第66章 致一名传道人的妻子
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第66章 致一名传道人的妻子
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Chap. 66 - To a Ministers Wife
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亲爱的I姐妹：我昨天有些时间深思，现在有一些想法要写给你。我不能轻易回答你是否有责任与你丈夫一同旅行的问题。我还不知道你陪伴他的结果如何；所以我不能象已经熟悉你所发挥的影响力那样说出会心的话来。我既对事情一无所知，就无法给你什么建议。我必须知道我的建议是符合亮光的。我的话会被大大利用，所以我必须非常慎重地行事。我经过仔细考虑，力求想起曾蒙指示在你的情形中看到的事之后，才准备好写信给你。【2T.565.1】[1]
§4
Dear Sister I: Yesterday I had some time for reflection, and now have a few thoughts that I wish to present to you. I could not readily answer your question concerning your duty to travel with your husband. I had not yet learned the result of your accompanying him; therefore I could not speak as understandingly as if I had been acquainted with the influence you had exerted. I cannot give counsel in the dark. I must know that my counsel is correct in the light. Great advantage is taken of my words, therefore I must move very cautiously. After careful reflection, seeking to call up things which have been shown me in your case, I am prepared to write to you. {2T 565.1}[1]
§5
根据你写给我论到J弟兄的那些信，我担心你怀有偏见和些许嫉妒。我希望情况不是这样，却担心事实就是这样。你和你丈夫非常敏感，生性猜疑嫉妒，所以你们需要在这方面谨慎自己。我们并不认为J弟兄清楚地看到了一切的事。我们认为她的妻子非但不对，而且对他有极大的影响；可是我们希望大家若是都明智地对待他，他就会挣脱撒但的网罗，且能清楚地看到一切的事了。【2T.565.2】[2]
§6
From the letters you have written to me in regard to Brother J, I fear that you are prejudiced and have some jealousy. I hope this is not the case, but fear that it is. You and your husband are very sensitive and naturally jealous, therefore you need to guard yourselves in this direction. We do not feel that Brother J sees all things clearly. We think his wife is far from right and has great influence over him; yet we hope that if all move in wisdom toward him, he will recover himself from the snare of Satan and see all things clearly. {2T 565.2}[2]
§7
亲爱的姐妹，我们决心做到公正，不让我们的言语或行为以任何方式受道听途说影响。我们不偏爱任何人。愿主赐给我们属天的智慧，使我们可以公正无私地行事，从而符合祂圣灵的意思。我们不希望我们的工作是靠自己做的。我们不希望有个人的感情在里面。我们若认为别人没有特别尊重体谅我们，若是看到或以为我们确实受了忽视，我们就需要我们赦罪之主的精神。自称是祂追随者的人不接待祂，因为祂面向耶路撒冷去，又没有特别的迹象表明祂要逗留在他们那里。他们不向这位天上的贵宾敞开家门，也不极力劝祂与他们同住，虽然看到祂旅途疲倦，又临近了夜晚了。他们一点没有迹象表明自己真的想要耶稣。门徒们知道祂那晚原打算在那里过夜，他们非常敏锐地感受到了他们的主受到的轻视，以致很生气，求耶稣也显出义怒，叫火从天上降下来烧灭如此辜负祂的人。但是祂却谴责了他们为祂的尊荣所发的愤慨和热心，并告诉他们：祂来不是要施行惩罚，而是要彰显慈怜。【2T.566.1】[3]
§8
Dear sister, we are determined to be impartial and not have our words or acts in any way influenced by hearsay. We have no pets. May the Lord give us heavenly wisdom, that we may deal righteously and impartially, and thus meet the mind of His Spirit. We do not want our works wrought in self. We do not want personal feelings. If we think we are not specially considered, or if we see, or imagine that we see, positive neglect, we want the spirit of our forgiving Master. The people who professed to be His followers received Him not, because His face was toward Jerusalem, and He gave no special indication that He was to tarry with them. They did not open their doors to the heavenly Guest, and did not urge His abiding with them, although they beheld Him weary with His journey, and the night was drawing on. They gave no sign that they really desired Jesus. The disciples knew that He designed to tarry there that night, and they felt so keenly the slight thus given to their Lord that they were angry, and prayed Jesus to show proper resentment and call down fire from heaven to consume those who had thus abused Him. But He rebuked their indignation and zeal for His honor, and told them that He came, not to visit with judgment, but to show mercy. {2T 566.1}[3]
§9
我们救主的这个教训是给你也是给我的。我们决不能让怨恨进入我们心中。当受到辱骂时，我们不要以辱骂还辱骂。嫉妒和恶意的猜测啊，你们已造成了多少伤害！你们竟将友谊和爱变成苦毒和仇恨！我们务必更少骄傲，更少敏感，更少专爱自己的心，且要向利己心死去。我们的利益必须淹没在基督里，使我们能说：“现在活着的不再是我，乃是基督在我里面活着”（加2:20）。基督已经告诉我们如何在度日的时候使凡事都轻松而且快乐：“凡劳苦担重担的人，可以到我这里来，我就使你们得安息。我心里柔和谦卑，你们当负我的轭，学我的样式，这样，你们心里就必得享安息”（太11:28-29）。主要的困难是，我们心中非常缺乏柔和谦卑，以致我们的轭难堪，担子也重。何时我们拥有了真正的柔和谦卑，我们就会专注于基督，以致我们心中不会在意别人的忽视或轻视；对于责备置若罔闻，对于嘲笑和侮辱也视若无睹。【2T.566.2】[4]
§10
This lesson of our Saviours is for you and for me. No resentment must come into our hearts. When reviled, we must not revile again. O jealousy and evil surmising, what mischief have ye wrought! how have ye turned friendship and love into bitterness and hatred! We must be less proud, less sensitive, have less self-love, and be dead to self-interest. Our interest must be submerged in Christ and we be able to say: I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Christ has told us how to make everything easy and happy as we pass along: Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. The great difficulty is, there is so little meekness and lowliness that the yoke galls and the burden is heavy. When we possess true meekness and lowliness we are so lost in Christ that we do not take neglect or slights to heart; we are deaf to reproach and blind to scorn and insult. {2T 566.2}[4]
