Brother R, your influence has not been
of that character which would do honor to the cause of present
truth. Had you been sanctified by the truth you preach to others,
you would have been of ten times more advantage to the cause
of God than you have been. You have relied so much upon creating
a sensation that without this you have but little courage. These
great excitements and sensational interests are your strength
and glory and success as a laborer, but these are not pleasing
to God. Your labors in this direction are seldom what you flatter
yourself that they are.
Close investigation reveals the fact that
there are but very few sheaves to be gathered after these specially
exciting meetings. Yet, from all the experience of the past,
you have not learned to change your manner of labor. You have
been slow to learn how to shape your future labors in such a
manner as to shun the errors of the past. The reason of this
has been, that, like the inebriate, you love the stimulus of
these sensational meetings; you long for them as the drunkard
longs for a glass of liquor to arouse his flagging energies.
These debates, which create an excitement, are mistaken for zeal
for God and love for the truth. You have been almost destitute
of the Spirit of God to work with your efforts. If you had God
with you in all your moves, and if you felt a burden for souls
and had the wisdom to skillfully manage these exciting seasons
to press souls into the kingdom of Christ, you could see fruits
of your labors, and God would be glorified. Your soul should
be all aglow with the spirit of
the truth you present to others. After you have labored to convict
souls of the claims that the law of God has upon them, teaching
them repentance toward God and faith in Christ, then your work
is but just begun. You too frequently excuse yourself from completing
the work and leave a heavy burden for others to take up in finishing
the work that you ought to have done. You say that you are not
qualified to finish up the work. Then the sooner you qualify
yourself to bear the burdens of a shepherd, or pastor, of the
flock, the better.
As a true shepherd you should discipline
yourself to deal with minds and to give to each of the flock
of God his portion of meat in due season. You should be careful
and study to have a store of practical subjects that you have
investigated and that you can enter into the spirit of and present
in a plain, forcible manner to the people at the right time and
place as they may need. You have not been thoroughly furnished
from the word of Inspiration unto all good works. When the flock
have needed spiritual food, you have frequently presented some
argumentative subject that was no more appropriate for the occasion
than an oration upon national affairs. If you would task yourself
and educate your mind to a knowledge of the subjects with which
the word of God has amply furnished you, you could build up the
cause of God by feeding the flock with food which would be proper
and which would give spiritual health and strength as their wants
require.
You have yet to learn the work of a true
shepherd. When you understand this, the cause and work of God
will rest upon you with such weight that you will not be inclined
to jest and joke, and engage in light and frivolous conversation.
A minister of Christ who has a proper burden of the work and
a high sense of the exalted character and sacredness of his mission
will not be inclined to be light and trifling with the lambs
of the flock.
A true shepherd will have an interest in
all that relates to the welfare of the flock, feeding, guiding,
and defending them. He will carry
himself with great wisdom and will manifest a tender consideration
for all, being courteous and compassionate to all, especially
to the tempted, the afflicted, and the desponding. Instead of
giving this class the sympathy that their particular cases have
demanded and that their infirmities have required, you, my brother,
have shunned this class, while you have drawn largely upon others
for sympathy. "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater
than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent
him." "But made Himself of no reputation, and took
upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men." "We then that are strong ought to bear the
infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every
one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For
even Christ pleased not Himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches
of them that reproached Thee fell on Me."
It is not the work of a gospel minister
to lord it over God's heritage, but in lowliness of mind, with
gentleness and long forbearance, to exhort, reprove, rebuke,
with all long-suffering and doctrine. How will the foregoing
scriptures compare with your past life? You have been cultivating
a selfish disposition nearly all your life. You married a woman
of a strong, set will. Her natural disposition was supremely
selfish. You were both lovers of self, and uniting your interests
did not help the case of either, but increased the peril of both.
Neither of you were conscientious, and neither had the fear of
God before you in a high sense. Love of self, self-gratification,
has been the ruling principle. Both of you have had so little
consecration to God that you could not benefit each other. You
have each wanted your own way; each has wanted to be petted and
praised and waited upon.
