Testimonies for the Church Volume 1 - A New You Ministry

standing in the counsel of God. I lift my voice of warning against praising or flatteringthe ministers. I have seen the evil, the dreadful evil, of this. Never, never speak a wordin praise of ministers to their faces. Exalt God. Ever respect a faithful minister, realizehis burdens and lighten them if you can; but do not flatter him, for Satan stands readyat his watchtower to do that kind of work himself.Ministers should not use flattery or be respecters of persons. There ever has been,and still is, great danger of erring here, of making a little difference with the wealthy, orflattering them by special attention, if not by words. There is danger of “having men’spersons in admiration” for the sake of gain, but in doing this their eternal interests areendangered. The minister may be the special favorite of some wealthy man, and he maybe very liberal with him; this gratifies the minister, and he in turn lavishes praise uponthe benevolence of his donor. His name may be exalted by appearing in print, and yetthat liberal donor may be entirely unworthy of the credit given him. His liberality didnot arise from a deep, living principle to do good with his means, to advance the causeof God because he appreciated it, but from some selfish motive, a desire to be thoughtliberal. He may have given from impulse and his liberality have no depth of principle.He may have been moved upon by listening to stirring truth which for the time beingloosed his purse strings; yet, after all, his liberality has no deeper motive. He givesby spasms; his purse opens spasmodically and closes just as securely spasmodically.He deserves no commendation, for he is in every sense of the word a stingy man, andunless thoroughly converted, purse and all, will hear the withering denunciation: “Goto now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Yourriches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.” Such will awake at last froma horrible self-deception. Those who praised their spasmodic liberalities475