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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
there had been no Adventists, many would have been brought to the
knowledge of the truth. Brother S has been advancing slowly and
occupying a position more pleasing to God in regard to patience,
forbearance, and endurance; and yet there is a much greater work
to be done for him before he can make a successful minister in the
cause and advance the work of God.
Brother R zealously interested himself in your case, but you
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refused to be helped by him. Time and strength were devoted to you;
and matters were shaped for your special benefit to remove your
prejudice and win you to accept the truth, until your indolence and
unbelief exhausted the patience of Brother R. Then the character
of his labor changed, and he pressed you to come to a decision
and move out upon the light and evidence you had received. This
earnest effort on his part you termed crowding and jamming you.
Your mulish temperament was manifested; you rose up against this
dealing and rejected the efforts he made to help you. Here you
injured yourself, disheartened Brother R, and displeased God. Your
feelings toward Brother R were not Christian. You gloried in your
resistance of his efforts in your behalf. The Lord blessed the labors
of Brother R in raising up a people in the State of Maine. This labor
was hard and trying, and you did your share in making it so. You did
not realize how hard you were making the work for those whom God
had sent to present the truth to the people. They were exhausting
their energies to bring the people to the point of decision in regard
to the truth, while you and others of the ministers stood directly in
their way. God was working through His ministers to draw to the
truth, and Satan was working through you and other ministers to
discourage and counteract their labor. The very men who professed
to be watchmen, and who, if they had stood in the counsel of God,
would have been the first to receive the word of warning and give it
to the people, were among the last to accept the truth. The people
were in advance of their teachers. They received the warning even
before the watchmen because the watchmen were unfaithful and
were sleeping at their post.
Brother P, you should have had feelings of brotherly sympathy
and love for Brother R, for he deserved this from you rather than
one word of censure. You should severely censure your own course
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because you were found fighting against God. But you have amused