Basic HTML Version
Glorify God, Not Man, April 24
My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof,
and be glad.
Psalm 34:2
.
I was about to write some words of encouragement to one who had helped in
the work ... at a time when it was going very hard. A hand was placed upon the
paper, forbidding me to write, and a voice said, “These words of commendation
will do harm to the one you are addressing. God is the Master Worker. Glorify
Him, not man.”...
Let us be very careful not to praise or flatter any human being. Do not place
before the Lord’s servants the temptation of human praise. It is God who enables
men and women to accomplish good. He is behind every worker. Without His
power, man is helpless....
There are those who by self-denial and self-sacrifice have prepared the way
for a good work, yet who have not the capabilities that enable them to carry this
work forward successfully when it has reached a certain stage of advancement....
Brother S_____ has been greatly blessed by God. The Lord used him to start
the work at H_____. But he is not to think, because of this, that he is fitted to carry
the school work forward on the broad, elevated place on which it must be carried.
Others, whose education and training fit them for it, must take up the work in its
advanced stages, and carry it onward and upward. But the Lord does not value the
less those who in self-sacrifice and self-denial prepared the way for the work to
advance.
The Lord’s workers must not think that they must be their own judges of the
position they should fill. Let all remember that there are many different lines of
work, and that all these lines of work are necessary. The hewers of wood and
drawers of water do acceptable service, and make a success where others would
certainly make a failure....
Look to Jesus. Do not spoil your record by giving way to despondency and
distrust. Make straight paths for your feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way....
The man who is nearest the Lord is the man who waits for Him as one who waits
for the morning, the man who has the least confidence in self and the strongest
confidence in God as the One who can save to the uttermost all who come to
Him....
The Lord has an interest in all the work you are trying to do for Him. Do not
worry. The day of trust is in our hands. The day of reckoning will bear the faithful
witness as to how we have done our work. Let us do our best. If the Lord is with
us, we shall be prospered.—
Letter 64, April 24, 1902
, to J. E. White, who was
working among the blacks in the South.
[129]
125