Earlier text: UNITY IN THE CHURCH.Bro. B, with your present self-willed, stubborn spirit, you will go farther and farther from the truth; and unless you are converted, you will prove to be a great hindrance to the cause of God in any place where you have any influence. You are persistent to carry your points. Your self-sufficient spirit must be yielded before you can see anything clearly. You have led your wife to think that you knew the truth better than any of our ministers; you have taken the key of knowledge into your own hands, so far as she is concerned, and have kept her in darkness. God has given his church men of judgment, experience, and faith. They know the way of truth and salvation, for they have searched for it in agony of spirit because of the opposition they had to meet from men who turned the truth of God into a lie; and the benefit of the labor of these faithful servants of God is given to the world. There are very few who realize the exalted nature of the work of God in comparison with the temporal business cares of life. Jesus, the heavenly Teacher, has given450 us lessons of instruction through his disciples. When he sent out the twelve, he instructed them that into whatever city or town they should enter, they must inquire who in it was worthy of their attention and visits; and if a suitable place was found where the people would esteem the blessing sent them,—the privilege of entertaining the messengers of Christ,—there they were to abide and there let their peace rest until they left that city. They were not instructed to visit any and every house indiscriminately, urging their presence upon the people whether they were welcome or not; but if they were not welcomed, if their peace could not rest in the house, they were to leave it, and seek a house where the members were worthy, and where their spirit could rest. When the messengers of Christ who go forth to teach the truth to others, are rejected, and their words find no place in the heart, Christ is rejected, and his word despised in the messengers of truth whom he has chosen and sent. This has just as full an application in this age of the world as it had when Christ gave the instruction to his chosen messengers. When Christ was upon the earth, there were men who had no respect or reverence for God’s messengers, and no more regard for their warning than for their own judgment; also in this age of the world there are those who do not respect the testimony of God’s chosen servants so highly as their own opinions. Such cannot be benefited by the labors of God’s servants, and time should not be lost in degrading the work of God to meet such minds. Christ said to the servants whom he sent forth, “He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.” Christ gives power to the voice of the church. “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.” No such thing is countenanced as one man’s starting out upon his own individual responsibility, and advocating what views he chooses, irrespective of the judgment of the church.451 God has bestowed the highest power under heaven upon his church. It is the voice of God in his united people in church capacity which is to be respected. God has given to his church men who have an experience, those who have fasted, and wept, and prayed, even through the entire night, for the Lord to open the Scriptures to their minds. In humility these men have given the world the benefit of their mature experience. Is this light of Heaven, or of men? Is it of any value, or is it worthless? Bro. B is doing a work in disseminating erroneous views of Bible truth that he will one day wish to undo; but it will be in vain. He may repent, he may yet be saved as by fire; but oh, how much precious time will have been lost that never can be redeemed! How much seed has he sown that has borne only briers and thorns! How many souls have been lost that might have been saved, had he tried as earnestly to let the true light shine as he has to scatter his darkness! What might he not have done, had he been consecrated, sanctified through the truth! Bro. B feels too self-sufficient, too rich and increased with goods, to see his need of anything. The True Witness pointed to him and said, “Unless ye become converted as a little child, ye cannot see the kingdom of Heaven.” The light of truth so carefully brought out in books and papers he does not respect; but he exalts his own judgment above the most precious light, and this light will rise up in the Judgment to condemn him. I saw that he would question the men upon whom God has seen fit to lay the responsibility of his work. He would exalt his own opinions and views above the light which God had given through them, and would boast of his knowledge; and he would be an accuser of his brethren, not excepting the ambassadors of Christ. All this overbearing influence to belittle the judgment of the servants of God, and to accuse them of weaknesses and errors, exalting his own opinions above theirs, if not repented of, will be found written against him in the books, which he will see with shame in the day of God. God will hold up his servants, will preserve his favored ones; but woe unto him who would make of none effect the words of Christ’s ambassadors, who receive the word from the mouth of God to speak to the people, and who would tell the people that the sword is coming, and