p. 126 | Friends of the Church by J. A. Wood

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 21, 1865

Friends of the Church.

By J. A. Wood

WHO are the best friends of the Church? Those who have the most of the spirit of Christ, and who, under God, do the most to lead sinners to seek pardon, and believers to seek purity. He who loves the Church most, other things being equal, will do most for her, and will watch over her purity, usefulness and interests with the deepest godly jealousy. Her true friends will never treat the hurt of the daughter of her people slightly. To be faithful to the Church, and point out her duties, her faults, and her dangers, is one of the strongest evidences of love for her. "He who tells me of my faults is my friend." To faithfully point out the duties, defects and sins of the Church, is very far from "stabbing," "bleeding," or "abusing" the church as some appear to believe. A time-serving, temporizing man who seeks more to please men, and make the church popular with the world, than he does to lead sinners to God, and believers on to holiness, is very far from being the best friend of the Church. And the minister who maintains a strict fidelity to God, and who, like Wesley and his coadjutors, deals faithfully—though kindly—with the Church and the world, and gives sin of every kind, either in or out of the Church no quarter, is very far from being an enemy of the Church. The worst enemies the Church has, are some within her own pale. A compromising, self-seeking, worldly-minded, backslidden minister will do more to run down her piety, kill off her converts, and scatter spiritual desolation through all her borders, than all her enemies from without, combined. Robert Hall says, "False professors care only to please;" and Bishop George says, "A temporizing Spirit has been the curse of the Church in all ages."—J. A. Wood.