do this work; but my husband should not trust himself to do it,
for it awakens past scenes of suffering that the Lord would have him
forget.
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