The Lord saw your dangers and time and
again sent you warnings through the Testimonies that your eternal
interests were endangered unless you overcame your love of self,
and conformed your will to the
will of God. Had you heeded the admonitions and warnings from
the Lord, had you turned square about, made an entire change,
your wife would not now be in the snare of the enemy, left of
God to believe the strong delusions of Satan. Had you followed
the light that God has given, you would now be a strong and efficient
laborer in the cause of God, qualified to accomplish tenfold
more than you are now competent to do. You have become weak because
you have failed to cherish the light. You have been able but
a small part of the time to discern the voice of the True Shepherd
from that of a stranger. Your neglect to walk in the light has
brought darkness upon you, and your conscience, by being often
violated, has become benumbed.
Your wife did not believe and follow the
light that the Lord in mercy sent her. She despised reproof,
and herself closed the door through which the voice of the Lord
was heard to counsel and warn her. Satan was pleased, and there
was nothing to hinder him from insinuating himself into her confidence,
and, by his pleasing, flattering deceptions, leading her captive
at his will.
The Lord gave you a testimony that your
wife was a hindrance to you in your labors and that you should
not have her accompany you unless you had the most positive evidence
that she was a converted woman, transformed by the renewing of
her mind. You then felt that you had an excuse to plead for a
home; you made this testimony your excuse and worked accordingly,
although you had no need of a home of your own. You wife had
duties to do to her parents which she had neglected all her life.
If she had taken up this long-neglected duty with a cheerful
spirit she would not now be left captive to Satan to do his will
and to corrupt her heart and soul in his service.
Your want of a home was imaginary, like
many of your supposed wants. You obtained the home that your
selfishness desired, and you could leave your wife comfortably
situated. But God was preparing a final test for her. The affliction
of her mother was of a nature which would have aroused
sympathy in her heart if it had not been thoroughly
seared, calloused by selfishness. But this providence of God
failed to arouse the filial love of the daughter for her suffering
mother. She had no home cares to stand in her way, no children
to share her love and care, and her attention was devoted to
her poor self.
The burden of care that her father had
to bear was too much for his age and strength, and he was prostrated
with keen sufferings. Surely then, if the daughter had a sensitive
spot in her heart, she could not help feeling and arousing to
a sense of her duty to share the burdens of her sister and her
sister's husband. But she revealed by her indifference, and by
shunning all the care and burden that she well could, that her
heart was well-nigh as unimpressible as a stone.
To be close by her parents and yet be so
indifferent would tell against her. She communicated the state
of things to her husband. Brother R was as selfish as his wife,
and he sent an urgent request for her to come to him. How did
angels of God, the tender, pitying, loving, ministering angels,
look upon this act? The daughter left strangers to do those tender
offices that she should have cheerfully shared with her burdened
sister. Angels looked with astonishment and grief upon the scene
and turned from this selfish woman. Evil angels took the places
of these, and she was led captive by Satan at his will. She was
a medium of Satan and so proved to be a great hindrance to her
husband; his labors were of but little account.
The cause of God would have stood higher
in ----- if that last effort had not been made, for the work
was not completed. An interest was raised, but was left to sink
where it could never be raised again. I ask you, Brother R, to
compare the scriptures previously quoted relative to the work
and ministry of Christ with your course of conduct through your
labors as a gospel minister, but more especially in the instance
I have mentioned, where duty was too plain for any mistake, if
the conscience and affections had not become paralyzed by a long
course of continued idolatry of self.
Because of your leaving your parents in
their suffering when they needed help, the church was obliged
to take this burden and to watch with the suffering members of
Christ's body. In this heartless neglect you brought the frown
of God upon yourselves. God does not lightly pass by such things.
They are recorded by the angels. God cannot prosper those who
go directly contrary to the plainest duty specified in His word,
the duty of children to their parents. Children who feel under
no more obligation to their earthly parents than you have done,
but can so easily step out from the responsibilities upon them,
will not have due respect for their heavenly Father; they will
not reverence or respect the claims that God has upon them. If
they disrespect and dishonor their earthly parents they will
not respect and love their Creator. In neglecting her parents,
your wife transgressed the fifth precept of the Decalogue: "Honor
thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." This is the first
commandment with promise. Those who disrespect or dishonor their
parents need not expect that the blessing of God will attend
them. Our parents have claims upon us that we cannot throw off
or lightly regard. But children who have not been trained and
controlled in childhood, and who have been permitted to make
themselves the objects of their care, selfishly seeking their
own ease and avoiding burdens, become heartless and do not respect
the claims of their parents, who watched over them in their infancy.
Brother R, you have been selfish in these
things yourself and greatly deficient in duty. You have required
attention and care, but you have not given the same in return.
