Spalding and Magan's Unpublished Manuscript Testimonies - Ellen G. White

must state to you that I have been shown that the
best methods have not always been practiced in
dealing with the errors and mistakes of students,
and the result has been that souls have been
imperilled and some have been lost. Evil tempers
in the teachers, unwise movements, self-dignity, all
have done a bad work. There is no form of vice,
worldliness or drunkenness, that will do a more
baleful work upon the character, imbittering the
soul, and setting in train evils that overbear good,
than human passions not under the control of the
Spirit of God. Anger, getting touched, stirred up,
will never pay. How many prodigals are kept out of
the kingdom of God by the unlovely character of
those who claim to be Christians. Jealousy, envy,
pride, and uncharitable feelings, self-righteousness
easily provoked, thinking evil, harshness, coldness,
lack of sympathy, these are the attributes of Satan.
Teachers will meet with these things in the
students' characters. It is a terrible thing to have
these things to deal with; but in seeking to cast out
these evils, the worker has in many instances
developed similar attributes which have marred the
soul of the one with whom he is dealing.
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