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the Spirit of the Lord. Beware lest your words and your spirit be like
theirs, and your work of the same baleful character. At such a time
as this we must not harbor a thought nor breathe a word of unbelief,
nor encourage an act of self-serving. This has been done in the Upper
Columbia and North Pacific Conferences; and while there we felt
in some measure the sorrow, mortification, and discouragement that
Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua, experienced. We tried to set the
current flowing in an opposite direction; but it was at the cost of much
severe labor and great anxiety and distress of mind. And the work of
reform in these conferences has but just commenced. It is the work of
time to overcome the unbelief, distrust, and suspicion of years. Satan
has been to a great extent successful in carrying out his purposes in
these conferences because he has found persons whom he could use
as his agents.
For Christ’s sake and the truth’s sake, Brother M, do not leave the
work in your conference in such a shape that it will be impossible
for the one that succeeds you to set things in order. The people have
received narrow and limited views of the work; selfishness has been
encouraged, and worldliness has been unrebuked. I call upon you to
do all in your power to efface the wrong mold you have given to this
conference, to remedy the sad effects of your neglect of duty, and thus
to prepare the field for another laborer. Unless you do this, may God
pity the workman who shall follow you.
Presidents of conferences should be men who can be fully trusted
with God’s work. They should be men of integrity, unselfish, devoted,
working Christians. If they are deficient in these respects, the churches
under their care will not prosper. They, even more than other ministers
of Christ, should set an example of holy living and of unselfish devotion
to the interests of God’s cause, that those looking to them for an
example may not be misled. But in some instances they are trying to
serve both God and mammon. They are not self-denying; they do not
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carry a burden for souls. Their consciences are not sensitive; when the
cause of God is wounded, they are not bruised in spirit. In their hearts
they question and doubt the Testimonies of the Spirit of God. They do
not themselves bear the cross of Christ; they know not the fervent love
of Jesus. And they are not faithful shepherds of the flock over which
they have been made overseers; their record is not one that they will
rejoice to meet in the day of God.