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Love of Gain
551
have not educated and trained him to bear his share of the burdens of
life. He is a bad boy because of your neglect. His life is a reproach
to his father. You knew your duty, but you did it not. He has no
convictions of the truth. He knows he can have his own way, and
Satan controls his mind. You have made your children an excuse
to keep you at home; but, Brother B, the things of this world have
come first
The cause of God does not lie near your soul, and the example
you have given the people of God is not worthy of imitation. In Min-
nesota they need laborers, not merely ministers who go from place
to place when it is convenient. God’s cause must have minutemen
who will not be hindered from the work of God or the call of duty
by any selfish or worldly interest. Minnesota is a large field, and
many there are susceptible to the influence of the truth. Could the
churches be brought into working order, thoroughly disciplined, a
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light would shine forth from them that would tell all through the
state. You might have done tenfold more in Minnesota than you
have done. But the world has come in between you and the work of
God, and divided your interest. Selfish interest has come into your
heart, and the power of the truth has been going out. There is need of
a great change in you, that you may be brought into working order.
You have accomplished but little real, earnest labor. Yet you have
been in earnest to obtain all the means you could as your right. You
have overreached; you have looked out for your own interest, and
have advantaged yourself at the disadvantage of others. You have for
some time been going in this direction; and unless you are checked,
your influence is at an end. Moses Hull went in this direction. His
conversation was with covetousness, and he gathered all the means
that he could obtain. His hold of the truth was not strong enough to
overcome his selfishness.
When B. F. Snook embraced the truth, he was very destitute.
Liberal souls deprived themselves of conveniences, and even of
some of the necessaries of life, to help this minister, whom they
believed to be a faithful servant of Christ. They did all this in good
faith, helping him as they would have helped their Saviour. But it
was the means of ruining the man. His heart was not right with God;
he lacked principle. He was not a truly converted man. The more
he received, the greater was his desire for means. He gathered all