Unconsecrated Ministers
417
him. Believers are not the only ones for whose benefit laborers are
sent into the field. The salvation of souls is the great object.
Some brethren have erred in this respect. They have thought that
Brother C was the right man to labor in Vermont and that he could
accomplish more than any other minister in that state. Such do not view
matters from a right standpoint. Brother C can speak in a manner to
interest a congregation, and if this were all that is necessary to make a
successful preacher, then a class of brethren and sisters would be right
in their estimation of him. But he is not a thorough workman; he is not
reliable. In church trials he is of no account. He has not experience,
judgment, and discernment to be of any benefit to the church when
in trial. He has not been a thoroughgoing man in temporal matters,
and although he has but a small family, he has needed assistance
more or less. The same lack is manifested in spiritual things as in
temporal affairs. Had the right course been pursued toward him in
the commencement of his preaching, he might now be of some use
in this cause. His brethren injured him by making too much of him
and by leaving him to bear but few of the burdens of life, until he has
thought that his labors were of the greatest consequence. He has been
willing that brethren in Vermont should bear his burdens while he was
relieved from care. He has not had a suitable amount of exercise to
give tone and strength to his muscles, and for the good of his health.
He is not capable of building up churches. When he feels the woe
upon him if he preach not the gospel, as self-sacrificing preachers have
felt it in the past, then like them he will be willing to labor with his
hands a part of the time to earn means to support his family that they
may not be burdensome to the church, and then he will go forth, not
merely to preach, but to save souls. Efforts made with such a spirit will
accomplish something. He has been exalted in his own estimation, has
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thought himself equal to any of the laborers in Vermont, and has felt
that he should be ranked with them and should be consulted in business
matters of the church, when he has not earned a reputation nor proved
himself worthy. What self-sacrifice or devotion has he manifested for
the church? What perils or hardships has he endured, that the brethren
can have their confidence established in him as a laborer whom they
can trust, whose influence will be good wherever he goes? Until he
possesses an entirely different spirit and acts from unselfish principles,
he would better give up the idea of preaching.