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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
with you gave you all the glory. Eminent physicians have witnessed
your operations and praised your skill. This has been pleasant to you.
You have been greatly honored by God, that His name, not yours,
should be magnified; but you have not always been able to endure the
seeing of the Invisible. You have had a desire to distinguish yourself,
and you have not at all times placed your entire dependence upon
God. You have not been willing to heed the counsel of the Lord’s
servants. In your own wisdom you have planned many things. The
Lord would have you respect the gospel ministry. At the very time
when you needed discernment, that you might see, not only one side
of the work, but all sides, you chose for counselors men under the
reproof of God. You were willing to link up with them if they would
second your propositions.
By prayer and consecration, by seeking the Lord for wisdom and
surrendering yourself to His guidance, you would have been prevented
from starting many enterprises that have been born, not of the will of
God, but of the will of man. You were given your appointed work.
But you have neglected things of great importance to take up, with
impulsive spirit, unadvised by the Lord or your brethren, things of
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minor importance. Your brethren could have given you counsel, but
you despised any word that interfered with your plans. This has placed
you in a difficult position. Had you abode by your appointed work,
God would have made you more and more a successful laborer together
with Him.
The Lord wants your mind to blend with other minds. Sometimes,
when His servants have differed from you, this was the very thing that
God required them to do. But you treated their advice in such a way
that afterward they remained silent when they should have spoken.
God desires those whom He has placed in positions of trust to do
justice and judgment in all wisdom.
Burdens that the Lord has not Given
The Lord gave you your work, not to be done in a rush, but in a
calm, considerate manner. The Lord never compels hurried, compli-
cated movements. But you have gathered to yourself responsibilities
that the Lord, the merciful Father, does not place upon you. Duties
He never ordained that you should perform chase one another wildly.