Brother F is not fitted for his work. He has nearly everything to learn. His character is defective. He has not been educated from childhood to be a care-taker, a laborer, a burden bearer. He has not seen and felt the work to be done for himself, and hence is not prepared to appreciate the work to be done for others. He is self-sufficient. He assumes to know more than he really does. When he becomes thoroughly consecrated by the Spirit of God, and fully realizes the solemnity and responsibility of the work of a minister of Christ, he will feel himself entirely insufficient for the task. He is deficient in many respects; and his deficiencies will be reproduced in others, giving to the world an unfavorable impression of the character of our work and of the ministers who are engaged in it. He must become acquainted with the burdens and duties of practical life before he can be fitted to engage in the most responsible work ever given to mortal man. All young ministers need to be learners before they become teachers. While I would encourage young men to enter the ministry, I would say that I am authorized of God to recommend and urge upon them a fitness for the work in which they are to engage. (4T 439.1) MC VC

The Brethren F are not inclined to be care-takers and burden bearers. Carelessness and imperfection are seen in all they undertake. They are reckless in their conversation and deportment. The solemn, elevating, ennobling influence which should characterize every minister of the gospel cannot be exerted in their lives until they have been transformed and molded after the divine image. Selfishness exists more or less in each of them, though in a much larger degree in some than in others. There is a spirit of self-sufficiency and self-importance in these young men that unfits them for the work of God. They need to severely discipline themselves before they can be accepted of God as laborers in His cause. There is a natural laziness that must be overcome. They should have a faithful drilling in the temporal affairs of life. They must be learners; and when they show a marked success in the lesser responsibilities, then they will be fitted to be entrusted with greater ones. The different conferences are better off without such inefficient workers. The burden of souls can no more rest upon men in their state of unconsecration than upon babes. They are ignorant of vital godliness and need a most thorough conversion before they can be even Christians. (4T 440.1) MC VC

Brother A F needs a thorough drill in our college. His language is defective. There is a coarseness and want of refinement in his deportment; yet notwithstanding this, he is self-sufficient and entirely deceived in regard to his ability. He has had no real faith in the Testimonies of the Spirit of God. He has not carefully studied them and practiced the truths brought out. While he has so little spirituality he will not understand the value of the Testimonies nor their real object. These young men read the Bible, but they have very little experience in prayerful, earnest, humble searching of the Scriptures, that they may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (4T 440.2) MC VC