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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
from the lips of God’s servants with such power as to burn its way
to the hearts of the people!
Ministers must be endued with power from on high. When the
truth in its simplicity and strength, as it is in Jesus, is brought to bear
against the spirit of the world, condemning its exciting pleasures
and corrupting charms, it will then be plainly seen that there is
no concord between Christ and Belial. The natural heart cannot
discern the things of the Spirit of God. An unconsecrated minister,
presenting the truth in an unimpassioned manner, his own soul
unmoved by the truths he speaks to others, will do only harm. Every
effort he makes only lowers the standard.
Selfish interest must be swallowed up in deep anxiety for the
salvation of souls. Some ministers have labored, not because they
dared not do otherwise, not because the woe was upon them, but
having in view the wages they were to receive. Said the angel:
“Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought?
neither do ye kindle fire on Mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure
in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at
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your hand.”
It is entirely wrong to buy every errand that is done for the Lord.
The treasury of the Lord has been drained by those who have been
only an injury to the cause. If ministers give themselves wholly to
the work of God, and devote all their energies to building up His
cause, they will have no lack. As regards temporal things, they have
a better portion than their Lord and better than His chosen disciples
whom He sent forth to save perishing man. Our great Exemplar,
who was in the brightness of His Father’s glory, was despised and
rejected of men. Reproach and falsehood followed Him. His chosen
disciples were living examples of the life and spirit of their Master.
They were honored with stripes and imprisonment; and it was finally
their portion to seal their ministry with their blood.
When ministers are so interested in the work that they love it as
a part of their existence, then they can say: “Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy
sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death,