Application to the Work
565
as diligence. If we wish to accomplish the work according to the will
of God, it must be done in an expeditious manner, but not without
thought and care.—
Manuscript 24, 1887
.
Organizing Our Routine Work—Persons who have not acquired
habits of close industry and economy of time, should have set rules
to prompt them to regularity and dispatch. George Washington was
enabled to perform a great amount of business because he was thorough
in preserving order and regularity. Every paper had its date and its
place, and no time was lost in looking up what had been mislaid.—
Gospel Workers, 277, 278
(1880).
To Use Initiative—When a laborer is set in a certain portion of the
Lord’s vineyard, his work is given him as a faithful laborer together
with God to work that vineyard. He is not to wait to be told at every
point by human minds what he must do, but plan his work to labor
wherever he is needed. God has given you brain power to use. The
wants of the believers and the necessities of unbelievers are to be
carefully studied, and your labors are to meet their necessities. You
are to inquire to God and not of any living man what you shall do.
You are a servant of the living God, and not a servant of any man. You
cannot do the work of God intelligently and be the shadow of another
man’s thoughts and directions. You are under God.—
Letter 8, 1895
.
Promptness Saves Confusion—There is among the workers a
lack of aptness, a confusion, a lack of mutual understanding and
promptness. Things are not done on time. As a result, complica-
[651]
tions and difficulties arise, which it is hard to overcome from a lack
of united action. This state of things, if it is not remedied, will be
seen and felt still more in the future than in the past, for the work will
grow and the need of a perfect understanding of affairs in this house
will become greater. The unfortunate habit of neglecting a special
work which needs to be done at a certain time trebles the difficulty
of performing it later with exactness and without leaving something
neglected or unfinished.—
Manuscript 24, 1887
.
Rising at Regular Time—Some youth are much opposed to order
and discipline. They do not respect the rules of the home by rising
at a regular hour. They lie in bed some hours after daylight, when
everyone should be astir. They burn the midnight oil, depending
upon artificial light to supply the place of the light that nature has
provided at seasonable hours. In so doing they not only waste precious