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DEALING WITH SENTIMENTALISM

The guardians of the institution must ever maintain a high standard, and carefully watch over the youth intrusted to them by parents as learners or helpers in the various departments. When young men and women work together a sympathy is created among them which frequently grows into sentimentalism. If the guardians are indifferent to this, lasting injury may be done to these souls, and the high moral tone of the institution will be compromised. If any, patients or helpers, continue their familiarity by deception after having had judicious instruction, they should not be retained in the institution, for their influence will affect those who are innocent and unsuspecting. Young girls will lose their maidenly modesty, and be led to act deceptively because their affections have become entangled.

The young should be taught to be frank, yet modest, in their associations. They should be taught to respect just rules and authority. If they refuse to do this, let them be dismissed, no matter what position they occupy, for they will demoralize others. The forwardness of young girls in placing themselves in the company of young men, lingering around where they are at work, entering into conversation with them, talking common, idle talk, is belittling to womanhood. It lowers them, even in the estimation of those who themselves indulge in such things...

Let not those who profess the religion of Christ descend to trifling conversation, to unbecoming familiarity with women of any class, whether married or single. Let them keep their proper places with all dignity. At the same time they should be sociable,

"Health and Medical Missionary Work," pp. 26-28.

kind, and courteous to all. Young ladies should be reserved and modest. They should give no occasion for their good to be evil spoken of. . . . Those who give evidence that their thoughts run in a low channel, whose conversation tends to corrupt rather than to elevate, should be removed at once from any connection with the institution, for they will surely demoralize others.

Ever bear in mind that our health institutions are missionary fields. . . . Will you excuse levity and careless acts by saying that it was the result of thoughtlessness on your part? Is it not the duty of the Christian to think soberly? If Jesus is enthroned in the heart, will the thoughts be running riot? . . .

Moral purity, self-respect, a strong power of resistance, must be firmly and constantly cherished. There should not be one departure from reserve. One act of familiarity, one indiscretion, may jeopardize the soul, by opening the door to temptation and thus weakening the power of resistance.

The Ennobling Power of Pure Thoughts

We need a constant sense of the ennobling power of pure thoughts. The only security for any soul is right thinking. As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he." The power of self-restraint strengthens by exercise. That which at first seems difficult, by constant repetition grows easy, until right thoughts and actions become habitual. If we will, we may turn away from all that is cheap and inferior, and rise to a higher standard; we may be respected by men, and beloved of God.-"Ministry of Healing," p. 491.

CRITICIZING AND FAULTFINDING

Those visiting our institutions, and seeing where work is not done to the best advantage, should, if they have had larger experience, and know of a more successful way to manage, counsel with those who are in trust, and seek to help them to see the right way of action. Those who fail to do this neglect their duty, and are unfaithful to their God-given responsibility. Such an one, if he goes from that institution without saying anything to the proper persons, and states to parties not connected with it that he saw failures in the management there, that he saw places where expense was incurred without benefiting the institution, has failed to manifest a Christian spirit, and has been unfaithful to his brethren and to God. The Lord would have him diffuse light, if he has it to give; and if he has not a well-regulated plan to suggest, he does wrong to tell others of the mistakes which he has seen. If he fails to give the workers the benefit of his supposed superior wisdom; if he only finds fault without telling, in a right spirit, how to improve, he not only injures the reputation of the institution, but of the workers, who may be acting according to the very best light they have.

These things need to be carefully considered. Let every man and woman inquire, "On whose side am I? Am I working to build up or to tear down one of God's instrumentalities?"

One thing makes me feel very sad, and that is that there is not always harmony among the workers in our institutions. I have thought, Is it possible that there is anyone who will find fault with those connected with them in the work? Is their anyone who will

"Health and Medical Missionary Work," pp. 23-26.

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suggest to patients or to visitors or fellow workers that there are many things which ought to be done that are not done, and many other things which are not done right? If they do this, they are not doing the work of Christians.

Men who have been appointed to different positions of trust are to be respected. We do not expect to find men who are perfect in every respect. They may be seeking for perfection of character, but they are finite, and liable to err. Those who are engaged in our institutions should feel it their duty jealously to guard both the work and the workers from unjust criticism. They should not readily accept or speak words of censure against any who are connected with the work of God; for in thus doing God Himself may be reproached and the work that He is doing through instrumentalities may be greatly hindered. The wheels of progress may be blocked when God says, "Go forward."

It is a great evil, and one which exists among our people to a great extent, to give loose rein to the thoughts, to question and criticize everything another does, making mountains out of molehills, and thinking their own ways are right, whereas, if they were in the same place as their brother, they might not do half as well as he does. It is just as natural for some to find fault with what another does as it is for them to breathe. They have formed the habit of criticizing others, when they themselves are the ones who should be brought severely to task and their wicked speeches and hard feelings be burned out of their souls by the purifying fire of God's love. . . .

A person who will allow any degree of suspicion or censure to rest upon his fellow workers, while he

neither rebukes the complainers nor faithfully presents the matter before the one condemned, is doing the work of the enemy. He is watering the seeds of discord. and of strife, the fruit of which he will have to meet in the day of God.

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This disrespect for others, this disregard for right and justice, is not a rare thing. It is found to a greater or less extent in all our institutions. If one makes a mistake, there are some who make it their business to talk about it until it grows to large proportions. Instead of this, there should be in all engaged in our institutions a sacred principle to guard the interest and reputation of every one with whom they are associated, even as they would wish their own reputation guarded.

Results of Fostered Sin

The strongest bulwark of vice in our world is not the iniquitous life of the abandoned sinner or the degraded outcast; it is that life which otherwise appears virtuous, honorable, and noble, but in which one sin is fostered, one vice indulged. To the soul that is struggling in secret against some giant temptation, trembling upon the very verge of the precipice, such an example is one of the most powerful enticements to sin. He who, endowed with high conceptions of life and truth and honor, does yet willfully transgress one precept of God's holy law, has perverted his noble gifts into a lure to sin. Genius, talent, sympathy, even generous and kindly deeds, may become decoys of Satan to entice other souls over the precipice of ruin for this life and the life to come."Mount of Blessing," p. 140.

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