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The Manner of the Work.

by

Ellen G. White.

(from MS 10, Oct. 23, 1888).

I remember when the converting power of God came upon me in my childhood. I wanted everyone else to get the blessing that I had, and I could not rest till I had told them of it. I began to visit with my young companions and went to their houses to talk with them and tell them of my experience, how precious the Saviour was to me, and how I wanted them to serve Him also. So I would talk of the preciousness of Christ, and I would say, "Won't you kneel down and pray with me?" Some would kneel and some would sit on their chairs, but before we gave up, every one would be on their knees and we would pray together for hours, till the last one would say, "I believe that Jesus has forgiven my sins." Sometimes the sun would begin to make its appearance in the heavens before I would give up the struggle.

There is great power in Jesus. Now, when we go into the house we should not begin to talk of frivolous things, but come right to the point and say, "I want you to love Jesus for He has first loved you." And as Brother Starr has said, "Take along the publications and ask them to read." When they see that you are sincere they will not despise any of your efforts. There is a way to reach the hardest hearts. Approach in the simplicity, sincerity, and humility that will help us to reach the souls of those for whom Christ died.

We do not want to be negligent in this work.

The plan now under consideration I believe to be one that God will be pleased with. Churches that are now ready to die want someone to devise and plan for them who has the power to set things in operation. But who will do it? There are enough who want to be Christians, and if we will let the leaven begin to work, it will take one and then another, just as the Spirit of God will work with us, and we will see that we can reach the people, not by our own smartness, but by the Spirit of God. Yet we want [need] the ability and power that God has given us to be brought into use. We do not want to be novices forever; we want to know how to conduct ourselves properly; we want Christian politeness. And we want [need] to carry it with us in all our work. We do not want any of the sharp corners which may be in our character to be made prominent, but we want to work in humility, so we will forget them, and better characteristics will come in. We want cheerfulness in our work. A great deal depends on the way you meet those whom you go to visit. You can take hold of the hand in such a way as at once to gain the confidence. If you take hold of it with a cold, unimpressive manner, as though you were an iceberg and did not want to be melted, you will find no warmth in return.

When we were on the boat on our way to Europe I met a physician who said, "I want to give you a little advice. You will find a cold, stiff-necked people, and if you will be as stiff, you will never do them any good; but if you will go right to them and talk with them no matter how diffident they seem to be, they will meet you all right; talk to them just as you did to me. They will see that you have a heart and will love to talk with you. I love to talk with you about these things; do the same way in England."

You don't want to hold yourselves as though it were a condescension to come in contact with poor families. Talk as though they were as good a piece of humanity as you are. They have little enough light and joy, and why not carry additional joy and light to shine in upon them and fill their hearts?

What we want is the tender sympathy of Jesus Christ, and then we can melt our way into their hearts. We want to clothe ourselves, not with pomposity, but with plain, simple dress, so that they will feel that we are an equal with them, and as though we considered that they were worth saving, and we can melt our way into their hearts.

Now, brethren and sisters, we want the iron taken out of our souls, and we want it taken out of our manner of work. We can educate workers in every church. Don't let the ministers feel that they must do all the talking, and all the labouring; but call on others to lead the meetings occasionally. In doing this they are being educated. Let them take turns in giving Bible readings, around. This is calling into use the talent which God has given them.

I read of a man who had a corps of workmen over whom he placed an overseer. He had charge of twelve men and they were to dig a trench, and the man came along one day where they were at work, and there was the overseer down in the trench, and the sweat was rolling off from his brow, but the twelve men were looking down into the trench watching him labour. The overseer was called up and asked what he was doing down there. "I ordered you to keep twelve men at work. Why have you not done it? Here are your wages."

Now God has made us teachers of the flock, and He wants us to educate them in every branch of the work, that we may bring in all the talents. Our ministers do the labour instead of educating others to take the responsibility of the cause. The minister's work should be the work of a teacher. One labourer might set twenty to work in less time than it would take him to do the work himself. Let them blunder and make mistakes and then kindly show them how they can do it better and then you can be educating, educating, educating until you have men and women who have experience in the things of God and can carry responsibility, and that is what we have been suffering for. We need men who can bear responsibility and the best way to gain the experience they need is to engage in this work.

Then if we work for others we will not lack for something to talk about when we assemble together. We will not have to talk about our brethren and think of our self-sufficiency, for we will be working out of those things and getting to be workers for Jesus Christ. If this branch of the work could be taken up in every conference and church, I believe we should see in the year to come an elevation, a healthfulness, a different atmosphere in the church. There would not be so many tattlers and gossipers. There would not be so much time for idle tales, and we would see many souls converted to Christ. Why should we not feel an interest for those around us when Christ has given us such an evidence of His love? Why, brethren, God will not leave us. He will let His converting power be upon us. These things will enlarge as the waves from a pebble thrown in the waters; the first are small, but they grow larger and larger till they reach the bank.

Brethren, we want to do something to set things in operation for God. We want to do something that will save souls, that at last we may enter in to the joy of our Lord, that we may give praises to our Lord that we have been the means of saving some through Him. That some may say, "It is through your instrumentality, it is you that saved me through Jesus Christ." That is the way that we shall enter into the joy of our Lord. This is the way in which we want to work. We cannot know here what the effect of our work has been; but we shall see in eternity what we have done for the Master. Shall we plan and devise to carry out these plans to the letter? Then the blessings of the Lord will attend all our labours.

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