Brethren and sisters, many of you excuse yourselves from labor on the plea of inability to work for others. But did God make you so incapable? Was not this inability produced by your own inactivity and perpetuated by your own deliberate choice? Did not God give you at least one talent to improve, not for your own convenience and gratification, but for Him? Have you realized your obligation, as His hired servant, to bring a revenue to Him by the wise and skillful use of this entrusted capital? Have you not neglected opportunities to improve your powers to this end? It is too true that few have felt any real sense of their responsibility to God. Love, judgment, memory, foresight, tact, energy, and every other faculty have been devoted to self. You have displayed greater wisdom in the service of evil than in the cause of God. You have perverted, disabled, nay, even besotted your powers, by your intense activity in worldly pursuits to the neglect of God’s work. {5T 457.2}

Brødre og søstre, mange af jer undskylder jer med påberåbelse af udygtighed til at virke for andre. Men gjorde Gud jer udygtige? Kommer denne udygtighed ikke af jeres egen uvirksomhed og holdes den ikke ved lige ved jeres eget forsætlige valg? Gav Gud jer ikke i det mindste en talent til brug, ikke for jeres egen bekvemmelighed eller tilfredsstillelse, men for ham? Har du indset din forpligtelse til som hans lejede tjener at skaffe ham en indtægt ved en klog og kyndig anvendelse af denne betroede kapital? Har du ikke forsømt anledninger til at udnytte dine evner til dette formål? Det er alt for sandt, at få virkelig har følt deres ansvar over for Gud. Kærlighed, dømmekraft, hukommelse, fremsyn, takt, energi og enhver anden evne har været viet til jeget. I har vist større visdom i det ondes tjeneste end i Guds sag. I har (458) forvansket, udygtiggjort, ja endog sløvet jeres kræfter ved jeres intense aktivitet i verdslige foretagender, med forsømmelse af Guds værk.