206 Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists
The mind must not be permitted to drift with circumstances and follow
impulse, but must be resolutely held to the object of the labor.
All who would become efficient workers must give much time to
prayer. The communication between God and the soul must be kept
open, that the workers may recognize the voice of their Captain. The
Bible should be diligently studied. The truth of God, like gold, is not
always lying right on the surface; it is to be obtained only by earnest
thought and study. This study will not only store the mind with the
most valuable knowledge, but it will strengthen and expand the mental
powers, and it will give a true estimate of eternal things. Let the divine
precepts be brought into the daily life; let the life be fashioned after
God’s great standard of righteousness, and the whole character will be
strengthen and ennobled.
He who is seeking to qualify himself for the sacred work of God
should be careful not to place himself on the enemy’s ground, but
should choose the society of those who will help him to obtain divine
knowledge. God suffered John, the beloved disciple, to be exiled to
Patmos, where he was separated from the world’s bustle and strife,
shut away from every outside influence, and even the work that he
loved. Then the Lord could commune with him, opening before him
the closing scenes in this world’s history. John the Baptist made his
home in the wilderness, there to receive of God the message he was
to bear, to prepare the way for the Coming One. So far as consistent,
we should shun every influence which would tend to divert the mind
from the work of God. And those especially who are young in faith
and experience should beware that they do not in self-confidence place
themselves in the way of temptation.
Those who take hold of the work aright, will feel the necessity
of having Jesus with them at every step, and they will feel that the
cultivation of the mind and the manners is a duty due to themselves
and required of God,—a duty which is essential to the success of the
work. Some who contemplate becoming missionary workers may think
themselves so far advanced that they do not need all this particular drill,
but those who feel thus are the very ones who stand in the greatest need
of thorough training. When they know much more in regard to the
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truth and the importance of the work, they will realize their ignorance
and inefficiency. When they closely examine their own hearts, they
will see themselves in such contrast to the pure character of Christ that