From the light I have had, the ministry is a sacred and exalted office, and those who accept this position should have Christ in their hearts and manifest an earnest desire to represent Him worthily before the people in all their acts, in their dress, in their speaking, and even in their manner of speaking. They should speak with reverence. Some destroy the solemn impression they may have made upon the people, by raising their voices to a very high pitch and hallooing and screaming out the truth. When presented in this manner, truth loses much of its sweetness, its force and solemnity. But if the voice is toned right, if it has solemnity, and is so modulated as to be even pathetic, it will produce a much better impression. This was the tone in which Christ taught His disciples. He impressed them with solemnity; He spoke in a pathetic manner. But this loud hallooing—what does it do? It does not give the people any more exalted views of the truth and does not impress them any more deeply. It only causes a disagreeable sensation to the hearers and wears out the vocal organs of the speaker. The tones of the voice have much to do in affecting the hearts of those that hear. (2T 615.1) MC VC

Many who might be useful men are using up their vital force and destroying their lungs and vocal organs by their manner of speaking. Some ministers have acquired a habit of hurriedly rattling off what they have to say as though they had a lesson to repeat and were hastening through it as fast as possible. This is not the best manner of speaking. By using proper care, every minister can educate himself to speak distinctly and impressively, not to hurriedly crowd the words together without taking time to breathe. He should speak in a moderate manner, that the people may get the ideas fixed in their minds as he passes along. But when the matter is rushed through so rapidly, the people cannot get the points in their minds, and they do not have time to receive the impression that it is important for them to have; nor is there time for the truth to affect them as it otherwise would. (2T 615.2) MC VC

Speaking from the throat, letting the words come out from the upper extremity of the vocal organs, all the time fretting and irritating them, is not the best way to preserve health or to increase the efficiency of those organs. You should take a full inspiration and let the action come from the abdominal muscles. Let the lungs be only the channel, but do not depend upon them to do the work. If you let your words come from deep down, exercising the abdominal muscles, you can speak to thousands with just as much ease as you can speak to ten. (2T 616.1) MC VC

Some of our preachers are killing themselves by long, tedious praying and loud speaking, when a lower tone would make a better impression and save their own strength. Now, while you go on regardless of the laws of life and health, and follow the impulse of the moment, do not charge it upon God if you break down. Many of you waste time and strength in long preliminaries and excuses as you commence to speak. Instead of apologizing because you are about to address the people, you should commence your labor as though God had something for you to say to them. Some use up nearly half an hour in making apologies; thus the time is frittered away, and when they get to their subject, where they are desirous to fasten the points of truth, the people are wearied out and cannot see their force or be impressed with them. You should make the essential points of present truth as distinct as mileposts so that the people will understand them. They will then see the arguments you want to present and the positions you want to sustain. (2T 616.2) MC VC

Brother D can be of value to the cause of God if there is a harmony in the character of his labors. If he can see and correct the imperfections of his peculiar organization, which have a tendency to injure his usefulness, God can use him to acceptance. He should avoid lengthy preaching and long prayers. These are no benefit to himself or to others. Long and violent exercise of the vocal organs has irritated his throat and lungs, and injured his general health, more than his precise round of rules for eating and resting have benefited him. One overexertion or strain of the vocal organs may not soon be recovered from, and may cost the life of the speaker. A calm, unhurried, yet earnest, manner of speaking will have a better influence upon a congregation than to let the feelings become excited and control the voice and manners. As far as possible the speaker should preserve the natural tones of the voice. It is the truth presented that affects the heart. If the speaker makes these truths a reality, he will, with the aid of the Spirit of God, be able to impress the hearers with the fact that he is in earnest, without straining the fine organs of the throat or the lungs. (2T 672.1) MC VC

Brother D is deeply interested in his domestic life; yet there is danger, in conversation, of his cultivating the habit of concentrating his whole mind upon the things which especially interest him, but which cannot interest or profit others. He tries to maintain a system which, in itself, is correct; but here again it will be seen that those things which are useful of themselves may become wearisome and burdensome by dwelling too much upon them, and by seeking to carry them out under all circumstances. There is danger of neglecting the weightier matters. (2T 672.2) MC VC