warn them to prepare for the great day of God. Bro. B will find that it is no light or trivial work in which he has been engaged; it is a work which will roll back upon his soul with crushing weight. He has brought his spirit in opposition to God. He has a hard work before him. Said Christ, “It must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!” Bro. B, the course that you have been pursuing was shown me three years ago. I saw that you were wrong in almost every action, and yet you tried to gauge the truth to your actions instead of gauging them to the truth. You were not a light to the people of God, but a terrible burden. You will not lift when there is lifting to be done, and you discourage others from union of action. You are ever finding fault, and talking of your brethren; and while you have been questioning the course of others, a rank growth of poisonous weeds has flourished and taken deep root in your own heart. These roots of bitterness springing up have defiled many, and will defile many more unless you see them and root them out. I was shown that a harsh, Pharisaical spirit would grow upon Bro. B and control him, unless he sees the terrible defects in his character, and obtains grace from God to correct the evil. Before he embraced the truth, his hand seemed to be against every one; his combative spirit would strengthen at any provocation, and his self-esteem would be injured; he was a hard man, getting into and making trouble. The truth of God wrought a reformation in him. God accepted him, and his hand held him up. But since Bro. B has lost the spirit of consecration, his old, turbulent spirit, at variance with others, has been strengthening, and seeking to gain the mastery. When he dies to self, and humbles his proud heart before God, he will find how weak is his strength;453 he will feel the need of heavenly succor, and will cry, “Unclean, unclean, before thee, O God.” All his proud boasting in self will have an end Life in this stormy world, where moral darkness triumphs over truth and virtue, will be to the Christian a continual conflict. He will find that he must keep the armor on; for he will have to fight against forces that never tire, and foes that never sleep. We shall find ourselves beset with countless temptations; and we must find strength in Christ to overcome them, or be overcome by them and lose our souls. We have a great and solemn work to do, and how terrible will be our loss if we fail. If the work which our Master has left us be found undone, we cannot have a second probation granted us. It must remain undone forever. I was shown the life of Bro. B in his family. Angels wept as they viewed his course at home; as they viewed the unloved wife, who receives no respect from him whose duty it is to love and cherish her as his own body, even as Christ has loved and cherished the church. He takes pains to make her defects apparent, and to exalt his own wisdom and judgment, and to make her feel her inferiority in company and alone. Notwithstanding she is illiterate, her spirit is far more acceptable to God than the spirit of her husband. God looks upon Sister B with feelings of the deepest pity. She lives out the principles of truth, as far as she has light, much better than her husband. She will not be answerable for the light and knowledge that her husband has had, but which she has not had. He could be a light and comfort and blessing to her, but his influence is used in a wrong way. He reads to her what he pleases, that which will give strength to his views and his ideas, while he keeps back essential light which he does not want her to hear. He does not respect his wife, and he allows his children to show her disrespect. Like Eli’s sons, these children are left to come up. They are not restrained, and all this neglect will by and by rebound upon himself. That which Bro. B is now sowing he will most assuredly reap. Sister B, in many respects, is nearer the kingdom of454 Heaven than her husband. These unruly, disobedient children, that are not educated to self-control, will plant thorns in the hearts of their parents that they cannot prevent; and then in the Judgment God will call the parents to account for bringing children into the world and letting them come up untrained, unloving, and unloved. These children cannot be saved in the kingdom of Heaven without a great change in their characters. Bro. B seeks to have his wife believe as he believes; and he would have her think that all he does is right, and that he knows more than any of the ministers, and is wise above all men. I was shown that in his boasted wisdom, he is dealing with the bodies of his children as he is with the soul of his wife. He has been following a course according to his own wisdom, which is ruining the health of his child. He flatters himself that the poison which he has introduced into her system keeps her alive. What a mistake! He should reason how much better she might have been had he let her alone, and not abused nature. This child can never have a sound constitution; for her bones and the current of blood in her veins, have been poisoned. The shattered constitutions of his children and their aches and distressing pains will cry out against his boasted wisdom, which is folly. But what is more deplorable than all the rest is, that he has, as it were, left the door to perdition wide