I am aware, dear Brother, that the mind naturally claims something new; but the same thing rehearsed frequently profits us. You will have the same difficulties to encounter in fulfilling this ministry, that the ancient Apostle had. You have enlisted in a cause that requires your whole attention; you ought, therefore, to count the cost; and to become a polished shaft, you must be sensible, requires the labor of years; and your station requires a perfect polish. It is required of you not merely to travel a few miles in the country, but in distant countries: you must endure much labor, much toil, and many privations, to become perfectly polished. Your calling is not like that of the husbandman, to cultivate a stinted portion of the planet on which we dwell, and when heaven has given the former and the latter rain, and mellow autumn ripened his fruit, gathers it in, and congratulates himself for a season in the intermission of his toils, while he anticipates his winter evenings of relaxation and fire-side enjoyments. But, dear Brother, it is far otherwise with you. Your labor must be incessant, and your toil great; you must go forth and labor till the great work is done. It will require a series of years to accomplish it; but you will have this pleasing consolation, that your heavenly Father requires it; the field is His; the work is His; and He will not {193} only cheer you, animate you, and buoy you up in your pilgrimage, in your arduous toils; but when your work is done, and your labor over, He will take you unto Himself. But before this consummation of your felicity, bring your mind to bear upon what will be imperiously required of you to accomplish, viz., the great work that lies before you. Count well the cost. You have read of the persecutions and trials of ancient days. Has not bitter experience taught you that they are the same now? You will be dragged before the authorities for the religion you profess; and it were better not to set out, than to start and look back, or shrink when dangers thicken around you, or appalling death stares you in the face. I have spoken these things, dear brother, because I have seen them in visions. There are strong dungeons and gloomy prisons for you. These should not appall you. You must be called a good or a bad man. The ancients passed through the same experience. They had this testimony--that they had seen the Savior after He rose from the dead. You must bear the same testimony; or your mission, your labor, your toil, will be in vain. You must bear the same testimony, that there is but one God, one Mediator; he that hath seen Him, will know Him, and testify of Him. Beware of pride; beware of evil; shun the very appearance of it; for the time is coming when, if you do not give heed to these things, you will have a fall.