《传道工作者》
1902年5月7日
1、及时的教诲
(1887年7月3日写于英国格里姆斯比)
昨天晚上我没睡多少。我想到了的教会，必须留出大量时间不要讲道。服务那个教会的人有责任意识到个人的责任，竭尽所能加强教会，使聚会有兴趣，让外人或不信的人被吸引到你们的聚会。没有什么比分裂和纷争更能明显地使教会软弱了。若是这种状况存在，就没有什么东西象这种精神那样能敌对真理，敌对耶稣基督了。“凭着他们的果子，就可以认出他们来”(太7:20)。“泉源从一个眼里能发出甜苦两样的水吗?我的弟兄们，无花果树能生橄榄吗?葡萄树能结无花果吗?咸水里也不能发出甜水来。你们中间谁是有智慧、有见识的呢?他就当在智慧的温柔上显出他的善行来”(雅3:11-13)。{MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 1}
现在但愿谁也不要自命有大智慧大能力。他若有这些才干，就必不会作最突显这些才干的人，因为那些最不信任自我，一点也不特别信任自己才能的人，才是上帝愿意使用、甘心乐意作祂工具的人。这些人必藉着自己的谈吐表明他们一直在与上帝交流，一直在领受基督已教导众人的教训，祂愿意教导他们内心的柔和谦卑。他们既对耶稣有最高尚的看法，充满祂的爱，就必从心灵中涌出智慧的话语，说出会激动他们内心的话。祂的作为被显明出来，不是藉着赞美自己的浮夸之言，而是正相反，会以智慧的温柔显明出来。这些人不说别人的短处，却对自己有很谦卑的看法;因为他们对耶稣、对祂圣洁的品格、祂的舍己、祂的自我牺牲和祂的圣洁使命有更加清晰明确的看法。{MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 2}
何时人们看不见耶稣，看不见祂的纯正、祂无瑕的完全，才会自高自大、自足自负、自我膨胀;若是别人没有象他们自以为应该得到的那样完全顺从和尊重他们，他们就会不安、不满，以为自己受了虐待，未得赏识。他们以一种无误的方式显出自己品格的真相，在挑剔、抱怨、迅速反对任何与他们的意见不符的事上把自己的缺点暴露出来，甚至在聚集敬拜上帝时也是如此。他们若有智慧，就能看出自己不象基督的做法的影响和结果。然而，他们既因自负而盲目，就看不出自己的弱点，便向众人显明他们是不可信赖的。这些人会经历世界而没有什么益处，喧闹又冒失，突显自我，从而因缺乏智慧而贬损真理，在各方面误表耶稣基督的宗教。他们非但不使人归向基督，反而使人厌弃真理，以致沦丧了。{MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 3}
“你们心里若怀着苦毒的嫉妒和纷争，就不可自夸，也不可说谎话抵挡真道”(雅3:14)。要是我说这些话是出于自己，多少人就会说：“怀姐妹有一种严厉的精神，她并不理解我。”然而上帝理解你，祂明说，你们若有嫉妒和纷争，就不可自夸，称之为基督徒的胆量，因为这不是出于上帝，而是出于魔鬼。你们虽自称相信真理，你们的判断可能也赞成真理，但你们若是没有在耶稣里的真理，就只能以你自己的方法，用你的方式介绍它;你的言语和外表就显明你并没有把真理带入你的生活，交织在你的品格中，而只是把真理绑在结荆棘果的树上。{MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 4}
“这样的智慧不是从上头来的，……惟独从上头来的智能，先是清洁，后是和平，温良柔顺，满有怜悯，多结善果，没有偏见，没有假冒”(雅3:15,17)。教会有什么人不是温良柔顺的，而是为自己的道路争辩，自信地坚持自己的想法不肯放弃，说话好像只有自己的道路才是完美而毫无问题的吗?这些人不温良柔顺是因为没有悔改。他们没有摆脱自我。他们充满自尊自大，他们的言语和作风着实令不信的人反感，他们谈论我们信仰容易引起反对的特色，十分得意地自夸自恃。“凭着他们的果子，就可以认出他们来。”“并且使人和平的，是用和平所栽种的义果”(太7:20;雅3:18)。 {MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 5}
怀爱伦夫人
(下周续)
THE MISSIONARY WORKER
7-May-02
Timely Instruction.
Grimsby, England, July 23, 1887
I Have been unable to sleep much during the past night. I have thought of the church at which must be left much of the time without preaching. It is the duty of those who are connected with the church to feel an individual responsibility to do their utmost to strengthen it, and make the meetings so interesting that unbelievers will be attracted. Nothing can weaken a church so manifestly as disunion and strife. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.” “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.” {MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 1}
Let not anyone place himself forward as having great wisdom and ability; for if he has these talents, he will not be the one to make them the most prominent. It is those who have the most distrust of self, whom God will use as his willing instruments. These will show by their conversation that they have been communing with God, and receiving the lessons taught by Christ. They have exalted views of Jesus, and words of wisdom flow forth from their souls in words that will stir other hearts. Their works are made manifest, not by pompous words of self praise, but in meekness of wisdom. They have no words to the demerit of others and only a very humble opinion of themselves, because they have had a clear view of Jesus, His holy character, His self-denial, His self-sacrifice, and His holy mission. {MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 2}
It is when men lose sight of Jesus, His purity, His spotless perfection, that they lift up themselves, and are self-sufficient, self-important, puffed up, self-inflated; then if others do not give them all that deference and respect that they think they should have, they are uneasy, dissatisfied, and think themselves ill used. They reveal their true character in an unmistakable manner, showing their defects in fault-finding and complaining, ready to combat anything that does not meet their mind, even when assembled to worship God. If they had wisdom, they could see the result of their own unchristlike course; but blinded with self-importance, they do not discern their weakness, and manifest to all that they cannot be trusted. These will go through the world doing but very little good, boisterous, and obtrusive, pushing themselves to the front, and thus by the want of wisdom misrepresent in every way the religion of Jesus Christ. They, in the place of bringing people to Christ, disgust them, and turn them away from the truth, so that souls are lost. {MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 3}
“But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.” If I should say these words of myself, how many would say, “Sister White has a hard spirit, she does not understand me.” But God understands you, and He plainly declares that if you have envying and strife, you need not glory, calling it a Christian boldness, for it is not of God but of the devil. Though you may profess to believe the truth, and your judgment assents to it, yet if you have not the truth as it is in Jesus, you cannot properly present it. Your very words and appearance will show that you have not brought the truth into your life, and woven it into your character, but tied the truth on to the tree that bears thorn-berries. {MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 4}
“This wisdom descendeth not from above ... But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and [mark the fruits here stated] easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” Are there any of the church who are not easy to be entreated, who will argue for their own way, who will in self-confidence hold to their own ideas, and will not give them up, but will talk as though they were the only ones whose ways were perfect and unquestionable,—these are not easily entreated because they are not converted. They are not divested of self. They are full of self-esteem, and are sure to disgust unbelievers with their words and ways, by talking the objectionable features of our faith, in all proud boasting, and self-confidence. “By their fruits ye shall known them.” “And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” {MissWorker May 7, 1902, par. 5}
Mrs. E. G. White.
(Concluded next week.)
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