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| The men of talent among the colored believers are to be laborers together with God for their own people. And yet there will sometimes be opportunities for them to bear a testimony in tent meetings and in large assemblies, which will reach many, many souls. These opportunities will appear as the Southern field is worked and the loud cry is given. When the Holy Spirit is poured out, there will be a triumph of humanity over prejudice in seeking the salvation of the souls of human beings. God will control minds. Human hearts will love as Christ loved. And the color line will be regarded by many very differently from the way in which it is now regarded. To love as Christ loves, lifts the mind into a pure, heavenly, unselfish atmosphere. {9T 209.1} |
| When the Holy Spirit is poured out, there will be a triumph of humanity over prejudice in seeking the salvation of the souls of human beings. God will control minds. Human hearts will love as Christ loved. And the color line will be regarded by many very differently from the way in which it is now regarded. To love as Christ loves, lifts the mind into a pure, heavenly, unselfish atmosphere.--Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 209. {2SM 487.1} {YRP 337.6} |
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| God has given the individual members of his church ability to exert an influence on other minds. He expects all to improve in ability by putting to exercise the talents he has lent them. The pen, the power of speech, and the affections sanctified, are to be used in his work of enlightening the world. And as we thus work in his order, he will be constantly renewing, sanctifying, elevating, and increasing our powers, that we may accomplish a greater amount of good. The Christian no longer asks, What is agreeable to self, or for my own interest? but, What is God's will? what is for his glory, and the good of my fellow-men? How can I be instrumental in the salvation of souls? Every one who is a partaker of the divine nature will feel the burden of souls. He will love as Christ loved and work as Christ worked, expecting the reward at the end of the warfare. What is needed in every church is the vitalizing spirit of Christ, earnest, practical piety. In Christ we can do all things; without him we can do nothing. {RH, October 26, 1886 par. 9} |
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| Those who have never experienced the tender, winning love of Christ cannot lead others to the fountain of life. His love in the heart is a constraining power, which leads men to reveal Him in the conversation, in the tender, pitiful spirit, in the uplifting of the lives of those with whom they associate. Christian workers who succeed in their efforts must know Christ; and in order to know Him, they must know His love. In heaven their fitness as workers is measured by their ability to love as Christ loved and to work as He worked. {RC 234.3} |
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| Those who have never experienced the tender, winning love of Christ cannot lead others to the fountain of life. His love in the heart is a constraining power, which leads men to reveal Him in the conversation, in the tender, pitiful spirit, in the uplifting of the lives of those with whom they associate. Christian workers who succeed in their efforts must know Christ; and in order to know Him, they must know His love. In heaven their fitness as workers is measured by their ability to love as Christ loved and to work as He worked. {AA 550.3} |
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| With this example before them, how can the professed followers of Christ manifest so little of the tender mercy and compassion of their Lord? If there is in their number one even of perverse disposition, one who makes them trouble, how can they feel at liberty to cut him off from the church so readily, and treat him as an alien and an outcast? Let us be careful how we hurt and bruise the souls of men and women for whom Christ died. Suppose that one has erred, do not therefore thrust him into the dungeon of despair; do not pass him by with a harsh word, or with positive neglect. Let everyone who is charged with wrong have ample opportunity to explain himself, but do not bring him before a set of hard-hearted judges, who stand ready to magnify the wrong, and to pronounce condemnation. Do not take the testimony of one or two against him without thoroughly sifting that testimony. See whether the accuser is not, by his own unadvised course toward the accused, a sharer in his guilt, if guilt there be. Only those whose hearts are filled with sympathy, those who love as Christ loved, who realize the value of the precious souls for whom he paid the ransom of his own life, are qualified to deal with the erring. {ST, March 21, 1892 par. 10} |
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| "We are laborers together with God." Christ is the head of the church on earth, and he requires that every one who believes in him as the Redeemer, shall surrender himself to obey his word, to love God supremely, and to love as Christ loved those who are perishing in sin. In every church there should be men who will set in operation missionary efforts, and teach the workers how to exercise tact, and how to carry out the best missionary methods. There should be many workers in every city, and laborers sent to every possible field. We have the promise of the Creator of all worlds, the promise of him who has all power at his command in heaven and earth, that he will be with us, and will work with the living, working church on earth. He appoints angels to cooperate with human agencies in advancing his work for the saving of perishing souls. All heaven is employed in ministering to the heirs of salvation, imparting the renewing power of the Holy Spirit to those who shall work for the salvation of souls. {YI, November 7, 1895 par. 1} |
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| A spirit of careless indifference toward our brethren has been coming into our churches, and the religion of many has become cold, selfish, loveless Phariseeism. The True Counselor has spoken words of the utmost importance to all our souls,--"Thou hast left thy first love." What a loss is this! "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works." O, how many have failed to grow up into Christ, their living head! Instead of growing up into Christ, they have grown away from Christ, and have nourished the elements of character that have been like those of Satan. These characteristics of evil excluded Satan from the royal courts above, and they will exclude you from the family of God, "except thou repent." Your heart must be softened and made susceptible to the influence of the Spirit of God, that you may grow up into a spiritual temple in Christ. The saints on earth must love as Christ loved, or they will not be saints in heaven. If your sympathies have become dried up, turn to God, humble your proud heart before him, fall on the Rock and be broken, and then Christ will mold you after his own similitude, and make you a vessel unto honor. {RH, February 10, 1891 par. 12} |
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| The religion of Jesus Christ should be an apparent quality in the lives of his workers. They must know Christ, and to know him, they must know his love. Their fitness as workers should be measured by their ability to love as Christ loved, and to work as he worked. The whole man must be sanctified, purified, refined, ennobled. When Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, the worker will realize that as the representative of Christ, words and works and thoughts must be such as can meet the approval of God. {RH, September 2, 1909 par. 1} |
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