Danger! — There is grave danger lest we cause our people to feel that every special season of spiritual uplift is but a work-up for a money pull. If such an impression should become prevalent, it would be one of the most ruinous, reactionary elements that could enter into our work. We must guard this point with all diligence, not only against the danger, but the thing itself.
Honesty! — Fidelity to truth demands that no unworthy arguments, no unverified facts, no unchecked quotations about which there is a question, be used in our work. This is but axiomatic as applied to those who are seeking to foster truth. Scrupulous honesty is demanded. Our peril is not intent to deceive, but carelessness due to our incessant pressure.
Pauses! —Let us not be discouraged when periods of involuntary inactivity come into our service, perhaps through illness. Even Christ had our task. There is nothing like the perspective that distance lends. We cannot see the whole when it is right under our eyes. Musicians know the value of a " rest " in musical compositions. It enhances both what has preceded and that which follows. After all, we are not designed to be perpetual-motion machines.
Changed! — In the early days of the advent movement, it was the converted, Bible-believing Christians who were called to walk in advanced light, with consequent correction of erroneous beliefs. Such are slowly but surely vanishing from the world. It is a largely Bibleless, unconverted populace we face to-day. There is infinitely more need of thoroughly converting to Christ as well as correcting erroneous beliefs than there was fifty years ago. We must have converted converts. And these will be produced only by converted preachers.
Stagnation! — The peril that confronts every worker who has " arrived " is stagnation through resting on the preparations of the past. Life is a growing thing, while stagnation means cessation of growth,—coma, if not death; drifting, if not the falls. Christian service is either a living, developing thing, or it becomes stagnant, dead, ossified. We never reach the point of saturation. There are unexplored continents of research that beckon us on. There are heights of spiritual experience that challenge us. God's work grows, and His workmen must grow with it.
Training! Every academy and junior and senior college should be an intensive training camp for preachers and other gospel workers. More and more should our higher educational institutions give every course of study the distinct, yes, pronounced evangelical slant. Our time for work is limited; our task is tremendous. We must work aggressively, and press all into service for our common objective. We cannot afford to train young men and women for the work of the world.
