Workers in the Cause
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the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability
which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through
Jesus Christ.”
When these principles control our hearts, we shall realize that the
work is God’s, not ours; that He has the same care for every part of
the great whole. When Christ and His glory are made first and love
of self is swallowed up in love for souls for whom Christ died, then
no worker will be so entirely absorbed in one branch of the cause as
to lose sight of the importance of every other. It is selfishness which
leads persons to think that the particular part of the work in which they
are engaged is the most important of all.
It is selfishness also that prompts the feeling, on the part of workers,
that their judgment must be the most reliable and their methods of labor
the best or that it is their privilege in any way to bind the conscience
of another. Such was the spirit of the Jewish leaders in Christ’s day. In
their self-exaltation the priests and rabbis brought in such rigid rules
and so many forms and ceremonies as to divert the minds of the people
from God and leave Him no chance to work for them. Thus His mercy
and love were lost sight of. My brethren, do not follow in the same
path. Let the minds of the people be directed to God. Leave Him
a chance to work for those who love Him. Do not impose upon the
people rules and regulations, which, if followed, would leave them as
destitute of the Spirit of God as were the hills of Gilboa of dew or rain.
There is a deplorable lack of spirituality among our people. A
great work must be done for them before they can become what
Christ designed they should be—the light of the world. For years
I have felt deep anguish of soul as the Lord has presented before me
the want in our churches of Jesus and His love. There has been a
spirit of self-sufficiency and a disposition to strive for position and
supremacy. I have seen that self-glorification was becoming common
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among Seventh-day Adventists and that unless the pride of man should
be abased and Christ exalted we should, as a people, be in no better
condition to receive Christ at His second advent than were the Jewish
people to receive Him at His first advent.
Jews were looking for the Messiah; but He did not come as they
had predicted that He would, and if He were accepted as the Promised
One, their learned teachers would be forced to acknowledge that they
had erred. These leaders had separated themselves from God, and