You have been selfish and exacting, and have frequently been
unreasonable and given your wife occasion for trial. Both of
you have been unconsecrated and astonishingly selfish. You have
made but little sacrifice for the truth's sake. You, as well
as your wife, have avoided burdens, and have occupied a position
to be waited upon rather than to try to be as little burden as
possible.
Ministers of Christ should feel it a duty
binding upon them, if they receive
the hospitalities of their brethren or friends, to leave a blessing
with the family by seeking to encourage and strengthen its members.
They should not neglect the duties of a pastor, as they visit
from house to house. They should become familiar with every member
of the family, that they may understand the spiritual condition
of all, and vary their manner of labor to meet the case of each.
When a minister bearing the solemn message of warning to the
world receives the hospitable courtesies of friends and brethren,
and neglects the duties of a shepherd of the flock and is careless
in his example and deportment, engaging with the young in trifling
conversation, in jesting and joking, and in relating humorous
anecdotes to create laughter, he is unworthy of being a gospel
minister and needs to be converted before he should be entrusted
with the care of the sheep and lambs. Ministers who are neglectful
of the duties devolving on a faithful pastor give evidence that
they are not sanctified by the truths they present to others
and should not be sustained as laborers in the vineyard of the
Lord till they have a high sense of the sacredness of the work
of a minister of Christ.
When there are only evening meetings to
attend, there is much time that can be used to great advantage
in visiting from house to house, meeting the people where they
are. And if ministers of Christ have the graces of the Spirit,
if they imitate the great Exemplar, they will find access to
hearts and will win souls to Christ. Some ministers bearing the
last message of mercy are too distant. They do not improve the
opportunities that they have of gaining the confidence of unbelievers,
by their exemplary deportment, their unselfish interest for the
good of others, their kindness, forbearance, humbleness of mind,
and their respectful courtesy. These fruits of the Spirit will
exert a far greater influence than will the preaching in the
desk without individual effort in families. But the preaching
of pointed, testing truths to the people, and corresponding individual
efforts from house to house to back up pulpit effort, will greatly
extend the influence for good, and souls will be converted to
the truth.
Some of our ministers carry too light responsibilities,
they shun individual care and burdens; for this reason they do
not feel that need of help from God that they would if they lifted
the burdens that the work of God and our faith require them to
lift. When burdens in this cause have to be borne, and when those
who bear them are brought into strait places, they will feel
the need of living near to God, that they may have confidence
to commit their ways to Him and in faith claim that help which
He alone can give. They will then be daily obtaining an experience
in faith and trust, which is of the highest value to gospel ministers.
Their work is more solemn and sacred than ministers generally
realize. They should carry with them a sanctified influence.
God requires that those who minister in sacred things should
be men who feel jealous for His cause. The burden of their work
should be the salvation of souls. Brother R, you have not felt
as the prophet Joel describes: "Let the priests, the ministers
of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them
say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to
reproach." "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with
him."
Brother R, I was shown in what marked contrast
with the requirements of God's word your course of labor has
been. You have been careless in your words and in your deportment.
The sheep have had the burden to care for the shepherd, to warn,
reprove, exhort, and weep over the reckless course of their shepherd,
who, by accepting his office, acknowledges that he is mouthpiece
for God. Yet he cares far more for himself than he does for the
poor sheep. You have not felt a burden for souls. You have not
gone forth to your labors weeping and praying for souls that
sinners might be converted. Had you done this you would be sowing
seed which would spring up after many days and bear fruit to
the glory of God. When there is no work that you can do by the
fireside in conversation and prayer with families, you should
then show industry and economy
of time, and train yourself to bear responsibilities by useful
employment.
You and your wife might have saved yourselves
many ill turns and been more cheerful and happy had you sought
your ease less and combined physical labor with your study. Your
muscles were made for use, not to be inactive. God gave to Adam
and Eve in Eden all that their wants required; yet their heavenly
Father knew that they needed employment in order to retain their
happiness. If you, Brother R, would exercise your muscles in
laboring with your hands some portion of each day, combining
labor with study, your mind would be better balanced, your thoughts
would be of a purer and more elevated character, and your sleep
would be more natural and healthful. Your head would be less
confused and stupid because of a congested brain. Your thoughts
upon sacred truth would be clearer, and your moral powers more
vigorous. You do not love labor; but it is for your good to have
more physical exercise daily; for it will quicken the sluggish
blood to healthful activity, and will carry you above discontent
and infirmities.
