In your labors you frequently start out well; you raise an interest, and conviction rests upon minds that the arguments used cannot be controverted; but just at the time when souls are balancing in favor of the truth, self appears so plainly, is so prominent, that all which might have been gained, had Jesus shone forth in your words and deportment, is lost. (3T 464.1) MC VC

You lack the very graces which are essential to win souls to Christ and the truth. You can argue well; but you have not an experimental knowledge of the divine will, and for want of a religious experience yourself you are unable to lead others to the Fountain of living waters. Your own soul is not in communion with God, but is in darkness; and nothing can supply the deficiency realized by souls groping their way in the dark, except the light of truth. Unless you are thoroughly converted, your efforts to convert others might as well cease now as for you to labor longer, mangling and perverting the religious standard by your narrow and bigoted ideas. You have not an experimental knowledge of the divine will; your own righteousness seems to you to be of value, when it is valueless. You need to be transformed before you can be of use in the cause of God. When you are converted then you can labor to acceptance. (3T 464.2) MC VC

You do not possess the religion of Christ. You must soften your heart and die to self, and Christ must live in you; then you will walk in the light as He is in the light, and you will leave a bright track heavenward to lighten the pathway of others. You have felt too well satisfied with yourself. You should educate yourself and overcome your bigoted and fault-finding spirit. You need to keep the body under and bring it into subjection, lest, after you have preached to others, you yourself should be a castaway. (3T 464.3) MC VC

You take small views of matters, pick at straws, find fault, and question the course of others, when you might far better be overcoming the defects in your own character and life, working from a Christian standpoint, seeking light from God, and preparing to unite with pure angels in the kingdom of heaven. As you are, you would mar all heaven. You are uncultivated, unrefined, and unsanctified. There is no place in heaven for such a character as you now possess. (3T 464.4) MC VC