But Brother A had never felt the high claims that God has upon him. His moral faculties had been enfeebled by his habits of eating and drinking, and by his dissipation. When he embraced the truth he had a character to form for heaven. God would test and prove him. He had a work to do for himself that no one could do for him. By his course of life he had lost many years of precious probationary time, when he might have been gaining an experience in matters of religion, and a knowledge of the life of Christ, and of the infinite sacrifice made in man’s behalf to free him from the fetters that Satan had bound upon him, and enable him to glorify His name. {4T 28.3}

Men bror A havde aldrig følt Guds store krav på sig. Hans moralske evner har været svækkede af hans æde- og drikkevaner og af hans udskejelser. Da han antog sandheden havde han karakterdannelse for himlen. Gud ville forsøge og prøve ham. Han havde et arbejde at gøre for sig selv, som ingen anden kunne gøre for ham. På grund af hans levemåde har han mistet mange års dyrebar prøvetid, hvor han kunne (29) have fået erfaring i religiøse anliggender og kendskab til Kristi liv og til det umådelige offer der blev gjort for menneskets skyld, for at befri mennesket fra lænker, Satan havde sat på det og gøre mennesket i stand til at kunne lovprise Kristi navn.