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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
No limit can be set to our influence. One thoughtless act may prove
the ruin of many souls. The course of every worker in our college is
making impressions upon the minds of the young, and these are borne
away to be reproduced in others. It should be the teacher’s aim to
prepare every youth under his care to be a blessing to the world. This
object should never be lost sight of. There are some who profess to
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be working for Christ, yet occasionally go over to the side of Satan
and do his work. Can the Saviour pronounce these good and faithful
servants? Are they as watchmen giving the trumpet a certain sound?
Every man will at the judgment receive according to the deeds done
in the body, whether they be good or evil. Our Saviour bids us: “Watch
ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” If we encounter difficulties,
and in Christ’s strength overcome them; if we meet enemies, and in
Christ’s strength put them to flight; if we accept responsibilities, and in
Christ’s strength discharge them faithfully, we are gaining a precious
experience. We learn, as we could not otherwise have learned, that our
Saviour is a present help in every time of need.
There is a great work to be done in our college, a work which
demands the co-operation of every teacher; and it is displeasing to
God for one to discourage another. But nearly all seem to forget that
Satan is an accuser of the brethren, and they unite with the enemy in
his work. While professed Christians are contending, Satan is laying
his snares for the inexperienced feet of children and youth. Those
who have had a religious experience should seek to shield the young
from his devices. They should never forget that they themselves were
once enchanted with the pleasures of sin. We need the mercy and
forbearance of God every hour, and how unbecoming for us to be
impatient with the errors of the inexperienced youth. So long as God
bears with them, dare we, fellow sinners, cast them off?
We should ever look upon the youth as the purchase of the blood
of Christ. As such they have demands upon our love, our patience, and
our sympathy. If we would follow Jesus we cannot restrict our interest
and affection to ourselves and our own families; we cannot give our
time and attention to temporal matters and forget the eternal interests
of those around us. I have been shown that it is the result of our own
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selfishness that there are not one hundred young men where now there
is one engaged in earnest labor for the salvation of their fellow men.
“Love one another, as I have loved you,” is the command of Jesus.