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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
the world. He wants workers in His cause. Real, earnest, self-denying
workers will accomplish something.
Brother R, your teaching the truth to others has been an entire
mistake. If God calls a man, He will not make so great a blunder as
to take one of so little experience in practical life and spiritual things
as you have had. You have ability to talk, as far as that is concerned,
but God’s cause requires men of consecration and energy. These traits
you may cultivate; you may gain them if you will. By perseveringly
cultivating the opposite traits of those wherein you now fail, you may
learn to overcome those deficiencies in your character which have
increased from your youth. To merely go out and speak to the people
now and then is not working for God. There is no real work in it.
Those who labor for God have but just begun the work when they
have given a discourse in the desk. After this comes the real labor, the
visiting from house to house, conversing with members of families,
praying with them, and coming close in sympathy to those whom we
wish to benefit. It will not detract from the dignity of a minister of
Christ to be awake to see and realize the temporal burdens and cares of
the families he visits, and to be useful, seeking to relieve them where
he can by engaging in physical labor. In this way he can have a power
of influence to disarm opposition and break down prejudice, that he
would fail to have if he were in every other respect fully efficient as a
minister of Christ.
Our young ministers have not the burden of writing that the older
and more experienced ones have. They have not a multiplicity of
responsibilities which tax the mind and wear upon the man. But it
is these very burdens of care that perfect Christian experience, give
moral power, and make strong, efficient men of those engaged in the
work of God. Avoiding burdens and disagreeable responsibilities will
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never make our ministers strong men that can be depended upon in a
religious crisis. Many of our young ministers are as weak as babes in
the work of God. And some who have been engaged in the work of
teaching the truth for years are not yet able workmen, who need not be
ashamed. They have not grown strong in experience by being called
out by opposing influences. They have excused themselves from that
exercise which would strengthen the moral muscles, giving spiritual
power. But this is the very experience they need in order to attain to
the full stature of men in Christ Jesus. They gain no spiritual power