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Medical Ministry
are a Christian. You greatly lower your influence and mar your own
Christian experience when you lose your self-control and give them
the least occasion to think that you have ill-treated them. Leave not
this impression upon their minds if you can possibly avoid it. In
this probationary time we are forming our characters for the future
immortal life; but that is not all, for in this very process of character
building we need to be extremely cautious how we build, for others
will build after the pattern we give them.
We may never know until the judgment the influence of a kind,
considerate course of action to the inconsistent, the unreasonable,
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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
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.
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,
sick patient who suffers, but on account of his disease is not aware
of his danger.
Souls who have cost the life of God’s only-begotten Son must
be estimated in value by the immense ransom paid for them; and,
rich or poor, black or white, must be treated in respect to the value
Christ has placed upon the human soul.
These thoughts are worthy of solemn consideration. Any neglect
on our part, any exaltation of self, any hasty, passionate exultations,
may set a soul on the paths of destruction where he will never find