Selected Messages Book 2

Chapter 21—The Workers in Our Institutions

Procuring the Very Best Talent

From time to time, I have felt urged by the Spirit of the Lord to bear a testimony to our brethren in regard to the necessity of procuring the very best talent to work in our various institutions and in the numerous other departments of our cause. Those who are thus connected with the work must be trained men, men whom God can teach and whom He can honor as He did Daniel, with wisdom and understanding. They must be thinking men, men who bear God's impress, and who are steadily progressing in holiness, in moral dignity, and in the excellence with which they labor. If they are growing men, if they possess reasoning minds and sanctified intelligence, if they listen to the voice of God, and seek to catch every ray of light from heaven, and they will, like the sun, pursue an undeviating course, and they will grow in wisdom and in favor with God.... 2SM 190.1

Those who are placed in leading positions in connection with our institutions should be men who have sufficient breadth of mind to respect those of cultivated intellect, and who will recompense them proportionately to the responsibilities they bear. True, those who engage in the work of the Lord should not do so merely for the wages they receive, but to honor God, advance His cause, and to obtain imperishable riches. At the same time we should not expect that those who are capable of taking hold of a work that requires thought and painstaking effort, and of doing it with exactitude and thoroughness should receive no greater compensation than the less skillful workman. A true estimate must be placed upon talent. Those who cannot appreciate true work and mental ability should not occupy the position of managers in our institutions, for their influence will tend to bind about the work, to erect barriers to its progress, and to bring it down to a low level. 2SM 190.2

If our institutions are as prosperous as God designs they shall be, there must be more thoughtfulness and earnest prayer, mingled with unflagging zeal and skillful labor. To connect this class of laborers with the work may require a greater outlay of means. But while it is essential that economy be exercised in everything possible, it will be found that the efforts of some narrow minds to save means by employing those who will work cheap, and whose labor corresponds in character with the cheapness of their wages, will result in the end in their loss. The progress of the work will be retarded, and the cause belittled.—Letter 63, 1886. 2SM 191.1