Chapter 12—Extracts of Letter to a General
Conference Representative Visiting in Africa
It is a solemn, serious matter to select missionaries for foreign
countries. The men whom God will accept for this work must be
as true as steel to principle. They must be men who are emptied of
self, men who give evidence that they are wearing Christ’s yoke and
manifesting His meekness and lowliness of heart.
The very best talent is required in such fields as Africa and Aus-
tralia. We have to work in and through Christ, and in some places with
the consent of the corrupt churches, although we cannot respect their
claims, wherever the church is managed by the state.
We have to use wisdom in representing the truth; our speech must
be tempered, else we cut ourselves off from gaining access to those
who need help. The wisdom of angelic agencies must be imparted to
human instrumentalities, else the door will be closed to the message
the people need. “Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”
The Word of God is to be lived as well as preached. It is to be
brought into every phase of the Christian work done in this world. The
men God has appointed to do His work must be emptied of self. Let
Jesus in. Open the door of the heart to the heavenly Guest. Let no man
be looked up to as God. When those who come nigh God in service
are consecrated, cleansed, and purified, approaching nearer and still
nearer the divine benevolence, they can voice the commission of God,
and be respected
God designs that men shall be drawn constantly upward by the
strong moral attraction of that which is above. Had the workers in
Africa remembered this, they would have done a great work by their
godfearing, unselfish attitude. Those in Africa would have been in-
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spired to use their physical and mental capabilities for God. The work
would have gone forward among the Dutch and other languages. Pub-
lications containing the truth would have been circulated everywhere.
Ministers and rulers would have been converted to the truth.... Those
who work in the South African field must understand the bearing of the
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