Adventist Pioneers
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pioneers. We present them before you as men who know what trials
are. I am instructed to say, Let every believer respect the men who
acted a prominent part during the early days of the message, and who
have borne trials and hardships and many privations. These men have
grown gray in service. Not long hence they will receive their reward....
The Lord desires His servants who have grown gray in the advo-
cacy of truth to stand faithful and true, bearing their testimony in favor
of the law.
God’s tried servants must not be put in hard places. Those who
served their Master when the work went hard, those who endured
poverty and remained faithful in the love of the truth when our numbers
were small, are ever to be honored and respected. Let those who have
come into the truth in later years take heed to these words. God desires
all to heed this caution.—
Selected Messages 2:226, 227
(
Letter 47,
1902
).
Grow Old Gracefully
Brother Butler, let us—you and Brother Haskell and I—grow old
gracefully. He desires you to stand for Him as a light-bearer. Let us
encourage one another. I am given messages to bear to the erring,
but because of this, I do not lose my interest in the one reproved, but
continue to encourage him.
Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.” We need now, just now,
the impartation of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus has much to bear in
dealing with us. He is hurt when we hurt one another. “Inasmuch as
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ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,” He says,
“ye have done it unto Me.” ...
The aged ministers are to be carefully and tenderly treated. We
cannot spare one of them. The Lord would have them help one another
and rejoice in Him. These tried warriors are to strengthen the faith of
the people of God by relating their experience in connection with the
building up of His work.—
Letter 111a, 1904
.
Growing Older but Continuing to Testify
Dear Brother [G. I.] Butler, ...