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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
Satan was yet alive, as persevering, earnest, and artful as ever; that he
was still seeking to allure souls from the path of righteousness.
One important part of the work of the ministry is to faithfully
present to the people the health reform as it stands connected with
the third angel’s message as part and parcel of the same work. They
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should not fail to adopt it themselves, and should urge it upon all who
profess to believe the truth.
Ministers should have no separate interest aside from the great
work of leading souls to the truth. Their energies are all needed here.
They should not engage in merchandise, in peddling, or in any business
aside from this one great work. The solemn charge given to Timothy
rests with equal weight upon them, laying upon them the most solemn
obligations and most fearful responsibilities. “I charge thee therefore
before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and
the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; Preach the word; be instant
in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering
and doctrine.” “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the
work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
Wrong habits of life have lessened our mental and physical sensi-
bilities, and all the strength we can acquire by right living and placing
ourselves in the best relation to health and life should be devoted un-
reservedly to the work which God has assigned us. We cannot afford
to use the few enfeebled, crippled energies which we possess to serve
tables or to mingle merchandise with the work God has committed to
us. Every faculty of mind and body is now needed. The work of God
requires this, and no separate business can be engaged in aside from
this great work without taking time and strength of mind and body,
and thus lessening the vigor and force of our labor in the cause of God.
Ministers who do this will not have all that time for meditation and
prayer, and all that strength and clearness of mind that they should have
to understand the cases of those who need help, and to be prepared
to “be instant in season, out of season.” A word fitly spoken at the
right time may save some poor, erring, doubting, fainting soul. Paul
exhorted Timothy: “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly
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to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.”
In Christ’s commission to His disciples He tells them: “Whatsoever
ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye
shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” If this is the fearfully