Letters to Physicians and Ministers

Purity of Motive and Action

Let your motives and your aspirations be pure. In every business transaction be rigidly honest. However you may be tempted, never deceive or prevaricate. At times a natural impulse may tempt you to vary from the straightforward path of honesty, but do not yield to this impulse. If in any matter you make a statement as to what you will do, and afterward find that you have favored others to your own loss, do not vary one hair's breadth from principle. Carry out your agreement. By seeking to change your plans, you would show that you could not be depended on. And if you should draw back in small transactions, you would draw back in larger ones. Under such circumstances, some are tempted to deceive, saying, I was not understood. My words have been taken to mean more than I intended. But they meant just what they said, but lost the good impulse, and then wanted to draw back from their agreement, lest it prove a loss to them. SpTB01 31.1

Let the youth set up well-defined landmarks, by which they may be governed in emergencies. When a crisis comes that demands active, well-governed physical powers and a clear, strong, practical mind; when difficult work is to be done, where every stroke must tell, where perplexities will arise which can be met only by wisdom from on high, then the youth who have learned to overcome difficulties by earnest labor can respond to the call for workers, saying, “Here am I; send me.” Isaiah 6:8. Let the hearts of young men and young women be as clear as crystal. Let not their thoughts be trivial, but sanctified by virtue and holiness. If their thoughts are made pure by the sanctification of the Spirit, their lives will be elevated and ennobled. SpTB01 31.2