Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

436 Testimonies for the Church Volume 1[468]the help of God and holy angels. They should be strong and valiant,and wholly devoted to the cause in which they are engaged, having noseparate interest. They should not be entangled with the things of thislife, that they may please Him who hath chosen them to be soldiers.On the other side are Satan and his angels, with all his agents onearth, who make every effort and use every device to advance errorand wrong, and to cover up their hideousness and deformity with apleasing garb. Selfishness, hypocrisy, and every species of deception,Satan clothes with a garment of apparent truth and righteousness, andtriumphs in his success, even with ministers and people who profess tounderstand his wiles. The greater distance they keep from Christ theirgreat Leader, the less they are like Him in character, the more closeis their resemblance in life and character to the servants of their greatadversary, and the more sure is he of them at last. While they professto be servants of Christ, they are servants of sin. Some ministers havetheir minds too much on the wages they receive. They labor for wagesand lose sight of the sacredness and importance of the work.Some become slack and negligent in their labor; they pass over theground, but are weak and unsuccessful in their efforts. Their heartsare not in the work. The theory of truth is clear. Many of them had nopart in searching out this truth by hard study and earnest prayer, andthey know nothing of its preciousness and value by being compelledto sustain their positions against the opposition of its enemies. Theydo not see the necessity of preserving a spirit of entire consecration tothe work. Their interest is divided between themselves and the work.I saw that before the work of God can make any decided progress,the ministers must be converted. When converted they will place lessestimate upon wages and far more value upon the important, sacred,solemn work which they have accepted at the hand of God to perform,and which He requires them to do faithfully and well, as those whomust render to Him a strict account. A faithful record of all their worksis daily made by the recording angels. All their acts, and even theintents and purposes of the heart, stand faithfully revealed. Nothing ishid from the all-seeing eye of Him with whom we have to do. Thosewho have thrown all their energies into the cause of God, and whohave ventured out and invested something, will feel that the work ofGod is a part of them, and will not labor merely for wages. They will