"To every man, woman, and child, God has given a work to do in His moral vineyard. One is fitted to do a certain work, another has a different work, for which he is adapted, another has a still different line; but each is to be the complement of the others. When you three sisters came in connection with the school, you should have put forth special effort, in union with the Holy Spirit of God, to blend together in the work. All three were needed, and not one was to regard herself individually as capable of being a complete whole. From the very first you should have taken time to understand each other, instead of standing apart to watch and criticize and judge each other. If each had tried to find points of resemblance in each, and to be a help to each, one supplying the lack of another, how different would have been the outcome. One may have keener perceptions in some things than another, let this be accepted and appreciated; there is nothing amiss in giving due credit to each one’s ability."
The following comes from a letter written in 1894 to a woman who was not taking advantage of the skills and backgrounds of other people in achieving greater success for the ministry that she was involved with.
Lt78, 1894
George’s Terrace, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, Australia
March 20, 1894
During the past night I have had scenes presented before me, and the burden of a message laid upon me, and I have taken my pen, hours before daylight, to write these lines. In other pages I have presented some perils and warnings and reproofs to which the Lord would have sisters Daniells and Rousseau take heed. Now I address Sisters Daniells, Rousseau, and Starr, as I have had your cases presented before me in connection with your experience at the school. That experience might have been of an altogether different order; but thank God it is not too late for wrongs to be righted. One mind, one judgment, could not be sufficient to devise plans and direct the work. {Lt78-1894.}
No one mind is alone sufficient to exert a healthful, well-balanced influence in the school. In the providence of God you three sisters, with your different temperaments, were brought in connection with the school that you might unite in the work. Unity in diversity is God’s plan. Among the followers of Christ there is to be the blending of diverse elements, one adapted to the other, and each to do its special work for God. Every individual had his place in the filling up of one great plan bearing the stamp of Christ’s image. God is one. {Lt78-1894.}
There are grievous mistakes and misapprehensions among those who claim to be Christians. To every man, woman, and child, God has given a work to do in His moral vineyard. One is fitted to do a certain work, another has a different work, for which he is adapted, another has a still different line; but each is to be the complement of the others. When you three sisters came in connection with the school, you should have put forth special effort, in union with the Holy Spirit of God, to blend together in the work. All three were needed, and not one was to regard herself individually as capable of being a complete whole. From the very first you should have taken time to understand each other, instead of standing apart to watch and criticize and judge each other. If each had tried to find points of resemblance in each, and to be a help to each, one supplying the lack of another, how different would have been the outcome. One may have keener perceptions in some things than another, let this be accepted and appreciated; there is nothing amiss in giving due credit to each one’s ability. {Lt78-1894.}
It would be the greatest misfortune if one man’s mind or one woman’s mind should exert a controlling power in any of our institutions. The Spirit of God, working in and through the diverse elements, will produce harmony of action. There is to be no master spirit, regarded as in itself sufficient for the situation. There is to be only one master spirit—the Spirit of Him who is infinite in wisdom, and in whom all the diverse elements meet in beautiful, matchless unity. {Lt78-1894.}
How great the diversity manifested in the natural world. Every object as its peculiar sphere of action; yet all are found to be linked together in the great whole. Christ Jesus is in union with the Father, and from the great Center this wonderful unity is to extend through the different orders of being, through all classes and diversities of talents. We are all to respect one another’s talent; we are to harmonize in goodness, in unselfish thoughts and actions, because the Spirit of Christ, as the living, working agency, is circulating through the whole, even as the sap flows from the parent stock through every branch, every fiber of the leaf, and produces fruit of the same character as that of the vine stock. Jesus declared, “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” [John 15:5.] Every branch centers in the vine stock and is to do its appointed work, not in imitation of another, but in its own capacity. {Lt78-1894.}
This is a small portion of the lessons that have been given to me for each of us to study. The Lord had a work for each of you to do; the connection of the different characters would scarcely make a perfect whole; but if all were working under the supervision of Christ, the great Unit, there would be harmonious blending, each fitting into her position, no one wrestling for supremacy, seeking to be the highest. This was God’s plan, but it was spoiled because there was a failure to learn of Jesus His meekness and lowliness, and to find rest in wearing Christ’s yoke and bearing His burden. Self has been struggling for recognition. {Lt78-1894.}
It is so hard for us to learn that the little things supply the actual discipline of life. This training of the soul by the Holy Spirit’s working through the human agent, is the progressive sanctification of the Spirit, a growth from glory to glory, unto the perfect likeness of the character of Christ. It is not striking actions that produce unity; it is the mold of the Holy Spirit upon the character. The grace of Christ works in the education and training, using every principle on which a well-balanced education is founded. It is a continual, persevering influence that trains the soul after the likeness of the character of Christ. The enemy worked by his spirit upon human minds when the door was opened to him. {Lt78-1894.}