Chapter 71—The Work Before Us
There is a very great and important work for our conferences in
America to do. We are to carry the work in America in such a way
that we shall be a strength and help to those who are proclaiming the
message in distant countries. Every nation, tongue, and people is to be
aroused and brought to a knowledge of the truth. Something is being
done, but there is much yet to be done, much to be learned right here
at this Conference, in order that the work may go forward in a way
that will honor and glorify God.
My soul has been so burdened that I have not been able to rest.
What line can we dwell upon that will make the deepest impression
upon the human mind? There are our schools. They are to be con-
ducted in such a way that they will develop missionaries who will go
out to the highways and hedges to sow the seeds of truth. This was
the commission of Christ to His followers. They were to go to the
highways and the byways bearing the message of truth to souls that
would be brought to the faith of the gospel. I felt deeply in earnest as I
saw how much needs to be done in the places I have recently visited.
We must stand in the strength of God if we are to accomplish this
work.
In his labors each worker is to look to God. We are to labor
as men and women who have a living connection with God. We
are to learn how to meet the people where they are. Let not such
conditions exist as we found in some places when we returned to
America, in which individual church-members, instead of realizing
their responsibility, looked to men for guidance, and men to whom had
been committed sacred and holy trusts in the carrying forward of the
work, failed of understanding the value of personal responsibility and
took upon themselves the work of ordering and dictating what their
brethren should do or should not do. These are things that God will not
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allow in His work. He will put His burdens upon His burden-bearers.
Every individual soul has a responsibility before God, and is not to be
arbitrarily instructed by men as to what he shall do, what he shall say,
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