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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
and come up to the measurement of God, He can do better without
their labors than with them.
God requires ministers to come up to the standard, to show
themselves approved unto God, workmen that need not be ashamed.
If they refuse this strict discipline, God will release them and select
men who will not rest until they are thoroughly furnished unto all
good works. Our hearts are naturally sinful, and slothful in the
service of Christ; and we need to be guarded constantly, or we shall
fail to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ; and we shall not
feel the necessity of aiming vigorous blows against besetting sins,
but will readily yield to the suggestions of Satan and raise a standard
for ourselves rather than accept the pure and elevated standard that
God has raised for us.
I saw that the Sabbathkeeping ministers of Maine have failed
to become Bible students. They have not felt the necessity of a
diligent study of the word of God for themselves, that they might
be thoroughly furnished unto all good works; neither have they
felt the necessity of urging the close searching of the Scriptures
upon their hearers. If there had not been one Seventh-day Adventist
minister in Maine to oppose the counsel of God, all that has been
accomplished might have been done with one half the effort that
has been made, and the people might have been brought out of
their distracted, confused state into order, and now have been strong
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enough to stand against opposing influences. Many places which
have not yet been entered might have been visited and successful
labor bestowed, which would have brought many to a knowledge of
the truth.
Much of the labor which has been spent in Maine has been for
Seventh-day Adventist ministers, to bring them into a right posi-
tion. It has required hard labor to counteract the influence which
they exerted while opposing the counsel of God against their own
souls and standing in the way of sinners. They would not enter
in themselves, and them that would, they hindered by precept and
example. A mistake has been made in entering fields where there are
Adventists who do not as a general thing feel any necessity of being
helped, but who think themselves in a good condition and able to
teach others. The laborers are few, and their strength must be spent
to the best possible advantage. Much more can be done in the State