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Selfishness Rebuked
479
Brethren C and D, and the entire church at-----, and the people at----
-, were not brought out upon correct positions, as they might have
been had you been humble and teachable, working in union with the
servants of God.
When a man who professes to be a teacher, a leader, ventures in
the course which you have pursued because of your stubbornness,
he will have a heavy weight of responsibility to bear for the souls
who have stumbled over him to perdition. A minister cannot be
too careful of his influence. Stubbornness, jealousy, and selfishness
should have no part in his being; for if they are indulged, he will
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ruin more souls than he can save. If he does not overcome these
dangerous elements in his character, it would be better for him to
have nothing to do with the cause of God. The indulgence of these
traits, which may not appear very bad to him, will place souls beyond
his reach and beyond the reach of others. If such ministers would
let things entirely alone, the souls susceptible to the influence of
the Spirit of God might be reached by those who can give them
an example worthy of imitation, in accordance with the truth they
teach. By a consistent life the minister will retain the confidence of
the seekers after truth, until he can help them to fasten their grasp
firmly upon the Rock of Ages; and afterward, if they are tempted,
that influence will enable him to warn, exhort, reprove, and counsel
them with success.
Above all other men, ministers of Christ, bearing the solemn truth
for these last days, should be free from selfishness. Benevolence
should dwell naturally with them. They should be ashamed of acts
toward their brethren which bear the marks of selfishness. They
should be patterns of piety, living epistles, known and read of all
men. Their fruits should be unto holiness. The spirit which they
possess should be the opposite of that manifested by worldlings.
By accepting divine truth they become servants of God, and are no
more children of darkness and servants of the world. Christ has
chosen them out of the world. The worldling understands not the
mystery of godliness, therefore he is unacquainted with the motives
which actuate them. Yet the spirit and life which is in them, which
is manifested in their heavenly conversation, their self-denying, self-
sacrificing, blameless life, has a convincing power that will lead
unbelievers into all truth, lead them to obedience to Christ. They