A man may be earnest and sincere, but sincerely wrong.
Emphasis on the importance of life does not discount the value of sound doctrine.
One of our besetting perils is the tendency to substitute human learning for divine wisdom.
The deeper spiritual life does not ignore or set aside doctrine. On the contrary, it grows out of and consolidates sound doctrine.
Philosophy simply presents the history of the needs and limitations of the human heart. The gospel of God alone supplies those needs.
Uncover the mountains of Christianity, and see how small the hills are. Let us in preaching make great things great and small things small. In other words, may God give us a sense of proportion.
Ministerial efficiency demands a budgeting of time, a choice as to what is of primary importance, with second position for secondaries. We all have twenty-four hours in a day. Let us choose wisely how they shall be used.
God cannot yet intrust us with the power that is awaiting the remnant heralds in this movement. We would not be able to stand the inspection of the world. He cannot yet intrust us with power to heal the sick in a way that would focus the eyes of the world upon us. Self must decrease and it is a mistake to judge a man's ministry by hearing him once, and similarly by what his ministry was five or ten years ago. Transformations in experience come, and alas, so do degeneracies.
When man-made standards and activities of human devising become the criteria by which we test and rate our men, and gauge their success by these, rather than by attainments along the line of apostolic qualifications, and use these as the basis of selection for responsibility, then we need some radical adjustment of vision and practice.
All the special truths for the last days are to be presented in connection with, and only in right relation to, the general truths enunciated by Jesus and the apostles. They are not separate and apart. He who fails in this is not properly giving God's message for the hour, any more than the one who brings the general truths before men, but fails to couple therewith what we denominate present truth.
The white man will never finish the work in the mission fields. The black man in Africa and the yellow man in the Orient, with other nationals in their respective countries these are the ones in God's plan. The greatest task and privilege of the foreign missionary is to train these. This involves our looking toward second place, and final elimination. They must increase, while we must decrease.
L. E. F.
