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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
It was presented before me that there were poor men whose only
means of obtaining a livelihood was their brain work; also that there
are businessmen connected with our institutions who have not grown
up with them and have not had the benefit of all the instruction that
God has given from time to time relative to their management. They
have not incorporated true religion, the spirit of Christ, into their
business. The Publishing Association should not, therefore, be made
an all-controlling power. Individual talent and individual rights must
be respected. Should arrangements be made to invest all the results of
personal talent in the Publishing Association, other important interests
would be crippled.
To every man God has given his work. To some He has given
talents of means and influence; and those who have the interests of
God’s cause at heart will understand His voice telling them what to
do. They will have a burden to push the work where it needs pushing.
Several times it has been pointed out to me that there has been a
close, ungenerous spirit exercised toward Brother H from the very first
of his labors in Battle Creek. It makes me sad to state the reason. It
was because he went there a stranger and in poverty. Because he was
a poor man he has been placed in unpleasant positions and made to
feel his poverty. Men connected with our institutions have thought that
they could bring him to their terms, and he has had a very unpleasant
time. There are sad chapters in his experience, which would not have
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passed into history if his brethren had been kind and had dealt with
him in a Christlike manner. The Lord’s cause should always be free
from the slightest injustice, and no act connected with it should savor
in the smallest degree of penuriousness or oppression.
The Lord guards every man’s interest. He was always the poor
man’s friend. There is a most wonderful dearth of Christlike love in
the hearts of nearly all who are handling sacred things. I would say to
my brethren everywhere: Cultivate the love of Christ! It should well
up from the soul of the Christian like streams in the desert, refreshing
and beautifying, bringing gladness, peace, and joy into his own life
and into the lives of others. “None of us liveth to himself.” If there is
shown the least oppression of the poor, or unjust dealing with them in
either small or great things, God will hold the oppressor accountable.
Do not seek to make terms which are not just and fair with either
Elder J or Professor H, or with any other brainworker. Do not urge