open for his children to enter and be lost. The natures of his children will have to be changed, their characters transformed and made over new, or there can be no hope for them. Can angels look lovingly upon your family, Bro. B? Can they delight to dwell in your house? The building is good, but the house does not make the happiness within. Those who live within the walls make it a Heaven or a hell. You do not respect the mother of your children. You permit in them disobedience and disrespect. You may say, “Why does Sister White come to me with this? I have no faith in the visions.” I knew this before I attempted to write, but I feel that the time has455 come for me to set these things before you. I must tell you the truth, for I expect to meet in the Judgment what I have here imperfectly written. I have waited, hoping that I might say something that would reach your heart, and soften it for the very words I have here written. But I have lost all hope in that direction, for you are fortified with an armor as impenetrable as steel. You will not accept of anything that does not meet your mind. I was shown that it would have been better for the cause of present truth if you had never embraced the Sabbath. Your conscience is not a very sensitive one; you are blinded by the enemy. I have given up all hope of doing anything for the church in —— while you are a stumbling-block to them. You once loved the truth, and had you followed on in the pathway of truth and holiness, you would now have been an ambassador for Christ. You will have a fearful account to give in the great day of God for your talents which have been unimproved. You had good abilities. God lent these talents to you for you to put to good account, but you have abused these gifts. Had you used the ability that God had given you on the right side, you would have done much in winning souls to Christ; and you would see in the kingdom of Heaven souls saved through your instrumentality. But you have scattered abroad, instead of gathering with Christ. Your brethren have been discouraged from trying to rise and advance; because you, like an opposing body, counteract the good they would do. The heart of God never yearned toward his earthly children with deeper love and more compassionate tenderness than now. There never was a time when God was ready and waiting to do more for his people than now. And he will instruct and save all who choose to be saved in his appointed way. Those who are spiritual can discern spiritual things, and see tokens of the presence and work of God everywhere. Satan, by his skillful and wicked strategy, led our first parents from the garden of Eden—from their innocence and purity, into sin and unspeakable wretchedness. He has not ceased456 to destroy; all the forces which he can command are diligently employed by him in these last days to compass the ruin of souls. He seizes every artifice that he can use to deceive, perplex, and confuse the people of God. He has used you as his agent to scatter darkness and confusion, and he finds that you work admirably in his hands. You are the very instrument that he can handle with good effect, to hurt, discourage, and tear down. You are not zealous to put your shoulder under the load with the people of God; but when they would move, you throw yourself as an additional load to prevent them from doing what they might do in advancing in the right direction. Satan is at work with those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. The most bitter hatred exists within him against all who are loyal to God, and who obey his commandments. He sleeps not; he does not abate his vigilance for one moment. Would that God’s professed followers were half as wise, diligent, and persevering in the work of God as Satan is in his work. Had you, Bro. B, followed on when you first set your hand to the plow, and not looked back, you would now have been a messenger of light, to bear the truth to those in darkness. But God could not use you to his glory until you should learn to counsel with your brethren, and not to think you knew all that was worth knowing. Satan has succeeded in keeping you from doing good. You did run well for a season, but Satan’s temptations overcame you. You loved to be first and to be flattered. You loved the power which money gives. Satan understands the weakness of men. He has the knowledge which he has accumulated for ages, and is an experienced hand at his work. His cunning and devices are well matured, and are too often successful, because God’s people are not as wise as serpents. Satan frequently appears as an angel of light, arrayed in the livery of Heaven; he assumes friendly airs, manifesting great sanctity of character and high regard for his victims, the souls whom he means to deceive and destroy. Perils lie in the path which he invites souls to457 travel; but he succeeds in concealing these, and presents the attractions only. The great Captain of our salvation has conquered in our behalf, that through him we might conquer, if we would, in our own behalf. But Christ saves none against their choice; he compels none to obedience. He made the infinite-sacrifice that they might overcome in his name, and his righteousness be imputed unto them. But in order to be saved, you must accept the yoke of Christ, and lay off the yoke which you have fashioned for your neck. The victory