Do not permit yourself to be discouraged. Do not permit yourself to be provoked, but let intelligent reason control your actions. Inquire what good it would do to be impatient. It would only gratify the enemy and confirm the opinion of those who would think evil of you. You may, by an even course of conduct, prove the words of evil-minded persons untrue. Do not enter into self-defense, but pass along doing your duty with perseverance.
God help you, my son [Edson], to make sure work for eternity. This is your work. No one can do this work for you. Trust wholly in God. Our heavenly Father is mindful of your infirmities. I am thankful that He is acquainted with all our weaknesses and with all our temptations. He knows how to pity us and how to strengthen us if we will flee to Him, the Stronghold, for help. Do not, when your faith is tested, become reckless. Just wait and calmly submit your judgment and your will and your way and be willing to be led.
There is no other way to be saved but that devised by our Redeemer, and of which He has given us a practical illustration in His own life of self-denial and self-sacrifice. You know He submitted to insult, to scorn and mockery without retaliation. When He was reviled, He reviled not again. “I came ... not,” says Christ, “to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). We must have the mind of Christ. We must walk in His footsteps.
Those who have lived for others’ good and have had an eye single to the glory of God will win eternal life. Those who will not make exertion, but drift with the current, live for self. They will never hear the “Well done” spoken to them... Precious souls are to be saved, and we have a work to do to win them to Christ.
Remember that hardships and trials are a part of the Christian legacy. Christ, the Majesty of heaven, came to our world to show us how to bear the world’s rebuffs without fainting or without retaliation. Every trial borne wisely will be a blessing to those who have them. They will lift up, but not cast down. Those who are continually seeking to shirk the hard and stony places but are seeking an easier path, a pleasanter way, will ever meet with disappointment and adversity. But if they brace the soul for trial and for duty, march forward bravely in God, they will find the path of self-denial and self-sacrifice will lead to honor and heavenly riches in the future, immortal life... Pray much and exercise living faith, and you will surely sing the song of victory.—Letter 24, May 5, 1874, to Edson White.
Reference: E.G. White, "The Upward Look," p. 139
