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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
public; he has not that living connection with God which would give
him a fresh experience.
The leaders of churches in every place should be earnest, full of
zeal and unselfish interest, men of God who can give the right mold to
the work. They should make their requests to God in faith. They may
devote all the time they wish to secret prayer, but in public they should
make their prayers and their testimonies short and to the point. Long,
dry prayers and long exhortations should be avoided. If the brethren
and sisters would have something to say that will refresh and edify
others, it must first be in their hearts. They must daily be connected
with God, drawing their supplies from His exhaustless storehouse
and bringing therefrom things new and old. If their own souls have
been vivified by the Spirit of God, they will cheer, strengthen, and
encourage others; but if they have not drunk at the living fountain of
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salvation themselves, they will not know how to lead others there.
The necessity of experimental religion must be urged upon those
who accept the theory of the truth. Ministers must keep their own souls
in the love of God and then impress upon the people the necessity of
an individual consecration, a personal conversion. All must obtain a
living experience for themselves; they must have Christ enshrined in
the heart, his Spirit controlling the affections, or their profession of
faith is of no value, and their condition will be even worse than if they
had never heard the truth.
Such arrangements should be made for the little companies ac-
cepting the truth as shall secure the prosperity of the church. One
man may be appointed to lead for a week or a month, then another
for a few weeks; and thus different persons may be enlisted in the
work, and after a suitable trial someone should be selected by the
voice of the church to be the acknowledged leader, never, however, to
be chosen for more than one year. Then another may be selected, or
the same one may be re-elected, if his service has proved a blessing
to the church. The same principle should be followed in selecting
men for other responsible positions, as in the offices of the conference.
Untried men should not be elected as presidents of conferences. Many
fail to exercise proper discernment in these important matters where
eternal interests are involved.
We profess to be the depositaries of God’s law; we claim to have
greater light and to aim at a higher standard than any other people upon