that Jesus gained in the wilderness, is a pledge to you of the victory that you may gain through his name. Your only hope and salvation is in overcoming as Christ overcame. The wrath of God now hangs over you. You love the attractions of the world above the heavenly treasure. The lust of the eye and the pride of life have separated you from God. Your confidence in your own poor, weak, faulty self must be broken. You must feel your weakness before you will drop, with your burden, into the hands of God. The soul that trusts fully and entirely in God will never be confounded. God would not have us consult our own convenience in obeying him. Christ pleased not himself when he was a man among men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The Majesty of Heaven had not where to lay his head, no place that he could claim as his own. He became poor for our sakes, that through him we might be rich indeed. Let us not talk of sacrifice; for we know not what it is to sacrifice for the truth. As yet, we have scarcely lifted the cross for Christ’s dear sake. Let us not seek for a way which is easier than the path our Redeemer has traveled before us. How incompetent are you, with all your boasted wisdom, to guide yourself! How liable are you to follow the dictates of a deceived conscience, to run in the way of error, and drag others with you! Your natural temperament is such that submission and obedience to God’s requirements are very hard. Your unbounded self-confidence, your prejudices, and458 your feelings easily lead you to choose a wrong path. Christ will be to you an infallible guide, if you will choose him before your own blind judgment. In your business, you have not had an eye single to the glory of God. You have had many perplexities and many difficulties to encounter, and if you had trusted to the True Counselor instead of to your own judgment, you would ever have been guided out of your perplexities in your business transactions. You have an important work before you which you can never do without the special help of God. You are capable of securing the companionship of angels, and of being an heir of God, a joint-heir with Jesus Christ; and for you to labor to confine the range of hope and desire within the narrow compass of your own convenience would be a life-long mistake. It is a terrible mistake to live only for this world. You look back and feel the condemnation of your own wrong course, and seek to justify yourself by finding fault with others. Whatever course others may pursue, or however wrong they may be, their errors will never cover one of your mistakes; and in the day of final reckoning you will not dare to plead this before God as a palliation for your neglect of duty. God proposes to accept you as his child, and make you a member of the royal family, a child of the heavenly King, upon conditions that you come out from the world, and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing. The Monarch of Heaven would have you possess and enjoy all that can ennoble, expand, and exalt your being, and fit you to dwell with him forever, your existence measuring with the life of God. What a prospect is the life which is to come! What charms it possesses! How broad and deep and measureless is the love of God manifested to man! No words can describe this love; it surpasses all thought and imagination, but it is a reality that you may learn by experience; you may rejoice in it with joy unspeakable and full of glory. With such a prospect before you, how can you narrow your mind to the compass of worldly thoughts, and to459 the range of worldly occupations, seeking gain, and yielding one point after another of present truth! Truth, principle, and conscience are desirable for you to retain. The favor of God is better than houses of silver and of gold. The deepest joy of the heart comes from the deepest humiliation. Trust and submission to God work out strength and nobleness of character. Tears are not in every case evidences of weakness. In order for you to build up a character which is symmetrical in the sight of a pure and holy God, you must begin at the foundation. The heart must be broken before God, and true repentance for sin must be shown, till you meet the demands of truth and duty. Then you will have true respect for yourself and true confidence in God. You will have tenderness of feeling. All that braggadocio spirit will be gone. In the place of harshness will be great tenderness, blended with firmness of purpose to stand for the truth at all events. You will then see much in the world and in your own heart to make you weep. TRUE REFINEMENT IN THE MINISTRY.
