High Spiritual Standards for God’s Workmen
59
time his deceiving power has been coming in and taking the lines of
control. Selfish motives have been gradually and almost imperceptibly
creeping in, until the objectionable methods and unscriptural principles
have been interwoven with the work, and a singular blindness has been
the result.—
Manuscript 28, 1896
.
Stifle Wrong Principles—There has been an effort to bring God’s
servants under the control of men who have not the knowledge and
wisdom of God or an experience under the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
Principles have been born that should never have seen the light of
day.... Finite men have been warring against God and the truth and the
Lord’s chosen messengers, counterworking them by every means they
dared to use. Please consider what virtue there can be in the wisdom
and plans of those who have slighted God’s messages and, like the
scribes and Pharisees, have despised the very men whom God has used
to present light and truth which His people needed.... A wrong against
the weakest or most erring of His flock is even more offensive to God
than if it were against the strongest one among you.—
Letter 83, 1896
.
A Cleansing From Every Selfish Principle—As a people we
need to come up on a higher platform. In our printing offices in
Washington and Nashville there is a work to be done that will bring in
a clear and holy atmosphere. There must be a cleansing from every
selfish principle. Narrow, self-conceived ideas must not bear rule. They
must be purged away. When the workers hunger for the incoming of
pure, uplifting principles, the salvation of God will be revealed, and
[72]
He will be glorified.
Let the workers in the publishing houses rid themselves of every
species of selfishness. When each one is willing to give to his brother
the right of way that he desires for himself, then God can be glorified
in His institutions.
For years some have been binding themselves about with selfish
desires as with hoops of steel. Self and selfishness have figured largely
in their work, but such a spirit is dishonoring to God. I am instructed to
say that those who retain such a spirit and hold such principles cannot
be accepted by Christ as laborers together with Him for the glory of
God.
Men may be placed in high positions of trust in the cause of God,
but they can claim nothing from Him unless they practice His word
and rule in righteousness, seeking to copy the example of the meek