Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

Our Ministers 439responsible work of God’s ministers, how important that they givethemselves wholly to it and watch for souls as they that must givean account. Should any separate or selfish interest come in here anddivide the heart from the work? Some ministers linger about theirhomes, and run out on the Sabbath, and then return and exhaust theirenergies in farming or in attending to home matters. They labor forthemselves through the week, and then spend the remnant of theirexhausted energies in laboring for God. But such feeble efforts arenot acceptable to Him. They have no mental or physical strength tospare. At best their efforts are feeble enough. But after they have beenengrossed and entangled all through the laboring days of the weekwith the cares and perplexities of this life, they are wholly unfitted forthe high, the sacred, the important work of God. The destiny of soulshangs upon the course they pursue and the decisions they make. Howimportant then that they should be temperate in all things, not only intheir eating, but in their labor, that their strength may be unabated anddevoted to their sacred calling.A great mistake has been made by some who profess present truth,by introducing merchandise in the course of a series of meetings andby their traffic diverting minds from the object of the meetings. IfChrist were now upon earth, He would drive out these peddlers andtraffickers, whether they be ministers or people, with a scourge ofsmall cords, as when He entered the temple anciently “and cast outall them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tablesof the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and [472]said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house ofprayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” These traffickers mighthave pleaded as an excuse that the articles they held for sale were forsacrificial offerings. But their object was to get gain, to obtain means,to accumulate.I was shown that if the moral and intellectual faculties had not beenclouded by wrong habits of living, ministers and people would havebeen quick to discern the evil results of mixing sacred and commonthings. Ministers have stood in the desk and preached a most solemndiscourse, and then by introducing merchandise, and acting the part ofa salesman, even in the house of God, they have diverted the minds oftheir hearers from the impressions received, and destroyed the fruit oftheir labor. If the sensibilities had not been blunted, they would have