As a watchman upon the walls of Zion, constant watchfulness is necessary. Your vigilance must not abate. Educate yourself to be able to appeal to families around the fireside. You can accomplish even more in this direction than by your pulpit labors alone. Watch for souls as one that must give an account. Give no occasion for unbelievers to charge you with remissness in this duty, by neglecting to appeal to them personally. Talk with them faithfully, and beseech them to yield to the truth. “For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life.” As the apostle views the magnitude of the work and the weighty responsibilities resting upon the minister, he exclaims: “And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 2:15~17. (2T 706.1) MC VC

Those who corrupt the word, handing out wheat and chaff, or anything that they may deem gospel, while they oppose the commandments of God, cannot appreciate the feelings of the apostle as he trembled under the weight of the solemn work, and of his responsibility as a minister of Christ, having the destiny of souls for whom Christ died resting upon him. In the estimation of self-made ministers it will take but a small pattern to fill the bill and make a minister. But the apostle placed a high estimate upon the qualifications necessary to make a minister. (2T 706.2) MC VC

The deportment of a minister while in the desk should be circumspect, not careless. He should not be negligent in regard to his attitude. He should possess order and refinement in the highest sense. God requires this of those who accept so responsible a work, that of receiving the words from His mouth and speaking them to the people, warning and reproving, correcting and comforting, as the case may require. God’s representatives upon earth should be in daily communion with Him. Their words should be select, their speech sound. The haphazard words frequently used by ministers who preach not the gospel in sincerity should be forever discarded. (2T 706.3) MC VC

I was shown, Brother P, that you were naturally irritable, easily provoked, and that you had lacked patience and forbearance. If your course was questioned, or you were urged to take your position upon the truth, you felt too much that you would not be hurried. You would not move a step because others desired you to do so. You would take your time. Should your hearers pursue the same course, you would consider them blameworthy. If all should do as you have done, God’s people would require a temporal millennium in which to make the needed preparations for the judgment. God has mercifully borne with your backwardness; but it will not answer for others to follow your example, for you are now weak and deficient where you might be strong and well qualified for the work. (2T 707.1) MC VC

Brother R could effect but little for you. His labors were unwisely directed. He erred in especially interesting himself for those who thought they should become teachers. Had he not touched the case of a minister in Maine, and had he labored in new fields where there had been no Adventists, many would have been brought to the knowledge of the truth. Brother S has been advancing slowly and occupying a position more pleasing to God in regard to patience, forbearance, and endurance; and yet there is a much greater work to be done for him before he can make a successful minister in the cause and advance the work of God. (2T 707.2) MC VC

Brother R zealously interested himself in your case, but you refused to be helped by him. Time and strength were devoted to you; and matters were shaped for your special benefit to remove your prejudice and win you to accept the truth, until your indolence and unbelief exhausted the patience of Brother R. Then the character of his labor changed, and he pressed you to come to a decision and move out upon the light and evidence you had received. This earnest effort on his part you termed crowding and jamming you. Your mulish temperament was manifested; you rose up against this dealing and rejected the efforts he made to help you. Here you injured yourself, disheartened Brother R, and displeased God. Your feelings toward Brother R were not Christian. You gloried in your resistance of his efforts in your behalf. The Lord blessed the labors of Brother R in raising up a people in the State of Maine. This labor was hard and trying, and you did your share in making it so. You did not realize how hard you were making the work for those whom God had sent to present the truth to the people. They were exhausting their energies to bring the people to the point of decision in regard to the truth, while you and others of the ministers stood directly in their way. God was working through His ministers to draw to the truth, and Satan was working through you and other ministers to discourage and counteract their labor. The very men who professed to be watchmen, and who, if they had stood in the counsel of God, would have been the first to receive the word of warning and give it to the people, were among the last to accept the truth. The people were in advance of their teachers. They received the warning even before the watchmen because the watchmen were unfaithful and were sleeping at their post. (2T 707.3) MC VC