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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
wisdom, but who will pray earnestly for light as to the best manner of
conducting the business entrusted to them.
Worldly Policy
The policy which worldly businessmen adopt is not the policy to
be chosen and carried out by the men who are connected with our
institutions. Selfish policy is not heaven-born, it is earthly. In this
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world the leading maxim is, “The end justifies the means;” and this
may be traced in every department of business. It has a controlling
influence in every class of society, in the grand councils of nations,
and wherever the Spirit of Christ is not the ruling principle. Prudence
and caution, tact and skill, should be cultivated by everyone who is
connected with the office of publication and by those who serve in our
college and sanitarium. But the laws of justice and righteousness must
not be set aside, and the principle must not prevail that each one is to
make his particular branch of the work a success, regardless of other
branches. The interests of all should be closely guarded to see that no
one’s rights are invaded. In the world the God of traffic is too often
the God of fraud, but it must not be thus with those who are dealing
with the Lord’s work. The worldly standard is not to be the standard
of those who are connected with sacred things.
When the scenes of the judgment were brought before me, the
books in which are registered the deeds of men revealed the fact that
the dealings of some of those professing godliness in our institutions
were after the worldling’s standard, not in strict accordance with God’s
great standard of righteousness. The relation of men in their deal
with one another, especially those connected with the work of God,
was opened to me quite fully. I saw that there should be no close,
sharp deal between brethren who represent important institutions,
different, perhaps, in character, but branches of the same work. A
noble, generous, Christlike spirit should ever be maintained by them.
The spirit of avarice should have no place in their transactions. God’s
cause could not be advanced by any action on their part contrary to
the spirit and character of Christ. A selfish manner of dealing in one
will provoke the same disposition in others, but the manifestation of
liberality and true courtesy will awaken the same spirit in return and
would please our heavenly Father.
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