You should not neglect diligent study,
but should pray for light from God that He would open to your
understanding the treasures of His word, that you may be thoroughly
furnished unto all good works. You will never be in a position
where it is not necessary for you to watch and pray earnestly
in order to overcome your besetments. You will need to be guarded
continually to keep self out of sight. You have encouraged a
habit of making yourself very prominent, dwelling upon your family
difficulties and your poor health. In short, yourself has been
the theme of your conversation and has come in between you and
your Saviour. You should forget self and hide behind Jesus. Let
the dear Saviour be magnified, but lose sight of self. When you
see and feel your weakness you will not see that there is anything
in yourself worthy of notice or remark. The people have not only
been wearied, but disgusted, with your preliminaries before you
present your subject. Every time
that you speak to the people and mention your family trials you
lower yourself in their estimation and suggest suspicions that
you are not all right.
You have the example of ministers who have
exalted themselves and who have coveted praise from the people.
They were petted and flattered by the indiscreet until they became
exalted and self-sufficient, and, trusting in their own wisdom,
made shipwreck of faith. They thought that they were so popular
that they could take almost any course and yet retain their popularity.
Here has been your presumption. When the deportment of a minister
of Christ gives gossiping tongues facts as subject matter to
discuss and his morality is seriously questioned, he should not
call this jealousy or slander. You should be cautious how you
encourage a habitual train of thought from which habits are formed
that will prove your ruin. Mark those whose course you should
abhor, and then forbear to take the first step in the direction
they have traveled.
You have been self-sufficient and so blinded
and deluded by Satan that you could not discern your weakness
and many errors. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's
have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we
live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not
be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one
another."
I was shown fields of labor. Towns, cities,
and villages everywhere should hear the message of warning; for
all will be tested and proved by the message of present truth.
A great work is to be done, but the laborers who enter these
fields should be men of sound judgment who know how to deal with
minds. They should be men of patience, kindness, and courtesy
who have the fear of God before them.
You frequently gain the confidence of the
people; but if, by careless deportment or some injudicious move,
by severity or an overbearing spirit, you then lose their confidence,
more harm will result to the cause of God than if no effort had
been made. Great injury has been
done to the cause of God by ministers moving from impulse. Some
are easily stirred and frequently become irritated; and, if abused,
they retaliate. This is just what Satan exults to have them do.
The enemies of truth triumph over this weakness in a minister
of Christ, for it is a reproach to the cause of present truth.
Those who show this weakness of character do not rightly represent
the truth or the ministers of our faith. The indiscretion of
one minister throws a cloud of suspicion upon all and makes the
labors of those who follow after him exceedingly difficult.
Brother R, when you go out to engage in
labor in a new field you love to dwell upon the argumentative,
because you have educated your mind for this kind of labor. But
your labors have not been one tenth as valuable as they would
have been had you qualified yourself by practical experience
to give the people discourses upon practical subjects. You need
to become a learner in the school of Christ, that you may experience
practical godliness. When you have the saving power of truth
in your own soul you cannot forbear feeding the flock of God
with the same practical truths which have made your own heart
joyful in God. The practical and the doctrinal should be combined
in order to impress hearts with the importance of yielding to
the claims of truth after the understanding has been convinced
by the weight of evidence. The servants of Christ should imitate
the example of the Master in the manner of their labor. They
should constantly keep before the people, in the best manner
to be comprehended by them, the necessity of practical godliness,
and should bring them, as did our Saviour in His teachings, to
see the necessity of religious principle and righteousness in
everyday life. The people are not fed by the ministers of popular
churches, and souls are starving for food that will nourish and
give spiritual life.
Your life has not been marked with humbleness
of mind and meekness of deportment. You love God in word, but
not in deed and in truth. Your dignity is easily hurt. Ministers
should first feel the sanctifying influence of the truth upon
their own hearts and in their own lives, and
then their pulpit efforts will be enforced by their example out
of the desk. Ministers need to be softened and sanctified themselves
before God can in a special manner work with their efforts.
You have let slip the golden opportunity
of gathering a harvest of souls because it was impossible for
God to work with your efforts, for your heart was not right with
Him. Your spirit was not pure before Him who is the embodiment
of purity and holiness. If you regard iniquity in your heart,
the Lord will not hear your prayer. Our God is a jealous God.
