We are nearing the close of time. We want not only to teach present truth in the pulpit, but to live it out of the pulpit. Examine closely the foundation of your hope of salvation. While you stand in the position of a herald of truth, a watchman upon the walls of Zion, you cannot have your interest interwoven with mining or real-estate business and at the same time do effectually the sacred work committed to your hands. Where the souls of men are at stake, where eternal things are involved, the interest cannot safely be divided. This is especially so in your case. While engaged in this business, you have not been cultivating heartfelt piety. You have had a feverish desire to obtain means. You have talked to many about the financial advantages to be gained by investing in lands in -----. Again and again you have been engaged in picturing the advantages of these enterprises; and this while you were an ordained minister of Christ, pledged to give your soul, body, and spirit to the work of the salvation of souls. At the same time you were receiving money from the treasury to support yourself and your family. Your talk was calculated to draw the attention and money of our people away from our institutions and from the business of promoting the Redeemer’s kingdom on the earth. Its tendency was to beget in them a desire to invest their means where you assured them that it would be doubled in a short time, and to flatter them with the prospect that they could help the cause a great deal more by so doing. You may not knowingly have advised them to withdraw their means from the cause of God; but some had no money to handle except that invested in our institutions, and it has been withdrawn from them to invest according to your suggestions. {5T 530.1}

[Vi nærmer os tidens ende. Vi må ikke kun fremholde den nærværende sandhed fra prædikestolen, men efterleve den uden for prædikestolen. Ransag nøje grundlaget for dit håb om frelse! Mens du udfylder stillingen som en sandhedens forkynder, en vægter på Zions mure, kan du ikke lade dine interesser være blandet med denne verdens forretningsanliggende og interesser. Du kan ikke gøre dette på samme tid med en god virkning og udføre den hellige gerning som er lagt i dine hænder. Når menneskesjæle står på spil og når det gælder de evige anliggender, kan man ikke med tryghed lade interessen være delt.] Dette gælder især i dit tilfælde. Når du arbejder i denne forretning, har du ikke opdyrket hjertefølt fromhed. Du har haft et inderligt ønske om at få midler. Du har talt med mange om finansielle gevinster ved at investere i jorder i ___. Igen og igen har du skildret fordelene ved disse virksomheder; og imens du var en ordineret Kristi tjener, bad om at give din sjæl, legeme og ånd til sjælevindende arbejde, så gjorde du dette. Samtidig fik du penge fra kassen til at underholde dig selv og din familie. Din tale førte til at bortlede vore folks opmærksomhed og penge bort fra vore institutioner og fra forretninger der arbejdede for Forløserens rige på jorden. Tendensen var at få dem til at ville investere deres midler, hvor du forsikrede dem at de ville opdobles på kort tid og bilde dem ind at de hjalp sagen meget mere, ved at gøre sådan. Du har ikke med vilje rådet dem til at tilbageholde deres midler fra Guds sag; men nogle havde ingen (531) penge at bruge af bortset fra dem investeret i vore institutioner og det har tilbageholdt dem fra at investere efter dine forslag. [Evangeliets tjenere side 255]