EGW
I Have been unable to sleep much during the past night. I have thought of the church at which must be left much of the time without preaching. It is the duty of those who are connected with the church to feel an individual responsibility to do their utmost to strengthen it, and make the meetings so interesting that unbelievers will be attracted. Nothing can weaken a church so manifestly as disunion and strife. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.” “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.” MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 1
Let not anyone place himself forward as having great wisdom and ability; for if he has these talents, he will not be the one to make them the most prominent. It is those who have the most distrust of self, whom God will use as his willing instruments. These will show by their conversation that they have been communing with God, and receiving the lessons taught by Christ. They have exalted views of Jesus, and words of wisdom flow forth from their souls in words that will stir other hearts. Their works are made manifest, not by pompous words of self praise, but in meekness of wisdom. They have no words to the demerit of others and only a very humble opinion of themselves, because they have had a clear view of Jesus, His holy character, His self-denial, His self-sacrifice, and His holy mission. MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 2
It is when men lose sight of Jesus, His purity, His spotless perfection, that they lift up themselves, and are self-sufficient, self-important, puffed up, self-inflated; then if others do not give them all that deference and respect that they think they should have, they are uneasy, dissatisfied, and think themselves ill used. They reveal their true character in an unmistakable manner, showing their defects in fault-finding and complaining, ready to combat anything that does not meet their mind, even when assembled to worship God. If they had wisdom, they could see the result of their own unchristlike course; but blinded with self-importance, they do not discern their weakness, and manifest to all that they cannot be trusted. These will go through the world doing but very little good, boisterous, and obtrusive, pushing themselves to the front, and thus by the want of wisdom misrepresent in every way the religion of Jesus Christ. They, in the place of bringing people to Christ, disgust them, and turn them away from the truth, so that souls are lost. MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 3
“But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.” If I should say these words of myself, how many would say, “Sister White has a hard spirit, she does not understand me.” But God understands you, and He plainly declares that if you have envying and strife, you need not glory, calling it a Christian boldness, for it is not of God but of the devil. Though you may profess to believe the truth, and your judgment assents to it, yet if you have not the truth as it is in Jesus, you cannot properly present it. Your very words and appearance will show that you have not brought the truth into your life, and woven it into your character, but tied the truth on to the tree that bears thorn-berries. MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 4
“This wisdom descendeth not from above ... But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and [mark the fruits here stated] easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” Are there any of the church who are not easy to be entreated, who will argue for their own way, who will in self-confidence hold to their own ideas, and will not give them up, but will talk as though they were the only ones whose ways were perfect and unquestionable,—these are not easily entreated because they are not converted. They are not divested of self. They are full of self-esteem, and are sure to disgust unbelievers with their words and ways, by talking the objectionable features of our faith, in all proud boasting, and self-confidence. “By their fruits ye shall known them.” “And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 5
Mrs. E. G. White.
(Concluded next week.)