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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
Testament that they may bring from the treasure house of God’s word
things new and old.
Some of these ministers make a mistake in the preparation of
their discourses. They arrange every minutia with such exactness that
they give the Lord no room to lead and impress their minds. Every
point is fixed, stereotyped as it were, and they cannot depart from the
plan marked out. This course, if continued, will cause them to become
narrow-minded, circumscribed in their views, and will soon leave them
as destitute of life and energy as are the hills of Gilboa of dew and rain.
They must throw the soul open and let the Holy Spirit take possession
to impress the mind. When everything is laid out beforehand, and they
feel that they cannot vary from these set discourses, the effect is little
better than that produced by reading a sermon.
God would have His ministers wholly dependent upon Him, but at
the same time they should be thoroughly furnished unto every good
work. No subject can be treated before all congregations in the same
manner. The Spirit of God, if allowed to do its work, will impress
the mind with ideas calculated to meet the cases of those who need
help. But the tame, formal discourses of many who enter the desk
have very little of the vitalizing power of the Holy Spirit in them. The
habit of preaching such discourses will effectually destroy a minister’s
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usefulness and ability. This is one reason why the efforts of the workers
in-----and-----have not been more successful. God has had too little to
do with impressing the mind in the desk.
Another cause of failure in these conferences is that the people to
whom God’s messenger is sent wish to mold his ideas to theirs and to
put into his mouth the words that he should speak. God’s watchmen
must not study how they shall please the people, nor listen to their
words and utter them; but they must listen to hear what saith the Lord,
what is His word for the people. If they rely upon discourses prepared
years before they may fail to meet the necessities of the occasion. Their
hearts should be laid open so that the Lord may impress their minds,
and then they will be able to give the people the precious truth warm
from heaven. God is not pleased with those narrow-minded ministers
who devote their God-given powers to matters of little moment and
fail to grow in divine knowledge to the full stature of men in Christ
Jesus. He would have His ministers possess breadth of mind and true
moral courage. Such men will be prepared to meet opposition and