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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
the people greatly need. We have precious light on Bible truth which
we should speak to the people.
I was shown that God did not design that my husband should bear
the burdens he has borne for the last five months. The working part
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in connection with the cause has been left to fall upon him. This
has brought perplexity, weariness, and nervous debility, which have
resulted in discouragement and depression. From the commencement
of the cause there has been a lack of harmonious action on the part of
his brethren. His brethren in the ministry have loved freedom. They
have not borne the responsibilities which they might, and have failed
to gain the experience which they might have had to enable them to
stand in the most responsible positions relative to the vital interests of
the cause of God at the present time. They have excused their neglect
to bear responsibilities on the ground that they feared being reflected
upon afterward.
The religion we profess is colored by our natural dispositions and
temperaments; therefore it is of the highest importance that the weak
points in our character be strengthened by exercise and that the strong,
unfavorable points be weakened by working in an opposite direction
and by strengthening opposite qualities. But some brethren have not
done what they might and should have done, and which would have
given my husband sufficient encouragement and help to continue to
bear some responsibilities at the head of the work. His fellow laborers
did not move independently, looking to God for light and for duty for
themselves; they did not follow in His opening providence and consult
together upon plans of operation and unite in their plans and manner
of labor.
Since coming to Michigan last summer, the Lord has especially
blessed the labors of my husband. He has been sustained in a most
remarkable manner to do work that so much needed to be done. Had
those associated with him been awake to see and understand the wants
of the cause of God at our last Michigan camp meeting, the many
things not done might have been accomplished. There was a failure to
meet the wants of the occasion. Had Brother A stood cheerful in God,
walking in the light, ready to see what was to be done, and executing
the work with dispatch, we should now be months advanced in our
work, and we might long ago have been working to establish the press
upon the Pacific Coast. God cannot be glorified by our falling into
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