He knoweth the thoughts and the imaginations and devices of the
heart. You have followed your own judgment and made a sad failure
when you might have had success. There is too much at stake in
these efforts, to do the work negligently or recklessly. Souls
are being tested upon important, eternal truth, and what you
may say or do will have an influence to balance them in deciding
either for or against the truth. When you should have been in
humility before God, pleading for Him to work with your efforts,
feeling the weight of the cause and the value of souls, you have
chosen the society of young ladies, regardless of the sacred
work of God and of your office as a minister of the gospel of
Christ. You were standing between the living and the dead; yet
you engaged in light and frivolous conversation, in jesting and
joking.
How can ministering angels be round about
you, shedding light upon you and imparting strength to you? When
you should be seeking to find ways and means to enlighten the
minds of those in error and darkness you are pleasing yourself
and are too selfish to engage in a work for which you have no
inclination or love. If our position is criticized by those who
are investigating, you have but little patience with them. You
frequently give them a short, severe reply, as though they had
no business to search closely, but must take all that is presented
as truth, without investigating for themselves. In your ministerial
labors you have turned many souls away from the truth by your
manner of treating them. You are not always impatient
and unapproachable; when you feel like it
you will take time to answer questions candidly; but frequently
you are uncourteous and exacting, and are pettish and irritable
like a child.
A concealed golden wedge and a Babylonish
garment troubled the entire camp of Israel. The frown of God
was brought upon the people because of the sin of one man. Thousands
were slain upon the field of battle because God would not bless
and prosper a people among whom there was even one sinner, one
who had transgressed His word. This sinner was not in holy office,
yet a jealous God could not go forth to battle with the armies
of Israel while these concealed sins were in the camp.
Notwithstanding the apostle's warning is
before us to "abstain from all appearance of evil,"
some persist in pursuing a course unbecoming Christians. God
requires His people to be holy, to keep themselves separate from
the works of darkness, to be pure in heart and life, and unspotted
from the world. The children of God, by faith in Christ, are
His chosen people; and when they stand upon the holy ground of
Bible truth they will be saved from fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness.
Brother R, you have stood directly in the
way of the work of God and have brought great darkness and discouragement
upon His cause. You have been blinded by Satan; you have worked
for sympathy and have obtained it. Had you stood in the light
you could have discerned the power of Satan at work to deceive
and destroy you. The children of God do not eat and drink to
please the appetite, but to preserve life and strength to do
their Master's will. They clothe themselves for health, not for
display or to keep pace with changing fashion. The desire of
the eye and the pride of life are banished from their wardrobes
and from their houses, from principle. They move from godly sincerity,
and their conversation is elevated and heavenly.
God is very pitiful, for He understands
our weaknesses and our temptations;
and when we come to Him with broken hearts and contrite spirits,
He accepts our repentance, and promises that, as we take hold
of His strength to make peace with Him, we shall make peace with
Him. Oh, what gratitude, what joy, should we feel that God is
merciful!
You have failed to rely upon the strength
of God. You have dwelt upon yourself and made yourself the theme
of thought and conversation. Your trials have been magnified
to yourself and others, and your mind has been diverted from
the truth, from the Pattern which we are required to copy, to
weak Brother R.
When out of the desk you should have felt
the worth of souls and been seeking opportunities to present
the truth to individuals, but you have not felt the responsibility
devolving upon a gospel minister. Jesus and righteousness have
not been your themes, and many opportunities have been lost that,
if improved, might have decided more than a score of souls to
give all for Christ and the truth. But the burden you would not
lift. The pastoral labor involved a cross, and you would not
engage in it.
I saw angels of God watching the impressions
you make and the fruits you bear out of meeting, and your general
influence upon believers and unbelievers. I saw these angels
veil their faces in sadness and in sorrow turn reluctantly from
you. Frequently you were engaged in matters of minor consequence,
and when you had efforts to make which required the vigor of
all your energies, clear thought, and earnest prayer, you followed
your own pleasure and inclination, and trusted to your own strength
and wisdom to meet, not men alone, but principalities and powers,
Satan and his angels. This was doing the work of God negligently
and placing the truth and cause of God in jeopardy, periling
the salvation of souls.
An entire change must take place in you
before you can be entrusted with the work of God. You should
consider your life a solemn reality and that it is no idle dream.
