Self-Caring Ministers
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You have failed to rely upon the strength of God. You have dwelt
upon yourself and made yourself the theme of thought and conversa-
tion. Your trials have been magnified to yourself and others, and your
mind has been diverted from the truth, from the Pattern which we are
required to copy, to weak Brother R.
When out of the desk you should have felt the worth of souls and
been seeking opportunities to present the truth to individuals, but you
have not felt the responsibility devolving upon a gospel minister. Jesus
and righteousness have not been your themes, and many opportunities
have been lost that, if improved, might have decided more than a score
of souls to give all for Christ and the truth. But the burden you would
not lift. The pastoral labor involved a cross, and you would not engage
in it.
I saw angels of God watching the impressions you make and the
fruits you bear out of meeting, and your general influence upon be-
lievers and unbelievers. I saw these angels veil their faces in sadness
and in sorrow turn reluctantly from you. Frequently you were en-
gaged in matters of minor consequence, and when you had efforts to
make which required the vigor of all your energies, clear thought, and
earnest prayer, you followed your own pleasure and inclination, and
trusted to your own strength and wisdom to meet, not men alone, but
principalities and powers, Satan and his angels. This was doing the
work of God negligently and placing the truth and cause of God in
jeopardy, periling the salvation of souls.
An entire change must take place in you before you can be en-
trusted with the work of God. You should consider your life a solemn
reality and that it is no idle dream. As a watchman upon the walls
of Zion, you are answerable for the souls of the people. You should
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settle into God. You move without due consideration, from impulse
rather than from principle. You have not felt the positive necessity
of training your mind, nor of crucifying in yourself the old man with
the affections and lusts. You need to be balanced by the weight of
God’s Spirit, and all your movements regulated by it. You are now
uncertain in all you undertake. You do and undo; you build up and then
tear down; you kindle an interest and then from lack of consecration
and divine wisdom you quench it. You have not been strengthened,
established, and settled. You have had but little faith; you have not