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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
against. They pass along almost free from the difficulties which their
brethren and sisters who are not so favorably organized are laboring
under. In very many cases they do not labor half so hard to overcome
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and live the life of a Christian as do some of those unfortunate ones
I have mentioned. The latter appear to disadvantage almost every
time, while the former appear much better because it is natural for
them so to do. They may not labor half as hard to watch and keep the
body under, yet at the same time they compare their lives with the
lives of others who are unfortunately organized and badly educated,
and flatter themselves with the contrast. They talk of the failings,
errors, and wrongs of the unfortunate, but do not feel that they have
any burden in the matter, farther than to dwell upon those wrongs
and shun those who are guilty of them.
The prominent position which you as a family occupy in the
church makes it highly necessary for you to be burden bearers. Not
that you are to take burdens for those who are able to bear their
own and also to aid others; but you should help those who stand
most in need of help, those who are less favorably situated, who
are erring and faulty, and who may have injured you and tried your
patience to the utmost. It is just such ones that Jesus pities, because
Satan has more power over them and is constantly taking advantage
of their weak points and driving his arrows to wound them where
they are least protected. Jesus exercises His power and mercy for
just such pitiable cases. When He asked who loved most, Simon
answered: “He to whom he forgave most.” Thus it will be. Jesus did
not shun the weak, unfortunate, and helpless, but He helped such as
needed help. He did not confine His visits and labors to a class more
intelligent and less faulty, to the neglect of the unfortunate. He did
not inquire whether it was agreeable for Him to be a companion of
the poorest, the most needy. These are the ones whose company He
sought, the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
This is the work you have neglected. You have shunned dis-
agreeable responsibilities and have not gone to the erring and visited
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them, and manifested an interest and love for them, and made your-
selves familiar with them. You have not had a spirit of Christlike
forgiveness. You have marked out just such a course that all must
come up to before you could throw over them your mantle of charity.