The Lord's servants are merely stewards. The Lord will work through them when they surrender themselves to Him to be worked by the Holy Spirit. When by faith men place themselves in the Lord's hands, saying, “Here am I: send me,” He undertakes this work. But men must get out of the Lord's way. They must not hinder His purposes by their devising. For years the Lord has had a controversy with His people because they have followed their own judgment, and have not relied on divine wisdom. If the workers get in the Lord's way, hindering the advancement of the work, thinking that their brain power is sufficient for the planning and carrying forward of the work, the Lord will correct their error. By His divine Spirit he enlightens and trains every worker. He shapes His own providence to carry forward His work according to His mind and judgment.BTS May 1, 1910, par. 1

If men would only humble themselves before God, if they would not exalt their judgment as the all-controlling influence, if they would make room for the Lord to plan and work, the Lord would use the qualifications He has given them in a way that would glorify His name. He will purify His workers from all selfishness, trimming down their superfluous plans, cutting off the branches that would entwine around this and that undesirable object, pruning the vine so that it will produce fruit. God is the great Husbandman. He will make everything in the lives of those who are laborers together with Jesus Christ subservient to His great purpose of growth and fruit-bearing. It is His plan, by conforming His servants day by day to the image of Christ, by making them partakers of the divine nature, to cause them to bear fruit abundantly. He desires His people, through actual experience in the truth of the gospel, to become true, trustworthy, experimental missionaries. He would have them show results far higher, holier, and more definite than have been revealed in the last fifteen years.BTS May 1, 1910, par. 2

The potter takes the clay in his hands, and moulds and fashions according to his own will. He kneads it, and works it; he tears it apart, and then presses it together. He wets it and then dries it. He lets it lie for awhile without touching it. When it is perfectly pliable, he continues the work of making from it a vessel. He forms it into shape, and on a wheel, trims and polishes it. He dries it in the sun, and bakes it in the oven. Thus it becomes a vessel unto honor, fit for his use. So the great Master desires to mould and fashion us. And as the clay is in the hands of the potter, so we are to be in His hands. We are not to try to do the work of the potter. Our work is to yield ourselves to the moulding of the Master-worker. It is not a great number of institutions, large buildings, and wonderful display that God requires, but the harmonious action of a peculiar people, a people chosen by God and precious, united with one another, their lives hid with Christ in God. The Lord will never place one man as a controlling power over another man. Every man is to stand in his lot and in his place, exerting a right influence in thought, word, and judgment. When all God's workers do this, and not till then, will the work be completed symmetrically.BTS May 1, 1910, par. 3

February 1, 1910

June 1, 1910