To Our Brethren Connected With the Publishing
Work at College View--
While attending the council meeting of
the General Conference Committee, held in September, 1904, my
mind was deeply exercised regarding the unity that should attend
our work. I was not able to attend all the meetings, but in the
night season scene after scene passed before me, and I felt that
I had a message to bear to our people in many places.
My heart is pained as I see that, with
such wonderful incentives to bring our powers and capabilities
to the very highest state of development, we are content to be
dwarfs in the work of Christ. God's desire is that all His workers
shall grow to the full stature of men and women in Christ. Where
there is vitality, there is growth; the growth testifies to the
vitality. The words and works bear living testimony to the world
of what Christianity does for the followers of Christ.
When you do your appointed work without
contention or criticism of others, a freedom, a light, and a
power will attend it that will give character and influence to
the institutions and enterprises with which you are connected.
Remember that you are never on vantage
ground when you are ruffled and when you carry the burden of
setting right every soul who comes near you. If you yield to
the temptation to criticize others, to point out their faults,
to tear down what they are doing, you may be sure that you will
fail to act your own part nobly and well.
This is a time when every man in a responsible
position, and every member of the church, should bring every
feature of his work into close accord with the teachings of the
word of God. By untiring vigilance, by fervent prayer, by Christlike
words and deeds, we are to show the world what God desires His
church to be.
From His high position, Christ, the King
of glory, the Majesty of heaven, saw the condition of men. He
pitied human beings in their weakness and sinfulness, and came
to this earth to reveal what God is to men. Leaving the royal
courts, and clothing His divinity with humanity, He came to the
world Himself, in our behalf to work out a perfect character.
He did not choose His dwelling among the rich of the earth. He
was born in poverty, of lowly parentage, and lived in the despised
village of Nazareth. As soon as He was old enough to handle tools,
He shared the burden of caring for the family.
Christ humbled Himself to stand at the
head of humanity, to meet the temptations and endure the trials
that humanity must meet and endure. He must know what humanity
has to meet from the fallen foe, that He might know how to succor
those who are tempted.
And Christ has been made our Judge. The
Father is not the Judge. The angels are not. He who took humanity
upon Himself, and in this world lived a perfect life, is to judge
us. He only can be our Judge. Will you remember this, brethren?
Will you remember it, ministers? Will you remember it, fathers
and mothers? Christ took humanity that He might be our Judge.
No one of you has been appointed to be a judge of others. It
is all that you can do to discipline yourselves. In the name
of Christ I entreat you to heed the injunction that He
gives you never to place yourselves on the
judgment seat. From day to day this message has been sounded
in my ears: "Come down from the judgment seat. Come down
in humility."
Never was there a time when it was more important that we should deny ourselves and take up the cross daily than now. How much self-denial are we willing to practice?