Board Meetings
503
be conscientiously and prayerfully considered. Every unprincipled
motive will be repressed, and uprightness will characterize all your
transactions, in small as well as in great matters. Seek counsel of
God first, for this is necessary in order that you may counsel together
properly.
You need to watch, lest the busy activities of life lead you to neglect
prayer when you most need the strength prayer would give. Godliness
is in danger of being crowded out of the soul through overdevotion
to business. It is a great evil to defraud the soul of the strength and
heavenly wisdom which are waiting your demand. You need that
illumination which God alone can give. No one is fitted to transact his
business unless he has this wisdom.
Ever since the Publishing Association was formed, light has been
given from time to time when perplexities have arisen, and the Lord
has ofttimes laid down principles which should be carried out by all the
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workers. In the early experience of the work the grave responsibilities
resting upon those in positions of trust were kept continually before
us, and we sought the Lord from three to five times a day to give us
heavenly wisdom, that we might sacredly guard the interests of the
cause of God and of His chosen people.
It is the worst kind of folly to leave the Lord out of your councils
and to put confidence in the wisdom of men. In your positions of
trust you are, in a special sense, to be the light of the world. You
should feel an intense desire to place yourselves in connection with
the God of wisdom, light, and knowledge, that you may be channels
of light. Important interests are to be considered, which relate to the
advancement and prosperity of the cause of present truth. How, then,
can you be competent to come to right decisions, to make wise plans,
and to give wise counsel unless you are thus connected with the Source
of all wisdom and righteousness? The business to be transacted in your
councils has been considered altogether too lightly. Common talk,
common remarks, comments made on the doings of others, have had
a place in these important meetings. You should remember that the
eternal God is a witness in all these gatherings. The all-seeing eye of
Jehovah measures every one of your decisions, and they are compared
with His holy law, His great standard of righteousness. Those in the
position of counselors should be men of prayer, men of faith, men free
from selfishness, men who will not dare to rely on their own human