Our Aged Pioneer Workers
To the aged pioneer laborers who have been connected with the
work of the third angel’s message almost from its beginning, whose
experiences in it dates nearly from the passing of the time in 1844, the
Lord says: “Your help is needed. Do not take upon yourselves loads
that others who are younger can carry. It is your duty to be careful
in your habits of life. You are to be wise in the use of your physical,
mental, and spiritual strength. You who have passed through so many
and such varied experiences are to do all that it is possible for you to
do to preserve your powers, that you may labor for the Lord as long as
He permits you to stand in your lot and place to help to advance His
work.”
With John, these burden bearers can say: “That which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of
the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it,
and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with
the Father, and was manifested unto us;) that which we have seen and
heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us:
and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus
Christ.... This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and
declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness,
we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as He is in
the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
1 John 1:1-7
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The cause needs the help of the old hands, the aged workers, who
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have had years of experience in the cause of God; who have watched
the development and the progress of the message in its various lines;
who have seen many go into fanaticism, cherishing the delusion of
false theories, resisting all the efforts made to let the light of truth
reveal the superstitions that were coming in to confuse minds and to
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