My young friends, will you begin your Christian life as those whose hearts are warmed with the love of Jesus? You will never know how much good you may do by speaking tenderly sensible, serious words regarding their souls’ salvation to those who do not claim to be children of God. On the other hand you may never know until the judgment how many opportunities to be Christ’s witnesses you have left unimproved. You may never know in this world the mischief you have done to some soul by your little acts of frivolity, your cheap talk, your levity, which was wholly inconsistent with your holy faith.
(MYP 201.1)
MC
VC
It is true, you may feel a sort of anxiety for the souls of those you love. You may seek to open to them the treasures of truth, and in your earnestness shed tears for their salvation; but when your words seem to make but little impression, and there is no apparent response to your prayers, you almost feel like casting reflection upon God that your labors bear no fruit. You feel that your dear ones have special hardness of heart, and that they do not respond to your efforts. But have you thought seriously that the fault may lie in your own self? Have you thought that you are pulling down with one hand that which you are striving to build up with the other?
(MYP 201.2)
MC
VC
At times you have permitted the Spirit of God to have a controlling power over you, and at other times you have denied your faith by your practice, and have destroyed your labor for your loved ones; for your efforts in their behalf have been made of none effect by your practice. Your temper, your unspoken language, your manners, the repining state of your mind, your want of Christian fragrance, your want of spirituality, the very expression of your countenance, has witnessed against you....
(MYP 201.3)
MC
VC