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Counsels on Health
respect. They may be seeking for perfection of character, but they
are finite and liable to err. Those who are engaged in our institutions
should feel it their duty jealously to guard both the work and the
workers from unjust criticism. They should not readily accept or speak
words of censure against any who are connected with the work of God,
for in thus doing God Himself may be reproached and the work that
He is doing through instrumentalities may be greatly hindered. The
wheels of progress may be blocked when God says “Go forward.”
It is a great evil, and one which exists among our people to a great
extent, to give loose rein to the thoughts, to question and criticize
everything another does, making mountains out of molehills, and
thinking their own ways are right, whereas, if they were in the same
place as their brother, they might not do half as well as he does. It is
just as natural for some to find fault with what another does as it is
for them to breathe. They have formed the habit of criticizing others,
when they themselves are the ones who should be brought severely
to task and their wicked speeches and hard feelings be burned out of
their souls by the purifying fire of God’s love....
A person who will allow any degree of suspicion or censure to rest
upon his fellow workers, while he neither rebukes the complainers nor
faithfully presents the matter before the one condemned, is doing the
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work of the enemy. He is watering the seeds of discord and of strife,
the fruit of which he will have to meet in the day of God....
This disrespect for others, this disregard for right and justice, is not
a rare thing. It is found to a greater or less extent in all our institutions.
If one makes a mistake, there are some who make it their business to
talk about it until it grows to large proportions. Instead of this, there
should be in all engaged in our institutions a sacred principle to guard
the interest and reputation of everyone with whom they are associated,
even as they would wish their own reputation guarded.