Bro. E.: I have designed to write to you for some time past, but have not found an opportunity to do so until now. While speaking to the people last Sabbath, I felt so clearly impressed with your case that I could with difficulty refrain from calling your name in public. I will now unburden my mind by writing to you. In my last vision I was shown the deficiencies of those who profess to labor in word and doctrine. I saw that you had not been improving your abilities, but had been growing less and less efficient to teach the truth. You need a thorough conversion. You have a strong, set will, even to stubbornness. You might now have been fitted for the solemn work of bearing the message of truth to others, had you been less self-confident, and more humble and meek in spirit. You do not love close application, nor the taxation of460 continued effort. You have not been a persevering student of the word of God, neither have you been a zealous worker in the cause of God. Your life has been far from representing the life of Christ. You are not discriminating. You are not a wise, judicious worker. You do not study to win souls to Christ, as every minister of Christ should. You have a set track, a standard of your own, to which you wish to bring the people; but you fail to do this, because they will not accept your standard. You are bigoted, and frequently carry things to extremes, and thereby seriously hurt the cause of God, and turn souls from the truth instead of winning them to it. I was shown that you had spoiled several good openings by your injudicious manner of laboring; and what shall I say to you in regard to this matter? Souls have been lost through your lack of wisdom in presenting the truth, and your failure to adorn your calling as a gospel minister by courtesy, kindness, and long-suffering. True Christian politeness should characterize all the actions of a minister of Christ. Oh, how poorly have you represented our pitiful, compassionate Redeemer, whose life was the embodiment of goodness and true purity. You have turned souls from the truth by a harsh, censorious, overbearing spirit. Your words have not been in the gentleness of Christ, but in the spirit of E. Your nature is naturally coarse and unrefined; and because you have never felt the necessity of true refinement and Christian politeness, your life has not been as elevated as it might have been. You have remained in the rut of habit. Your education and training have not been correct, and therefore your efforts should have been the more earnest to improve, to reform, and make decided and thorough changes. Unless you realize a decided and thorough conversion in almost every respect, you are entirely unfitted to preach the truth; and unless you can have a proper and becoming elevation of character, manners, and address, you will do more harm than you can do good. You have not done much in advancing the truth; for you have lingered about the churches too much, when you could do them no good,461 but only injury. Your ways and manners need refining and sanctifying. You should no longer mar the work of God by your deficiencies, since you have shown no decided improvement in becoming a workman in the cause of God. It is impossible for you to bring others up to any higher standard than that to which you yourself attain. If you do not advance, how can you lead the church of God forward to a higher standard of piety and holiness? All such ministers as you have been for several years are more of a curse than a blessing to the cause of God, and the fewer we have of them the more prosperous will be the cause of present truth. You are not elevated in your ideas, or aspiring in your labors. You are content to be commonplace, and to make a cheap minister. You do not aspire to perfection of Christian character, and to that position in the work that Christ requires every one of his chosen ministers to attain. No one professing to bear the truth to others is fitted for the responsible work unless he is making advancement in knowledge and in consecration to the work, and is improving his manners and temper, and growing in true wisdom from day to day. Close communion with God is necessary for every man who would guide souls into the truth. It should ever be borne in mind by those who take upon themselves the burden of guiding souls out of nature’s darkness into the marvelous light, that they themselves must be advancing in that light, else how can they lead others? If they are walking in darkness themselves, it is a most fearful responsibility which they assume in pretending to teach others the way. You have engaged in labor in places where you were not competent to do justice to the work which you undertook. You did not labor judiciously. You sought to make up for your lack of real knowledge by censuring other denominations, running down others, and making hard and bitter criticisms upon their course and condition. Had your heart been all aglow with the spirit of truth, had you been sanctified to God, and walking in the light as Christ is in the light, you would have moved in wisdom, and would have had enough ways and means at your462 command to maintain an interest, without going out of your way and aside from your specific work, to rail out against others who profess to be Christians. Unbelievers have been disgusted; they think that Seventh-day Adventists have been fairly represented by you, and they decide that it is enough, and that they want no more of such doctrines. Our faith is unpopular at best, and is in wide contrast to the faith and practices of other denominations. In order to reach those who are in the darkness of error and false theories, we must approach them with the utmost caution, and with the greatest wisdom, agreeing with them on every point that we can conscientiously. All consideration should be shown for those in error, and all just credit given them for honesty. We should come as near the people as possible, and then the light and truth which we have may benefit them. But Bro. E, like many of our ministers, commences a warfare at once against the errors that