The Indiana Reporter
May 22, 1907
Criticising Burden-Bearers
(Continued.)
Some have been ready to say anything, to prefer any charge, against the servants of God, and to be jealous and fault-finding. And if they can find any instance where, in their zeal for the cause of God, they think ministers have spoken decidedly, and perhaps severely, they have been willing to make the most of their words, and have felt at liberty to cherish the most bitter, wicked spirit, and to charge the Lord's servants with wrong motives. Let these fault-finders ask what they would have done under similar circumstances, bearing similar burdens. Let them look, and search, and condemn their own wrong, overbearing course, and their own impatience and fretfulness; and when without sin themselves, let them cast the first stone of censure at the brethren who are trying to get them into working order. These men are not in harmony with the truth. They are working at cross purposes with those whom God is using to bring souls into the truth. IR May 22, 1907, par. 1
Do these brethren know what they are doing? They are standing directly in the way of sinners. They are blocking up the way by their own wrong course. The blood of souls will be on their garments unless they repent and entirely change their course. A spirit of criticism and bitterness has come into the church, and the spiritual discernment of many has been dimmed. The Spirit can never be poured out while variance and bitterness toward one another are cherished by the members of the church. Envy, jealousy, evil surmising and evil speaking are of Satan, and they effectually bar the way against the Holy Spirit's working. Nothing so offends God as an act that injures the influence of those who are doing His service. He will call to account all who aid Satan in his work of criticising and discouraging. IR May 22, 1907, par. 2
Happy the minister who has a faithful Aaron and Hur to strengthen his hands when they become weary, and to hold them up by faith and prayer. Such a course is a powerful aid to the servant of Christ in his work, and will often make the cause of truth to triumph gloriously. IR May 22, 1907, par. 3