Experience and Labors
261
to others by earnest, active laborers, not those who merely profess to
believe it. They should not present the truth in words merely, but by a
circumspect life, by being living representatives of the truth.
I was shown that those who compose these churches should be
Bible students, studying the will of God most earnestly that they may
learn to be laborers in the cause of God. They should sow the seeds of
truth wherever they may be, at home, in the workshop, in the market,
as well as in the meetinghouse. In order to become familiar with the
Bible, they should read it carefully and prayerfully. In order to cast
themselves and their burden on Christ, they must begin at once to
study to realize the value of the cross of Christ and learn to bear it. If
they would live holy lives they must now have the fear of God before
them.
It is trial that leads us to see what we are. It is the reason of
temptation that gives a glimpse of one’s real character and shows the
necessity for the cultivation of good traits. Trusting in the blessing
of God, the Christian is safe anywhere. In the city he will not be
corrupted. In the counting room he will be marked for his habits
of strict integrity. In the mechanic’s shop every portion of his work
will be done with fidelity, with an eye single to the glory of God.
When this course is pursued by its individual members, a church
will be successful. Prosperity will never attend these churches until
the individual members shall be closely connected with God, having
an unselfish interest in the salvation of their fellow men. Ministers
may preach pleasing and forcible discourses, and much labor may be
put forth to build up and make the church prosperous; but unless its
individual members shall act their part as servants of Jesus Christ, the
[286]
church will ever be in darkness and without strength. Hard and dark
as the world is, the influence of a really consistent example will be a
power for good.
A person might as well expect a harvest where he has never sown,
or knowledge where he has never sought for it, as to expect to be
saved in indolence. An idler and a sluggard will never make a success
in breaking down pride and overcoming the power of temptation to
sinful indulgences which keep him from his Saviour. The light of truth,
sanctifying the life, will discover to the receiver the sinful passions
in his heart, which are striving for the mastery, making it necessary
for him to stretch every nerve and exert all his powers to resist Satan,