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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
improvement in speaking; but to give time and money to this one
branch, and absorb the mind with it, was rushing into extremes and
showing great weakness.
Young men who call themselves Sabbathkeepers attach “professor”
to their names and abuse the community with that which they do not
understand. Many thus pervert the light which God has seen fit to give
them. They have not well-balanced minds. Elocution has become a
byword. It has caught up men to engage in a work that they cannot
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do wisely, and spoiled them for doing a work which, had they been
humbly and modestly seeking to accomplish it in the fear of God,
they would have made a glorious success. These youth might have
been fitting for usefulness in the missionary field as canvassers and
colporteurs, or as licentiates proving themselves for ministerial labor,
doing work for time and for eternity. But they have been crazed with
the thought of becoming teachers of elocution, and Satan stands and
laughs that he has caught them in the net which he has laid for them.
God’s servants should ever be united. They should repress and
control strong traits of character, and day by day they should carefully
reflect upon the nature of the life structure they are building. Are they
Christian gentlemen in their daily life? Are there seen in their lives
noble, upright deeds, which will make their building of character stand
forth as a fair temple of God? As one poor timber will sink a ship and
one flaw make a chain worthless, so one demoralizing trait of character
revealed in words or actions will leave its influence for evil, and if not
overcome, will subvert every virtue.
Every faculty in man is a workman that is building for time and for
eternity. Day by day the structure is going up, although the possessor
is not aware of it. It is a building which must stand either as a beacon
of warning because of its deformity or as a structure which God and
angels will admire for its harmony with the divine Model. The mental
and moral powers which God has given us do not constitute character.
They are talents, which we are to improve, and which, if properly
improved, will form a right character. A man may have precious seed
in his hand, but that seed is not an orchard. The seed must be planted
before it can become a tree. The mind is the garden, the character is
the fruit. God has given us our faculties to cultivate and develop. Our
own course determines our character. In training these powers so that