Adventist Pioneers
21
spite of poverty and a lack of facilities. They strained every nerve
to make the work a success, to establish those buildings which were
necessary for the proper development of the work; and under all cir-
cumstances the Lord guided them.
[26]
Those who enter the work later, to find things ready to their hand,
should at least attempt to pay the debt they owe the Lord and the work-
ers who went before them, by carrying the truth into new territories,
until it has gone to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. In every
country men and women are to be raised up to carry forward the very
work begun by those who have been laid away to rest. The memory
of those pioneer workers is to be guarded, and from their treasure of
experience the workers of today are to learn to pass from one line of
advanced work to another, following the methods declared by the Holy
Spirit to be in the order of God, asserting the principles enjoined in the
Word, carrying the aggressive warfare into new fields.—
The General
Conference Bulletin, 164
Third quarter, 1900.
Avoid Criticism of the Pioneers
I saw that God is displeased with the disposition that some have to
murmur against those who have fought the heaviest battles for them
and who endured so much in the commencement of the message, when
the work went hard.
The experienced laborers, those who toiled under the weight and
the oppressive burdens when there were but few to help bear them,
God regards; and He has a jealous care for those who have proved
faithful. He is displeased with those who are ready to find fault with
and reproach those servants of God who have grown gray in building
up the cause of present truth.—
Testimonies for the Church 3:320, 321
.
Let no one depreciate those who have been chosen of God, who
[27]
fought manfully the battles of the Lord, who have woven heart and
soul and life into the cause and work of God, who have died in faith,
and who are partakers of the great salvation purchased for us through
our precious sin-bearing, sin-pardoning Saviour. God has inspired no
man to reproduce their mistakes, and to present their errors to a world
that is lying in wickedness, and to a church composed of many who
are weak in faith.