Everything savoring of unbecoming familiarity should be discarded by physicians, superintendent, and helpers. There should be no giving of special favors or special attentions to a few, no preferring of one above another. This has been done, and it is displeasing to God. There are worthy persons who are afflicted and suffering, but do not complain, who are in need of special attentions. These men and women are often passed by with indifference and with a hardness of heart that is more like Satan’s character than like Christ’s, while young, forward misses, who in no way need or deserve favors, receive special attentions. All this neglect is written in the books of heaven. All these things are developing character.
(MM 146.1)
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Let all who are connected with the institution as helpers bear in mind the words of Inspiration: “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”James 3:17. When you pass by one who is in need of your sympathy, of your kindly acts, and give them not, but turn to the forward ones and bestow upon them your favors, remember that Jesus is insulted in the person of His afflicted ones. He says, “I was an hungered, and ye gave Me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink: I was ∙∙∙ naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not.”Matthew 25:42~43. And when the surprised inquiry comes, When saw we Thee thus? the answer, “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these [who were afflicted and needed your sympathy], ye did it not to Me.”Matthew 25:45. “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”Luke 5:31. They that are rich need not your favors, but they that are poor. The bruised and wounded, the lame of the flock, are among us, and these test the character of those who claim to be children of God.
(MM 146.2)
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Angels of God are watching the development of character. They are weighing moral worth. If you bestow your attentions upon those who have no need, you are doing the recipients harm, and you will yourself receive condemnation, rather than reward. Remember that when by your conversation you descend to the level of frivolous characters, you are encouraging them in the path that leads to perdition. Your unwise attentions may prove the ruin of their souls. You degrade their conceptions of what constitutes Christian life and character. You confuse their ideas, and make impressions that may never be effaced. The harm thus done to souls that needed to be strengthened, refined, and ennobled, is often a sin unto death. They cannot associate these men with the sacred positions which they occupy. The ministers, the officers of the church, all are regarded as no better than themselves. Then where is their example?
(MM 146.3)
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