Kindness, Tenderness, Sympathy
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separated the hearts of your brethren from you, so that your counsel
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has not had much influence over them for good. This is not as the
Lord would have it. He is not pleased with your attitude toward your
brethren.—
Letter 3, 1888
, p. 4 (January 10, 1888).
The Power of Kindness—We may never know until the judgment
the influence of a kind, considerate course of action to the inconsistent,
the unreasonable, and unworthy.
If after a course of provocation and injustice on their part, you
treat them as you would an innocent person, you even take pains to
show them special acts of kindness, then you have acted the part of a
Christian, and they become surprised and ashamed and see their course
of action and meanness more clearly than if you plainly stated their
aggravated acts to rebuke them.
If you had laid their wrong course of action before them, they
would have braced themselves in stubbornness and defiance; but to be
treated in tenderness and consideration, they feel more deeply their
own course of action and contrast it with yours. Then you have the
staff in your own hands. You occupy vantage ground, and when you
show a solicitude for their souls, they know that you are no hypocrite,
but that you mean every word you say.
I have been shown that a few words spoken in a hasty manner,
under provocation, and which seemed but a little thing—just what
they deserved, often cut the cords of influence that should have bound
the soul to your soul. The very idea of their being in darkness, under
the temptation of Satan and blinded by his bewitching power, should
make you feel deep sympathy for them—the same that you would feel
for a diseased patient who suffers, but, on account of his disease, is
not aware of his danger.—
Letter 20, 1892
(October 17, 1892 to J. H.
Kellogg).
Representatives of Jesus—It would be well if those occupying
positions of trust in our institutions would remember that they are to be
representatives of Jesus. True goodness, holiness, love, compassion for
tempted souls must be revealed in their lives. Christ gave Himself to the
world, that He might save those who would believe in Him. Shall not
we, partakers of this great salvation, value the souls for whom He gave
His life! Let us labor with a perseverance and energy proportionate
to the value Christ places upon His blood-bought heritage. Human
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