God’s Spirit is striving with this entire family. He will save them if they are willing to be saved in His appointed way. Now is the hour of probation. Now is the day of salvation. Now, now, is God’s time. In Christ’s stead we beseech them to become reconciled to God while they may, and in humility, with fear and trembling, work out their salvation. I was shown that it was the work of Satan to keep the church in a state of insensibility, that the youth may be secured in his own ranks. I saw that the youth were susceptible of the influence of the truth. If the parents would consecrate themselves to God and labor with interest for the conversion of their children, God would reveal Himself to them and magnify His name among them. (2T 102.1) MC VC

I was then shown the case of Brother U, that Satan had been fastening his bands about him and leading him away from God and his brethren. Brother V has had an influence to greatly darken this brother’s understanding with his unbelief. I was pointed back and shown that the wisest course was not pursued in this brother’s case. There was not sufficient reason why he should have been left out of the church. He should have been encouraged, even urged, to unite with his brethren in church capacity. He was in a more fit state to come into the church than several who were united with it. He did not understand things clearly, and the enemy used this misunderstanding to his injury. God, who sees hearts, has been better pleased with the life and deportment of Brother U than with the lives of some who were united with the church. It is the Lord’s will that he should come close to his brethren, that he may be a strength to them and they a strength to him. (2T 102.2) MC VC

Chapter 22—Courage in the Minister VC

Dear Brother G (2T 150) MC VC

I have been shown that you were greatly deficient in your duties as a minister. You lack essential qualifications. You do not possess a missionary spirit. You have not a disposition to sacrifice your ease and pleasure to save souls. There are men, women, and youth to be brought to Christ who would embrace the truth could they have the light presented to them. In your own vicinity there are those who have an ear to hear. (2T 150.1) MC VC

I saw you seeking to instruct some; but at the very time when you needed perseverance, courage, and energy, you became fainthearted, distrustful, discouraged, and dropped the work. You desired your own ease, and allowed an interest which might have increased, to go down. There might have been an ingathering of souls; but the golden opportunity passed for that time, because of your lack of energy. I saw that unless you decide to gird on the whole armor, and are willing to endure hardness as a good soldier of the cross of Christ, and feel that you can spend and be spent to bring souls to Christ, you should give up your profession as a minister and choose some other calling. (2T 150.2) MC VC

Your soul is not sanctified to the work. You do not take the burden of the work upon you. You choose an easier lot than that which is appointed to the minister of Christ. He counted not His life dear unto Himself. He pleased not Himself, but lived for others’ good. He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant. It is not enough to be able to present the arguments of our position before the people. The minister of Christ must possess an undying love for souls, a spirit of self-denial, of self-sacrifice. He should be willing to give his life, if need be, to the work of saving his fellow men, for whom Christ died. (2T 151.1) MC VC

You need a conversion to the work of God. You need wisdom and judgment to apply yourself to the work and direct your labor. Your labors are not required among the churches. You should go out in new places and prove your work. Go with a spirit to labor to convert souls to the truth. If you feel the worth of souls, the least indication for good will rejoice your heart, and you will persevere, although there may be labor and weariness in the effort. After you have once agitated the subject of truth, do not leave that place if there is the least indication for good. Do you expect a harvest without labor? Do you expect that Satan will readily allow his subjects to pass from his ranks to the ranks of Christ? He will make every effort to keep them bound in fetters of darkness under his black banner. Can you expect to be victorious in winning souls to Christ without earnest effort, when you have such a foe to face and battle? (2T 151.2) MC VC

