We want good, strong minds that are not easily discouraged, minds that are educated to grapple with the difficulties we shall meet, and wrestle with and conquer hard problems. We must lift the standard of truth in the towns and cities around us. We must see what is to be done and do it in the love and fear of God. When we have gone just as far as we can by faith, then the Lord will undertake in our behalf. It is God who has inspired us to commence this work. We have gone forward step by step, praying, believing, working. God is the author of our faith, and when we each act our individual part, He perfects the work, glorifying His own name in the finishing of it. The Lord inspires His consecrated workmen to work not from what they see but from what the Lord sees. (TDG 65.3) MC VC

In His great love, Christ surrendered Himself for us. He gave Himself for us to meet the necessities of the striving, struggling soul. We are to surrender ourselves to Him. When this surrender is entire, Christ can finish the work He began for us by the surrender of Himself. Then He can bring to us complete restoration. (TDG 159.4) MC VC

“He that loveth his life shall lose it” (John 12:25). When a man loses the shield of a good conscience, he knows that he has lost the cooperation of heavenly angels. God is not working in him. Another spirit inspires him. And to be an apostate, a traitor to the cause of God, is much more serious than death; it means the loss of eternal life.—Manuscript 87, August 19, 1897, “All That Will Live Godly in Christ Jesus Shall Suffer Persecution.” (TDG 240.5) MC VC