Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

Cause in Ohio 231burden of the work. They are accountable to God for their strength,and should bring a freewill offering to the Lord. And if they will notdo this, His prospering hand will be removed from them.I saw that the special hand of God has not been with the workin Ohio to prosper the cause there. There is a lack; there should beamong preachers and people a close examination, a faithful searchingof heart, to find the cause of so great a lack of the Spirit of God. Theirsacrifices and offerings have nearly dried up. Why do not the truthsof God’s word warm the heart and lead to self-denial and sacrifice?Let the ministers search and see what kind of an influence they haveexerted. There has been with Brother J an independent spirit that Goddoes not approve. His influence has not told for the union of God’speople or the advancement of the cause.I have seen that those who have had but a few years’ experiencein the cause of present truth, are not the ones to lead out in the work.Such should manifest a delicacy in taking positions which will conflict [239]with the judgment and opinion of those who witnessed the rise ofthe cause of present truth, and whose lives are interwoven with itsprogress. God will not select men of but little experience to lead out inthis work. He will not choose those who have had no experience in thesufferings, trials, opposition, and privation endured to bring this workup to the platform on which it now rests. It is now easy, compared withwhat it once was, to preach the third angel’s message. Those who nowengage in this work, and teach the truth to others, have things madeready at their hand. They cannot experience such privations as laborersin present truth have endured before them. The truth is brought outfor them. Arguments are all prepared. Such should be careful howthey become exalted, lest they be overthrown. They should be verycareful how they murmur against those who endured so much in thevery commencement of the work.Those experienced laborers who toiled under the burden when itwas heavy and there were few to help bear it, God regards. Be carefulhow you reproach them, or murmur against them; for it will surelystand to your account, and the prospering hand of God will not be withyou. Some brethren who have the least experience, who have felt noburden, and have done little or nothing to advance the cause of presenttruth, and who have no knowledge of matters at Battle Creek, are thefirst to find fault with the management of the work there. And those