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Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers
astonished at the terrible indifference of the human agents. Men
who are themselves tempted to fall into sin, and need pardon, are
yet full of self-sufficiency, and are unfeeling toward a brother who
is ensnared by the enemy, and whose need and peril should call out
Christlike sympathy and effort to plant his feet on the solid Rock.
A Fatal Deception
There is a most fearful, fatal deception upon human minds.
Because men are in positions of trust, connected with the work of
God, they are exalted in their own estimation, and do not discern
that other souls, fully as precious in the sight of God as their own,
are neglected, and handled roughly, and bruised, and wounded, and
left to die.
The converting power of God must come upon men who handle
sacred things, yet who are unable, through some cause best known
to God, to distinguish between the sacred fire of God’s own kindling
and the strange fire which they offer. That strange fire is as dishon-
oring to God as was that presented by Nadab and Abihu. The sacred
fire of God’s love would make men tender and kind and sympathetic
toward those in peril. Those who indulge in sharp, overbearing
words, are really saying: I am holier than thou. Do you not see my
exalted position?
But the position does not make the man. It is the integrity of
character, the spirit of Christ, that makes him thankful, unselfish,
without partiality and without hypocrisy—it is this that is of value
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with God. To those whose life is hid with Christ in God, the Lord
says, “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy
walls are continually before Me.”
For all in responsible positions I have a message spoken by
the mouth of the Lord—the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah. Study this
chapter, and let not any human being consider that he is above his
fellow workers because greater responsibilities are involved in his
branch of the work. If he is like Daniel, seeking for the power
that comes alone from God, that he may represent, not himself,
not his imperfections in selfish and fraudulent practices, but the
truth in righteousness, he will not possess a vestige of pride or self-