The light that has been given me for the past fifteen years has been a representation of the great responsibility which is attached to the work of the ministry. The work of the minister should be regarded in a far higher light. It is the low estimate placed on this work that leaves our conferences in such a weak, feeble condition. We cannot afford this. Those ministers who place a low estimate on the work entrusted to them neither do justice to themselves or to the church. Just as long as our ministers fail to feel a sense of responsibility proportionate to the greatness of their work, there will be a deficiency in our conferences. . . .
There is a great necessity for individual examination. You may very intelligently examine your brother ministers and very closely judge them, while you yourself are in far more need of closer examination and judging than you bestow on them. Many lay burdens on their brethren, weakening and discouraging them by their criticism, instead of uplifting and strengthening them.
God wants us to take ourselves in hand. Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith or not. Prove your own selves. Just as soon as you fasten the mind on Jesus Christ, the Saviour who made a complete sacrifice for everyone; just as soon as you see that you must be a complete man because He has made a complete sacrifice for you, you will seek earnestly for help from above to overcome your own failings. . . .
Very many will get up some test that is not given in the word of God. We have our test in the Bible,—the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." This is the true test, but many other tests will arise among the people. They will come in in multitudes, springing up from this one and that one. There will be a continual rising up of some foreign thing to call attention from the true test of God.
These things make it necessary that the minister who meets these tests should have a discerning mind, that he may not give credence to any false doctrine. Voices will be heard, saying, Lo, here is Christ, when there is no Christ there at all. It is some human notion which they wish men to accept and believe.
But the saddest thing is that principles become perverted. Not that there is no one who tries to carry out principle, but that principle has become so daubed with untempered mortar that it will need the closest investigation from the word of God to see if all is in accordance with the principles of true godliness, founded upon a "Thus saith the Lord."
There should be an investigation of self. When you begin this work, you will find that you have your hands full. Too many who have entered the ministry have not had that thorough, cleansing, refining influence upon mind and character that takes away the chaff, enabling them to bring to the Foundation Stone only gold and silver and precious stones. Here is the great need, the great lack. God wants us to come to Him just as we are, throw our helpless souls upon Jesus Christ, and be born again.
Pettishness Must Be Overcome and Put Away
The fact is, many have entered the ministry with a babyish, childish, pettish, and self-willed spirit, just as their mothers allowed them to grow up. This is why I am speaking so often to fathers and mothers about realizing the great responsibility that rests upon them. Every particle of this childishness must be left behind. You have grown to the full stature of men, therefore the childish things you entertained, the disagreeable traits of character which you know are not after Christ's order, your impetuous words, must be put away.
Words are a talent, and you have no right to use God's talents in any way but for His glory, for the benefit of everyone around you. There must be a thorough conversion of the soul, that there may be a conversion of the tongue and lips. Then the treasure house of the soul will he full of precious truths, because Christ's character is studied. Then you will be blessed as overseers and shepherds. And when you as shepherds, exemplifying the traits of Christ's character, come before the flock, they will see the importance of having practical religion, practical godliness, not merely the accepting of a form or a theory.
Some think that they must be so wonderfully orthodox, but they are not orthodox at all after Christ's order. They catch some little point and dwell upon it, magnifying it above all else. Of those who do not see as they do, they say, "We do not want this man to preach because he does not see this point," and, "We do not want that man to preach because he does not see that point." But they do not know what they are about. Leave that man with God.
It is not for you to dissect the ideas of this one and that one. We served our time at this at Minneapolis. Let there be no more of it in the work of God. God wants us to realize that judgment is right upon us. Let us beware lest before we are aware of it, the thief comes upon us with stealthy tread. Let us stand where we look not at the defects and errors of others, but at Jesus, saying, "I have an individual case pending in the heavenly courts. It means everything to me whether I shall be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found complete in Him, or whether I shall be found wanting."
Provision has been made for every one of us to be saved. Those who do not accept the provision made by the shedding of the blood of the Son of the infinite God place their minds on little items, to the neglect of the great truths essential for salvation. They are diverted from the great Pattern, diverted from the study of the character of Christ. Failing to see Him,' they are not changed from glory to glory, from character to character. . . .
As I have seen the fields ripe unto the harvest, and as I have seen the lack of interest manifested in them, I have wondered how you could do as you have done. I cannot understand it. If you are connected with Him who gave His life to save the world, how can you see the purchase of His blood perishing in their sins without making any efforts to save them ? Christ says, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
We are not to give the call to those who have received the truth and understand it, to whom it has been repeated over and over again till someone thinks he must bring in something original. He brings in little fables which are not worth a straw. These he brings forward as tests God has given, when Satan has originated them to divert minds from the true tests God has given.
Thou shalt love supremely the God of heaven. This is your first work. And when you do this, you will love your neighbor as yourself. You will treat human beings as souls Christ died to save. Put away all nettishness and fretfulness. All these things are to be purged from the heart. You are to be purified through belief in the truth. God wants us to have the sanctification of the Spirit.—Ellen G. White, General Conference Bulletin, April 1901.
