Chapter 3—Conditions Among God’s People
Missionary Spirit Lacking
There has been but little of the missionary spirit among Sabbath-
keeping Adventists. If ministers and people were sufficiently aroused,
they would not rest thus indifferently, while God has honored them by
making them the depositaries of His law, by printing it in their minds
and writing it upon their hearts.—
Testimonies for the Church 3:202
.
The true missionary spirit has deserted the churches that make
so exalted a profession; their hearts are no longer aglow with love
for souls, and a desire to lead them into the fold of Christ. We want
earnest workers. Are there none to respond to the cry that goes up
from every quarter, “Come over and help us”?—
Testimonies for the
Church 4:156
.
I was shown that as a people we are deficient. Our works are not in
accordance with our faith. Our faith testifies that we are living under
the proclamation of the most solemn and important message that was
ever given to mortals. Yet in full view of this fact, our efforts, our
zeal, our spirit of self-sacrifice, do not compare with the character of
the work. We should awake from the dead, and Christ will give us
life.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:114
.
My heart is pained when I think how little our churches sense
their solemn accountabilities to God. It is not ministers alone who
are soldiers, but every man and woman who has enlisted in Christ’s
army; and are they willing to receive a soldier’s fare, just as Christ
has given them an example in His life of self-denial and sacrifice?
What self-denial have our churches as a whole manifested? They may
have given donations in money, but have withheld themselves.—
The
General Conference Bulletin, 1893, 131
.
Many of the professed followers of Christ feel no more burden for
souls than do the world. The lusts of the eye, and the pride of life, the
love of display, the love of ease, separate the professed Christians from
God, and the missionary spirit in reality exists in but few. What can be
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