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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
cup of humiliation and sorrow? Can we look upon Christ crucified
and wish to enter His kingdom in any other way than through much
tribulation?
The preachers are not all given up to the work of God, as He
requires them to be. Some have felt that the lot of a preacher was
hard because they had to be separated from their families. They forget
that once it was harder laboring than it is now. Once there were but
few friends of the cause. They forget those upon whom God laid the
burden of the work in the past. There were but a few then who received
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the truth as the result of much labor. God’s chosen servants wept and
prayed for a clear understanding of truth, and suffered privation and
much self-denial in order to carry it to others. Step by step they
followed as God’s opening providence led the way. They did not study
their own convenience or shrink at hardships. Through these men God
prepared the way and made the truth plain to the understanding of
every honest mind. Everything has been made ready to the hands of
ministers who have since embraced the truth, yet some of them have
failed to take upon them the burden of the work. They seek for an
easier lot, a less self-denying position. This earth is not the resting
place of Christians, much less for the chosen ministers of God. They
forget that Christ left His riches and glory in heaven, and came to earth
to die, and that He has commanded us to love one another even as He
has loved us. They forget those of whom the world was not worthy,
who wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, and were afflicted
and tormented.
I was shown the Waldenses, and what they suffered for their reli-
gion. They conscientiously studied the word of God, and lived up to
the light which shone upon them. They were persecuted, and driven
from their homes; their possessions, gained by hard labor, were taken
from them, and their houses burned. They fled to the mountains and
there suffered incredible hardships. They endured hunger, fatigue,
cold, and nakedness. The only clothing which many of them could
obtain was the skins of animals. And yet the scattered and homeless
ones would assemble to unite their voices in singing, and praising God
that they were accounted worthy to suffer for Christ’s name. They
encouraged and cheered one another, and were grateful for even their
miserable retreat. Many of their children sickened and died from cold
and hunger, yet the parents did not for a moment think of yielding