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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
save that which was lost.” He said: “I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance.”
If ministers in New York wish to help the church, they can do
so in no better way than to go out into new fields and labor to bring
souls into the truth. When the church see that the ministers are all
aglow with the spirit of the work, that they feel deeply the force of the
truth, and are seeking to bring others to the knowledge of it, it will
put new life and vigor into them. Their hearts will be stirred to do
what they can to aid in the work. There is not a class of people in the
world who are more willing to sacrifice of their means to advance the
cause than are Seventh-day Adventists. If the ministers do not utterly
discourage them by their indolence and inefficiency, and by their lack
of spirituality, they will generally respond to any appeal that may be
made that commends itself to their judgment and consciences. But
they want to see fruit. And it is right that the brethren in New York
should demand fruit of their ministers. What have they done? What
are they doing?
Ministers in New York should have been far in advance of what
they are. But they have not engaged in that kind of labor which called
forth earnest effort and strong opposition. Had they done so they
would have been driven to their Bibles and to prayer in order to be able
to answer their opponents, and in the exercise of their talents would
have doubled them. There are ministers in New York who have been
preaching for years, but who cannot be depended upon to give a course
of lectures. They are dwarfed. They have not exercised their minds in
the study of the word and in meeting opposition, so that they might
become strong in God. Had they, like faithful soldiers of the cross of
Christ, gone forth “without the camp,” depending upon God and their
own energies, rather than leaning so heavily upon their brethren, they
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would have obtained an experience, and would now be qualified to
engage in the work wherever their help is most needed. If the ministers
generally in New York had left the churches to labor for themselves,
and had not stood in their way, both churches and ministers would now
be further advanced in spirituality and in the knowledge of the truth.
Many of our brethren and sisters in New York have been backslid-
ing upon health reform. There is but a small number of genuine health
reformers in the state. Light and spiritual understanding have been
given to the brethren in New York. But the truth that has reached the