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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
be blessed with the benefits that some have planned to center there.
In centering so much in one place, a wrong education is given to the
people.
To plan largely for Battle Creek is not wise. The world is our
field of labor, and the money expended in this one place would go far
toward carrying forward successful aggressive work in other places.
There are many cities in which the people need the gospel message.
Instead of so many of our workers of talent being centered in Battle
Creek, men of sanctified ability should be assigned to posts of activity
in different localities. These men should have a living interest in many
places, studying ways and means by which to advance the work. They
are not to move in their own judgment, but are to blend together in the
great work. From year to year, as the work strengthens in the place
in which they are laboring, they are to educate and train workers, and
send help to other places.
Unselfishness in Service
A limit must be set to the expansion of our institutions in Battle
Creek. The field is the world, and God has an interest in other parts
of His great vineyard. There are churches and institutions that are
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straining every nerve to get standing room, that they may live. Let
our prosperous institutions see to it that they strengthen the things that
remain which are ready to die. How easily might the large church in
Battle Creek appropriate some of its means for the aid of the poorer
churches, which are nearly crushed under a load of debt! Why is it
that these sister churches are left from year to year to struggle with
poverty and debt? Selfishness brings spiritual death. What great good
our more able churches might accomplish if they would aid their sister
churches, bringing them to a condition of prosperity!
Helping Those Who Need Help
As God’s agencies we are to have hearts of flesh, full of the charity
that prompts us to be helpful to those more needy than ourselves. If
we see our brethren and sisters struggling under poverty and debt, if
we see churches that are in need of financial aid, we should manifest
an unselfish interest in them and help them in proportion as God