Those who take the lives of others in their hands must be men who have been marked as making life a success. They must be men of judgment and wisdom, men who can sympathize and feel to the depths, men whose whole being is stirred when they witness suffering. Some men who have been unsuccessful in every other enterprise in life take up the business of a physician. They take the lives of men and women in their hands, when they have had no experience. They read a plan which somebody has followed with success, and adopt it, and then practice upon those who have confidence in them, actually destroying the last spark of life; yet after all they do not learn anything, but will go on just as sanguine in the next case, observing the same rigid treatment. Some persons may have a power of constitution sufficient to withstand the terrible tax imposed upon them, and live. Then the novices take the glory to themselves, when none is due them. Everything is due to God and to a powerful constitution. {2T 385.1}

Du har et arbejde at gøre med at bringe dit hjem i orden. Rene, syndfrie engle kan ikke glæde sig ved at komme i en bolig hvor der udøves så megen synd. Du sover på din post. Ting af mindre betydning har optaget dine tanker som undskyldning for de mere vægtfulde ting. Det bør være dit livs første opgave at søge efter himlens rige og dets retfærdighed; så har du løftet at alt andet gives i tilgift. Her er det hvor du har forsømt din familie. Havde du haft kvaler over at du og dine kunne gå ind ad den snævre port, ville du alvorligt have samlet hver lysstråle som Herren har ladet skinne på din stivej og du ville værne om dem og vandret i dem.