As a watchman upon the walls of Zion, you are answerable for
the souls of the people. You should
settle into God. You move without due consideration, from impulse
rather than from principle. You have not felt the positive necessity
of training your mind, nor of crucifying in yourself the old
man with the affections and lusts. You need to be balanced by
the weight of God's Spirit, and all your movements regulated
by it. You are now uncertain in all you undertake. You do and
undo; you build up and then tear down; you kindle an interest
and then from lack of consecration and divine wisdom you quench
it. You have not been strengthened, established, and settled.
You have had but little faith; you have not lived a life of prayer.
You need so much to link your life with God, and then you will
not sow to the flesh and reap corruption in the end.
Jesting, joking, and worldly conversation
belong to the world. Christians who have the peace of God in
their hearts will be cheerful and happy without indulging in
lightness or frivolity. While watching unto prayer they will
have a serenity and peace which will elevate them above all superfluities.
The mystery of godliness, opened to the mind of the minister
of Christ, will raise him above earthly and sensual enjoyments.
He will be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust. The communication
opened between God and his soul will make him fruitful in the
knowledge of God's will and open before him treasures of practical
subjects that he can present to the people, which will not cause
levity or the semblance of a smile, but will solemnize the mind,
touch the heart, and arouse the moral sensibilities to the sacred
claims that God has upon the affections and life. Those who labor
in word and doctrine should be men of God, pure in heart and
life.
You are in the greatest danger of bringing
reproach upon the cause of God. Satan knows your weakness. His
angels communicate your weak points to those who are deceived
by his lying wonders, and they are already counting you as one
of their number. Satan exults to have you pursue an unwise course
because you place yourself upon his ground and give
him advantage over you. He well knows that
the indiscretion of men who advocate the law of God will turn
souls from the truth. You have not taken upon your soul the burden
of the work and labored carefully and earnestly in private to
favorably impress minds in regard to the truth. You too frequently
become impatient, irritable, and childish, and make yourself
enemies by your abrupt manners. Unless you are on your guard,
you prejudice souls against the truth. Unless you are a transformed
man, and will carry out in your life the principles of the sacred
truths you present in the desk, your labors will amount to but
little.
A weight of responsibility rests upon you.
It is the watchman's duty to be ever at his post, watching for
souls as one that must give an account. If your mind is diverted
from the great work and filled with unholy thoughts; if selfish
plans and projects rob of sleep, and in consequence the mental
and physical strength is lessened, you sin against your own soul
and against God. Your discernment is blunted, and sacred things
are placed upon a level with the common. God is dishonored, His
cause reproached, and the good work you might have done had you
made God your trust is marred. Had you preserved the vigor of
your powers to put the strength of your brain and entire being
into the important work of God without reserve, you would have
realized a much greater work, and it would have been more perfectly
done.
Your labors have been defective. A master
workman engages his men to do for him a very nice and valuable
job which requires study and much careful thought. As they agree
to do the work they know that, in order to accomplish the task
aright, all their faculties need to be aroused and in the very
best condition to put forth their best efforts. But one man of
the company is ruled by perverse appetite. He loves strong drink.
Day after day he gratifies his desire for stimulus, and, while
under the influence of this stimulus, the brain is clouded, the
nerves are weakened, and his hands are unsteady. He continues
his labor day after day and nearly ruins the job entrusted to him. That man forfeits his wages and
does almost irreparable injury to his employer. Through his unfaithfulness
he losses the confidence of his master as well as of his fellow
workmen. He was entrusted with a great responsibility, and in
accepting that trust he acknowledged that he was competent to
do the work according to the directions given by his employer.
But through his own love of self the appetite was indulged and
the consequences risked.
Your case, Brother R, is similar to this.
But the accountability of a minister of Christ, who is to warn
the world of a coming judgment, is as much more important than
that of the common workman as eternal things are of more consequence
than temporal. If the minister of the gospel yields to his inclination
rather than to be guided by duty, if he indulges self at the
expense of spiritual strength, and as the result moves indiscreetly,
souls will rise up in the judgment to condemn him for his unfaithfulness.
The blood of souls will be found on his garments. It may seem
to the unconsecrated minister a small things to be fitful, impulsive,
and unconsecrated; to build up, and then to tear down; to dishearten,
distress, and discourage the very souls that have been converted
by the truth he has presented. It is a sad thing to lose the
confidence of the very ones whom he has been laboring to save.
But the result of an unwise course pursued by the minister will
never be fully understood until the minister sees as God seeth.