Letter to a Minister and His Wife Bound for Africa
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great wisdom must be exercised in approaching those who are not
of our faith. You need to cherish courtesy, refinement, and Christian
politeness. There will be need for you to guard against being abrupt
and blunt. Do not consider these peculiarities as virtues, because God
does not regard them thus. You should seek in all things not to offend
those who do not believe as we do by making prominent the most
objectionable features of our faith when there is no call for it. You will
only do injury by it....
We want more, much more, of the Spirit of Christ; and less, much
less, of self and the peculiarities of character which build up a wall,
keeping you apart from your fellow-labourers. We can do much to
break down these barriers. We can do much by revealing the graces of
Christ in our own lives.
Jesus has been entrusting to His church His goods age after age.
One generation after another for more than eighteen hundred years
has been gathering up the hereditary trust, and these responsibilities,
which have increased according to the light, have descended along the
lines to our times. Do we feel our responsibilities? Do we feel that we
are stewards of God’s grace? Do we feel that the lowliest, humblest
service may be consecrated, if it is exercised with the high aim of
doing, not our own, but our Master’s will to promote His glory? We
want on the whole armour of righteousness, not our own garments....
You do not know yourself, and you need daily to be imbued with
the Spirit of Jesus, else you will, in your dealing with your brethren
and with unbelievers, become small, narrow, and penurious, and turn
souls in disgust from the truth. If you cultivate these peculiar traits of
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character you will give deformity to the work. You must grow out of
this narrowness; you must have breadth; you must get out of this little
dealing, for it belittles you in every way....
Now as you enter a new field, elevate the work from the very
commencement. Place it on a high level, and have all your efforts
of such a character as to bring all who are interested in the truth to
a noble, elevated platform, corresponding with the magnitude of the
work that they may have a proper education and be able to teach others.
The truth is of heavenly origin, and it has been mercifully given to us
in trust by Heaven. May the Lord strengthen and bless you both, that
you may work out self and weave Jesus into all your labours, and then
the blessing of God will rest upon you.