others cherish; he thus raises their combativeness and their set wills, and this holds them encased in an armor of selfish prejudice which no amount of evidence can remove. Who but yourself will be responsible for the souls that you have turned away from the truth by your unsanctified labors? Who can break down the walls of prejudice which your injudicious labor has built up? I know of no greater sin against God than for men to engage in the ministry who labor in self and not in Christ. They are looked up to as the representatives of Christ, when they do not represent his spirit in any of their labors. They do not see or realize the dangers attending the efforts made by unconsecrated, unconverted men. They move on like blind men, deficient in almost everything, and yet self-confident and self-sufficient, themselves walking in darkness and stumbling at every step. They are bodies of darkness. Bro. E, you have narrow ideas, and your labor has a tendency to lower rather than to elevate the truth. This is not because you have no ability. You could have made a good workman, but you are too indolent to make463 the effort necessary to attain the object. You would rather come down in a harsh and overbearing manner upon those who differ with you, than to take the trouble to elevate the tone of your labor. You take positions, and then when they are questioned, you are not humble enough to yield your notions, though they are shown to be wrong; but you stand up in your independence, and firmly hold to your ideas, when concession on your part is essential, and is required of you as a duty. You have stubbornly and unyieldingly held to your own judgment and opinions, to the sacrifice of souls. Bro. E, your set positions, and your strong, determined will to carry out your points at all hazards, were felt and deplored by your wife, and her health suffered in consequence. You were not gentle and tender to this sensitive child of God; your strong spirit overbore her more gentle disposition. She grieved over many things. You could have made her life happier had you tried; but you sought to have her see things as you saw them, and instead of trying to assimilate yourself to her refined temperament, you tried to mold her to your coarser nature and your extreme ideas. She was warped in her nature and could not act out herself. She withered like a plant transplanted to an uncongenial soil. You should not seek to mold minds and characters after your pattern, but should allow your own character to be molded after the divine pattern. If this world were composed of men like yourself in character and temperament, woe would be to it. As like would meet like whichever way you might turn, you would be disgusted with your associates, the exact patterns of yourself, and would wish to be out of the world. You boast and glory in yourself. But, oh, how improper is this for any man, even if he have the finest qualities of mind and the most extended influence! Men of fine qualities have the greatest influence, because they do not know their worth and how much good they do accomplish in the world. But it is all out of place for men of your stamp of character to be lifted up and boastful in self. In your labors you frequently start out well; you raise an interest, and conviction rests upon minds that the arguments used cannot be controverted; but just at the time when souls are balancing in favor of the truth, self appears so plainly, is so prominent, that all which might have been gained, had Jesus shone forth in your words and deportment, is lost. You lack the very graces which are essential to win souls to Christ and the truth. You can argue well, but you have not an experimental knowledge of the divine will; and for want of a religious experience yourself, you are unable to lead others to the Fountain of living waters. Your own soul is not in communion with God, but is in darkness; and nothing can supply the deficiency realized by souls groping their way in the dark, except the light of truth. Unless you are thoroughly converted, your efforts to convert others might as well cease now as for you to labor longer, mangling and perverting the religious standard by your narrow and bigoted ideas. You have not an experimental knowledge of the divine will; your own righteousness seems to you to be of value, when it is valueless. You need to be transformed before you can be of use in the cause of God. When you are converted, then you can labor to acceptance. You do not possess the religion of Christ. You must soften your heart and die to self, and Christ must live in you; then you will walk in the light as he is in the light, and you will leave a bright track Heavenward to lighten the pathway of others. You have felt too well satisfied with yourself. You should educate yourself, and overcome your bigoted and fault-finding spirit. You need to keep the body under, and bring it in subjection, lest, after you have preached to others, you yourself should be a castaway. You take small views of matters, pick at straws, find fault, and question the course of others, when you might far better be overcoming the defects in your own character and life, working from a Christian stand-point, seeking light from God, and preparing to unite with pure angels in the kingdom of Heaven. As you are,465 would mar all Heaven. You are uncultivated, unrefined, and