Spirit of Self-Denial of Early Days Required Now

There is just as much self-denial required now as when we first started in the work, when we were only a little handful of people, when we knew what self-denial meant, what self-sacrifice meant, when we tried to get out the little papers, little leaflets, that should go to those who were in darkness. There are a few connected with the office today who were with us then. For years we received no wages, except barely enough to furnish us with the plainest food and clothing. We were glad to wear secondhand clothes, and sometimes we had hardly food enough to sustain our strength. Everything else was put into the work. After a time my husband received six dollars a week, and we lived on that, and I worked with him in the cause. Others labored in a similar way....2SM 188.4

Those that have come in to take up the work, after it has been made a success, should walk very modestly. They should manifest the spirit of self-sacrifice. God means that the institutions here shall be carried on by self-sacrifice, just as the foundation was laid.—The General Conference Daily Bulletin, March 20, 1891, p. 184.2SM 189.1

When this work is done as it should be, when we labor with divine zeal to add converts to the truth, the world will see that a power attends the message of truth. The unity of the believers bears testimony to the power of the truth that can bring into perfect harmony men of different dispositions, making their interests one.2SM 189.2

The prayers and offerings of the believers are combined with earnest, self-sacrificing efforts, and they are indeed a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. Men are converted anew. The hand that once grasped for recompense in higher wages has become the helping hand of God. The believers are united by one interest—the desire to make centers of truth where God shall be exalted. Christ joins them together in holy bonds of union and love, bonds which have irresistible power.2SM 189.3

It was for this unity that Jesus prayed just before His trial, standing but a step from the cross. “That they all may be one,” He said, “as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21).—Letter 32, 1903.2SM 189.4