Ministers must arouse and manifest a life, zeal, and devotion to which they have for quite a length of time been almost strangers because they have failed to walk with God. The cause of God in many places is not improving. Soul work is needed. The people are overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life. They are entering deeper and deeper into a spirit of worldly enterprise. They are ambitious to get gain. Spirituality and devotion are rare. The spirit that prevails is to work, to accumulate, and to add to that which they already possess. “What will be the end of these things?” was the burden of my inquiry. (1T 469.1) MC VC

Conference meetings have accomplished no lasting good. Those who attend the meetings carry a spirit of traffic with them. Ministers and people frequently bring their merchandise to these large gatherings, and the truths spoken from the desk fail to impress the heart. The sword of the Spirit, the word of God, fails to do its office work; it falls tamely upon the hearers. The exalted work of God is made to connect too closely with common things. (1T 469.2) MC VC

The ministers must be converted before they can strengthen their brethren. They should not preach themselves, but Christ and His righteousness. A reformation is needed among the people, but it should first begin its purifying work with the ministers. They are watchmen upon the walls of Zion, to sound the note of warning to the careless, the unsuspecting; also to portray the fate of the hypocrite in Zion. It seemed to me that some of the ministers had forgotten that Satan was yet alive, as persevering, earnest, and artful as ever; that he was still seeking to allure souls from the path of righteousness. (1T 469.3) MC VC

One important part of the work of the ministry is to faithfully present to the people the health reform as it stands connected with the third angel’s message as part and parcel of the same work. They should not fail to adopt it themselves, and should urge it upon all who profess to believe the truth. (1T 469.4) MC VC

Ministers should have no separate interest aside from the great work of leading souls to the truth. Their energies are all needed here. They should not engage in merchandise, in peddling, or in any business aside from this one great work. The solemn charge given to Timothy rests with equal weight upon them, laying upon them the most solemn obligations and most fearful responsibilities. “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.” “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” 2 Timothy 4:1, 2, 5. (1T 470.1) MC VC

Wrong habits of life have lessened our mental and physical sensibilities, and all the strength we can acquire by right living and placing ourselves in the best relation to health and life should be devoted unreservedly to the work which God has assigned us. We cannot afford to use the few enfeebled, crippled energies which we possess to “serve tables” Acts 6:2. or to mingle merchandise with the work God has committed to us. Every faculty of mind and body is now needed. The work of God requires this, and no separate business can be engaged in aside from this great work without taking time and strength of mind and body, and thus lessening the vigor and force of our labor in the cause of God. Ministers who do this will not have all that time for meditation and prayer, and all that strength and clearness of mind that they should have to understand the cases of those who need help, and to be prepared to “be instant in season, out of season.” 2 Timothy 4:2. A word fitly spoken at the right time may save some poor, erring, doubting, fainting soul. Paul exhorted Timothy: “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.” 1 Timothy 4:15. (1T 470.2) MC VC