You must have more courage, more zeal, and put forth greater efforts, or you will have to decide that you have mistaken your calling. An easily discouraged minister does injury to the cause he desires to promote, and injustice to himself. All who profess to be ministers of Christ should learn wisdom by studying the history of the Man of Nazareth, and also the history of Martin Luther and the lives of other Reformers. Their labors were arduous, but they endured hardness as faithful soldiers of the cross of Christ. You should not shun responsibilities. With modesty, you should be willing to be advised, to be instructed. After you have received counsel from the wise, the judicious, there is yet a Counselor whose wisdom is unerring. Fail not to present your case before Him and entreat His direction. He has promised that if you lack wisdom and ask of Him, He will give it to you liberally and upbraid not. The sacred, solemn work in which we are engaged calls for wholehearted, thoroughly converted men, whose lives are interwoven with the life of Christ. They draw sap and nourishment from the living Vine, and flourish in the Lord. Although they feel the magnitude of the work, and are led to exclaim, “Who is sufficient for these things?”(2 Corinthians 2:16) yet they will not shrink from labor and toil, but will labor earnestly and unselfishly to save souls. If the undershepherds are faithful in all their duty, they will enter into the joy of their Lord and have the satisfaction of seeing souls saved in heaven through their faithful efforts. (2T 151.3) MC VC

Chapter 23—Closeness in Deal VC

Dear Brother H (2T 152) MC VC

I have been waiting for an opportunity to write you, but have been hindered. After my last vision I felt it to be my duty to speedily lay before you what the Lord was pleased to present to me. I was pointed back and shown that for years in the past, even before your marriage, there had been in you a disposition to overreach in trade. You possessed a spirit of acquisitiveness, a disposition for close dealing, which was detrimental to your spiritual advancement and greatly injured your influence. Your father’s family viewed these matters from the world’s standpoint rather than from the high, exalted standard quoted by our divine Lord: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27. In this you have failed. To deal in any way closely and unjustly is displeasing to God. He will not pass over errors and sins in this direction without thorough confession and forsaking. (2T 152.1) 3 I MC VC

Do not think you can cease your efforts or vigilance for a moment; you cannot. Study God’s word diligently, that you may not be ignorant of Satan’s devices, and that you may learn the way of salvation more perfectly. Your will must be submerged in God’s will. Seek not your own pleasure, but that of those around you; and in so doing you cannot but be happy. Come to Jesus with all your needs and wants, and in simple confidence crave His blessing. Trust in God, and seek to move from principle, strengthened and ennobled by high resolves and a determination of purpose found only in God. (2T 313.1) MC VC

You should not be easily provoked. Let not your heart become selfish, but let it expand with love. You have a work to do which you must not neglect. Endure hardship as a good soldier. Jesus is acquainted with every conflict, every trial, and every pang of anguish. He will help you; for He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet He sinned not. Go to Him, dear boy, with your burdens. Take no one into your confidence, and tell no one your difficulties, but us. Make Jesus your Burden Bearer, and seek a more thorough experience in religious things. God help and bless you, is my sincere prayer. (2T 313.2) MC VC

My tenderest sympathies are aroused for orphans. You indeed have no home. The grave has taken your father and your mother, and the home of your childhood others inhabit. You cannot have as distinct recollections of your godly father as of your mother. You remember that you sometimes grieved her. You had not learned submission; you have yet but partially learned the lesson. But the prayers of your parents, that you may be among those who love and fear God, have found a lodgment in heaven. (2T 313.3) MC VC

God requires ministers to come up to the standard, to show themselves approved unto God, workmen that need not be ashamed. If they refuse this strict discipline, God will release them and select men who will not rest until they are thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Our hearts are naturally sinful, and slothful in the service of Christ; and we need to be guarded constantly, or we shall fail to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ; and we shall not feel the necessity of aiming vigorous blows against besetting sins, but will readily yield to the suggestions of Satan and raise a standard for ourselves rather than accept the pure and elevated standard that God has raised for us. (2T 710.1) MC VC

I saw that the Sabbathkeeping ministers of Maine have failed to become Bible students. They have not felt the necessity of a diligent study of the word of God for themselves, that they might be thoroughly furnished unto all good works; neither have they felt the necessity of urging the close searching of the Scriptures upon their hearers. If there had not been one Seventh-day Adventist minister in Maine to oppose the counsel of God, all that has been accomplished might have been done with one half the effort that has been made, and the people might have been brought out of their distracted, confused state into order, and now have been strong enough to stand against opposing influences. Many places which have not yet been entered might have been visited and successful labor bestowed, which would have brought many to a knowledge of the truth. (2T 710.2) MC VC