Industry in the Ministry
507
its defects, to the end that you might develop a symmetrical character,
and possess firmness, self-denial, self-control, humility, and moral
power. You know very little of practical life or of perseverance under
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difficulties. You have a strong desire to controvert others’ ideas and
to press forward your own. This is the result of your feelings of
self-sufficiency and of following your own inclinations in youth.
You do not see yourself and your errors. You are not willing to
be a learner, but have a great desire to teach. You form opinions of
your own and cling to your peculiar ideas with a persistency that is
wearying. You are anxious to carry your points, and in your eyes your
ideas are of greater importance than the experienced judgment of men
of moral worth who have been proved in this cause. You have been
flattered with the idea that you had ability that would be prized and
make you a valuable man; but these qualities have not been tested
and proved. You have a one-sided education. You have no inclination
or love for the homely, daily duties of life. Your indolence would be
sufficient to disqualify you for the work of the ministry were there no
other reasons why you should not engage in it. The cause does not
need preachers so much as workers. Of all the vocations of life, there
is none that requires such earnest, faithful, persevering, self-sacrificing
workers as the cause of God in these last days.
The enterprise of obtaining eternal life is above every other con-
sideration. God wants no laggards in His cause. The work of warning
sinners to flee from the wrath to come requires earnest men who feel
the burden of souls and who will not be ready to avail themselves of
every excuse to avoid burdens or to leave the work. Little discourage-
ments, as unpleasant weather or imaginary infirmities, seem sufficient
to Brother R to excuse him from making exertion. He will even ap-
peal to his sympathies; and when duties arise that he does not feel
inclined to perform, when his indolence clamors for indulgence, he
frequently makes the excuse that he is sick, when there is no reason
why he should be sick, unless through indolent habits and indulgence
of appetite his entire system has become clogged by inaction. He may
have good health if he will strictly observe the laws of life and health,
and carry out the light upon health reform in all his habits.
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Brother R is not the man for the work in these last days unless he
entirely reforms. God does not call for ministers who are too indolent
to engage in physical labor, to bear the testing message of warning to