Industry in the Ministry
505
I was shown that his work has spoiled good fields for others. Some
men who were truly consecrated to God and who felt the burden of the
work might have done good and brought souls into the truth in places
where he has made attempts without success, but after his superficial
work the golden opportunity was gone. The minds that might have
been convinced, and the hearts that might have been softened, have
been hardened and prejudiced under his efforts.
I looked to see what souls of value were holding on to the truth as
the result of his labors. I watched closely to see what watchcare he
had had for souls, to strengthen and encourage them, a labor which
should ever accompany the ministry of the word. I could not see one
who would not have been in a far better condition had he not received
the first impressions of the truth from him. It is about impossible for
a stream to rise higher than its fountainhead. The man who bears the
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truth to sinners stands in a fearfully responsible position. Either he will
convert souls to Christ or his efforts will balance them in the wrong
direction.
I have been shown that Brother R is an indolent man. He loves
his pleasure and his ease. He does not love physical labor, neither
does he love close application of the mind to the study of the word.
He wants to take things lazily. He will go to a place and attempt to
introduce the truth there, when his heart is not in it. He feels no weight
of the work, no real burden for souls. He has not the love of souls
at heart. He lets his inclinations divert him from the work, suffers
his feelings to control him, and leaves the work and goes back to
his family. He has not an experience in self-denial, in sacrificing his
ease and his inclinations. He labors too much with respect to wages.
He does not apply himself closely to his work, but merely touches
it here and there without perseverance or earnestness, and so makes
a success of nothing. God frowns upon all such professed workers.
They are unfaithful in everything. Their consciences are not sensitive
and tender.
To introduce the truth into places and then lack courage, energy,
and tact to carry the matter through is a great error, for the work is
left without that thorough and persevering effort being made which is
positively essential in these places. If matters go hard, if opposition
arises, he makes a cowardly retreat instead of fleeing to God with
fasting and praying and weeping, and by faith clinging to the Source