Testimonies for the Church, Volume 2 - Ellen G. White

want of spiritual exercise. They still loved the
general cause, and were ready to help sustain it.
They would take good care of the servants of God.
But there was a decided want of care for widows,
orphans, and the feeble of the flock. Besides some
interest for the cause in general, there was but little
apparent interest for any only their own families.
With so narrow a religion they were dying a
spiritual death.
There were some who kept the Sabbath,
attended meeting, and paid systematic
benevolence, yet were out of the church. And it is
true that they were not fit to belong to any church.
But while leading church members stood as some
in that church did, giving them little or no
encouragement, it was almost impossible for them
to arise in the strength of God and do better. As we
began to labor with the church, and teach them that
they must have a spirit of labor for the erring, much
that I had seen relative to the cause in that place,
opened before me, and I wrote out pointed
testimonies not only for those who had erred
greatly and were out of the church, but for those
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