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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
Those connected with the office cannot endure the amount of care
and labor that my husband has borne for years. They have not the
constitution, the capital to draw upon, which my husband had. They
can never endure the perplexities and the constant, wearing labor
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which have come upon him and which he has borne for twenty years.
I cannot endure the thought that any in the office should sacrifice
strength and health through excessive labor, so that their usefulness
should prematurely end and they be unable to work in the vineyard of
the Lord. It is not merely the gatherers of the fruit that are the essential
laborers; all who assist in digging about the plants, watering, pruning,
and lifting up the drooping, trailing vines, and leading their tendrils
to entwine about the true trellis, the sure support, are workmen who
cannot be spared.
The brethren in the office feel that they cannot leave the work for a
few days for a change, for recreation; but this is a mistake. They can
and should do so. Even if there were not as much accomplished, it
would be better to leave for a few days than to be prostrated by disease
and be separated from the work for months, and perhaps never be able
to engage in it again.
My husband thought it wrong for him to spend time in social
enjoyment. He could not afford to rest. He thought that the work in
the office would suffer if he should. But after the blow fell upon him,
causing physical and mental prostration, the work had to be carried
on without him. I saw that the brethren engaged in the responsible
labor in the office should work upon a different plan and make their
arrangements to have change. If more help is needed, obtain it, and let
relief come to those who are suffering from constant confinement and
brain labor. They should attend convocation meetings. They need to
throw off care, share the hospitality of their brethren, and enjoy their
society and the blessings of the meetings. They will thus receive fresh
thoughts, and their wearied energies will be awakened to new life, and
they will return to the work far better qualified to perform their part,
for they will better understand the wants of the cause.
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Brethren abroad, are you asleep to this matter? Must your hearts
be made faint by the fall of another of God’s workmen, whom you
love? These men are the property of the church. Will you suffer them
to die under the burdens? I appeal to you to advise a different order
of things. I pray God that the bitter experience that has come upon us