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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
will labor with unselfish purposes, discerning the sacredness of the
work, the blessing of God will rest upon them. If all had cheerfully and
gladly taken up their several burdens, the wear and perplexity would
not have come so heavily upon my husband.
How few earnest prayers have been sent up to God in faith for
those who worked in the office who were not fully in the truth! Who
has felt the worth of the soul for whom Christ died? Who have been
laborers in the vineyard of the Lord? I saw that angels were grieved
with the trifling frivolities of the professed followers of Christ who
were handling sacred things in the office. Some have no more sense of
the sacredness of the work than if they were engaged in common labor.
God now calls for the fruitless cumberers of the ground to consecrate
themselves to Him and center their affections and hopes in Him.
The Lord would have all connected with the office become care-
takers and burden bearers. If they are pleasure seekers, if they do not
practice self-denial, they are not fit for a place in the office. The work-
ers at the office should feel when they enter it that it is a sacred place, a
place where the work of God is being done in the publication of a truth
which will decide the destiny of souls. This is not felt or realized as it
should be. There is conversation in the typesetting department which
diverts the mind from the work. The office is no place for visiting, for
a courting spirit, or for amusement or selfishness. All should feel that
they are doing work for God. He who sifts all motives and reads all
hearts is proving, and trying, and sifting His people, especially those
who have light and knowledge, and who are engaged in His sacred
work. God is a searcher of hearts and a trier of the reins, and will
accept nothing less than entire devotion to the work and consecration
to Himself. All in the office should take up their daily duties as if
in the presence of God. They should not be satisfied with doing just
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enough to pass along, and receive their wages; but all should work in
any place where they can help the most. In Brother White’s absence
there are some faithful ones; there are others who are eyeservants. If
all in the office who profess to be followers of Christ had been faithful
in the performance of duty in the office, there would have been a great
change for the better. Young men and young women have been too
much engrossed in each other’s society, talking, jesting, and joking,
and angels of God have been driven from the office.