Spalding and Magan's Unpublished Manuscript Testimonies - Ellen G. White

her husband in the work of saving souls, it is the
highest work she can do. But the care of a little
child would absorb her attention, so that she could
not attend the meetings and labor successfully in
the visiting and personal effort. Even if she
accompanies her husband, the child is too often the
burden of thought and conversation, and the visits
are made of no effect. Those whom God has called
to be colaborers with him, are to have no idols to
absorb their thought and affection which he would
have directed in other lines. ...
We need carefully to search our hearts and
study our motives. Selfishness may prompt the
desire to do what appears to be an unselfish and
praiseworthy act. The reason that many urge for
desiring to adopt a child - the longing for
something on which to center our affections -
reveals the fact that the heart is not centered upon
Christ: it is not absorbed in his work. When I have
heard a wife mourning that her husband did not
show her all the affection that she thought he
should, I have sent a silent petition to God, that this
soul might be refreshed with the Word. From the
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