unsanctified. There is no place in Heaven for such a character as you now possess. If you will take hold of the work earnestly, and, without making any apology for sin, will condemn sin in the flesh, and reach up in faith and hope for divine grace and right judgment, you may overcome those deficiencies in your character which disqualify you for laboring in the cause of God. You have not advanced or improved for many years. You are farther to-day from the standard of Christian perfection, from possessing the qualifications which should be found in the minister of the gospel, than you were a few months after you had received the truth. God is displeased with those who are not intelligent in regard to the Christian religion, and yet are trying to lead others. You are correctly represented by the man who sought to pull out a mote from his brother’s eye, when a beam was in his own eye. First set your own heart in order, and reform your own character; obtain a connection with God, and gain a daily Christian experience; then you may bear a burden for souls who are out of Christ. There are but few of the brethren who have taken more time to read different authors than you have, and yet you are very deficient in the qualifications necessary for a minister teaching the truth. You fail to quote, or even read, the Scriptures correctly. This should not be. You have not advanced in mental culture, and have not secured a growth of grace in the soul which would shine out in your words and deportment. You have not felt the necessity of reaching up for higher and holier attainments. Chasing through books superficially, clogs the mind, and causes you to become a mental dyspeptic. You cannot digest and use one-half that you read. If you should read with the one object in view to improve the mind, and should read only as much as the mind can comprehend and digest, and would patiently persevere in such a course of reading, good results would be accomplished.466 You, as well as other ministers, need to attend school, and to commence like a child to master the first branches of knowledge. You can neither read, spell, nor pronounce correctly, and yet there are but few who have had less taxation and less burdens of responsibility to bear than yourself. The position of our ministers calls for health of body and discipline of mind. Good sound sense, strong nerves, and a cheerful temper will recommend the gospel minister anywhere. This should be sought for, and perseveringly cultivated. Your life thus far has been unprofitable. You have some very good ideas, but the Spirit of God does not dwell in your heart. You are not quickened by his power, and you have not genuine faith, hope, and love. The Spirit of Christ dwelling in you will enable you to take of the things of God and reveal them to others. You can be of no benefit to the cause of God till the work of a faithful minister of Christ is more exalted in your mind. You want a purpose in your life to do good, as did Jesus. The self-denial and love which you manifest in this work will tell upon the lives and characters of others. You should get rid of your cold, frozen formality as soon as possible. You need to cultivate feelings of tenderness and friendliness in your every-day life. You should exhibit true courtesy and Christian politeness. The heart that really loves Jesus, loves those for whom he died. Just as truly as the needle points to the pole, so will the true follower of Christ, with a spirit of earnest labor, seek to save souls for whom Christ has given his life. Working for the salvation of sinners will keep the love of Christ warm in the heart, and will give that love a proper growth and development. Without a correct knowledge of the divine will, there will be a lack of harmonious development in the Christian character. I beseech you, my brother, to become acquainted with God. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” Ministering angels mark every step of our progress. But your will is not surrendered to God; your467 thoughts are not holy. You go on, stumbling along in darkness, not knowing where to place your feet. The Lord reveals his will to those who are earnest and anxious to be guided. The reason of your inefficiency is, you have given up the idea of knowing and doing the will of God, therefore you do not know anything positively. Though blind yourself, you attempt to lead the blind. Oh, in what a position are you and many other ministers! Having forsaken God, the Fountain of living waters, you and they have hewn out to yourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. I entreat of you to be alarmed and turn to the Lord with that deep and earnest repentance which will secure to you his forgiveness, and the enduring strength of his might, that you may indeed be filled with all the fullness of God. He frowns upon your course, for you have been as a stumbling-block to souls. You have depended on your own works and righteousness for success, and have not a knowledge of the divine will. May the Lord reveal to you your true character, and let you see your real deficiencies. When you are enlightened by the Spirit of God to understand this, you will have such a sense of your sinful neglect and unimproved life as will strike terror to your soul, and cause you sorrow that will lead to repentance that needeth not to be repented of. TESTIMONY FOR THE CHURCH.