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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
The reason why many of our ministers complain of sickness is that
they fail to take sufficient exercise and indulge in overeating. They
do not realize that such a course endangers the strongest constitution.
Those who, like yourself, are sluggish in temperament, should eat very
sparingly and not shun physical taxation. Many of our ministers are
digging their graves with their teeth. The system, in taking care of the
burden placed upon the digestive organs, suffers, and a severe draft is
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made upon the brain. For every offense committed against the laws of
health, the transgressor must pay the penalty in his own body.
When not actively engaged in preaching, the apostle Paul labored
at his trade as a tentmaker. This he was obliged to do on account of
having accepted unpopular truth. Before he embraced Christianity
he had occupied an elevated position and was not dependent upon
his labor for support. Among the Jews it was customary to teach the
children some trade, however high the position they were expected to
fill, that a reverse of circumstances might not leave them incapable
of sustaining themselves. In accordance with this custom Paul was
a tentmaker, and when his means had been expended to advance the
cause of Christ and for his own support, he resorted to his trade in
order to gain a livelihood.
No man ever lived who was a more earnest, energetic, and self-
sacrificing disciple of Christ than was Paul. He was one of the world’s
greatest teachers. He crossed the seas and traveled far and near, until
a large portion of the world had learned from his lips the story of the
cross of Christ. He possessed a burning desire to bring perishing man
to a knowledge of the truth through a Saviour’s love. His soul was
wrapped up in the work of the ministry, and it was with feelings of pain
that he withdrew from this work to toil for his own bodily necessities;
but he seated himself to the drudgery of the craftsman that he might
not be burdensome to the churches that were pressed with poverty.
Although he had planted many churches he refused to be supported
by them, fearing that his usefulness and success as a minister of the
gospel might be interfered with by suspicions of his motives. He
would remove all occasion for his enemies to misrepresent him and
thus detract from the force of his message.
Paul appeals to his Corinthian brethren to understand that, as a
laborer in the gospel, he might claim his support, instead of sustaining
himself; but this right he was willing to forego, fearing that the accep-