§11
I姐妹啊，当你的特征显示在我面前时，我就看到你外出旅行有一个严重的妨碍。你没有负起应该负的责任。你要求别人的同情，却不同情别人。你到哪里都完全依赖别人，总是等着别人伺候你，那些人挑着自己的担子，又要挑你的担子，其实他们不比你更有能力这样做。你在照顾自己的事上太无能了，而这不是一位传道人的妻子应该有的影响。你需要比现在更多的体力劳动；根据我所蒙指示看到的，我认为你若愉快地从事教育自己女儿的工作并且鼓励自己喜爱作家务，就会对自己的本分更在行。你在少女时代没有在这方面受过应受的教育，这使你的人生比若在这方面受过训练就会有的人生不幸多了。你不喜爱体力劳动；在旅行时，你完全是个病人，毫无助益，没能尽力减轻你给别人的负担。你没能认识到那些服侍你的人往往不比你更能完成额外的作业。你依赖别人，把你全部的重量都压在他们身上。我没有任何证据证明上帝已呼召你在旅行中去做一份特别的工作。【2T.567.1】[5]
§12
Sister I, as the peculiarities of your case come clearly before me, I see a serious objection to your traveling. You do not take upon yourself the burdens that you should. You call forth sympathy from others, but do not give in return. You lay your whole weight where you are, and too frequently are waited upon when those who bear their own burden and yours also are no more able to do this than yourself. You are too helpless for your own good, and the influence is not such as that of a ministers wife should be. You need more physical labor than you have; and from what has been shown me, I think that you would be more in the line of your duty engaging cheerfully in the work of educating your daughter and encouraging a love of domestic duties. You did not receive the education in this direction that you should have had in your girlhood, and this has made your life more unhappy than it would otherwise have been. You do not love physical labor; and when journeying, you fill the bill of an invalid, and fail to be helpful and do what you can to lighten the burdens you make. You fail to realize that frequently the very ones who wait on you are no more able to perform the extra task than you are. You lean on others, and lay your whole weight upon them. I have no evidence that God has called you to do a special work in traveling. {2T 567.1}[5]
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你要去获得一种你还没有受过的教育。谁能象母亲那样好地教育孩子呢？谁能象母亲在尽上天分派给她的责任时那样更好地了解她自己和她儿女的缺陷呢？你不喜爱这种工作的事实并不证明这工作不是主分配给你的。你没有足够的体力和智力去旅行，不要有此打算。你想要受人照顾，而不是去照顾别人。你不会提供足够的帮助以减轻你丈夫和你身边之人的重担。【2T.567.2】[6]
§14
You have an education to obtain that you do not yet possess. Who can so well instruct the child as the mother? Who can so well learn the defects in her own organization and in her childs as the mother while in the performance of the duties which Heaven has allotted her? The fact that you do not love this work is no evidence that it is not the work which the Lord has assigned you. You have not sufficient physical or mental strength to make it an object for you to travel. You wish to be ministered unto, instead of ministering to others. You are not helpful enough to offset the burden you are to your husband and to those around you. {2T 567.2}[6]
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那些不能聪明管理自己的孩子或孩子们的人，没有资格在教会的事上聪明行事，也不能对付受撒但试探之人刚硬细微的心思。他们若能愉快亲切地尽自己作为父母应尽的本分，就能更好地明白如何挑教会的担子。亲爱的姐妹啊，我劝你要作你丈夫的好妻子，为他营造一个美好的家。要依赖你自己的才智，不要很重地依赖他。你要觉悟去做主原本让你去做的工作。你喜欢急于去做某种大工，去完成某个大使命，却忽视就在你道路上的小本分，而这些小本分与更大的责任一样是必需要完成的。你忽略这些小事，渴望去做大事。但愿你励志在世上作有用的人，作一个工人而非看客。【2T.568.1】[7]
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Those who cannot wisely manage their own child or children are not qualified to act wisely in church matters or to deal with wiry minds subject to Satans special temptations. If they can cheerfully and lovingly perform the part required of them as parents, then they can better understand how to bear burdens in the church. Dear sister, I advise you to make a good wife to your husband and a good home for him. Rely upon your own resources, and lean less heavily upon him. Arouse yourself to do the very work which the Lord would have you do. You are inclined to be anxious to do some great work, to fill some large mission, and neglect the small duties right in your path, which are just as necessary to be accomplished as the larger. You walk over these and aspire to a larger work. Let your ambition be aroused to be useful, to be a workman in the world instead of a spectator. {2T 568.1}[7]
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我亲爱的姐妹，我说话直白，因为我不敢不这样。我恳劝你要肩负起人生的责任，而不是一味地逃避。要藉着自助帮助你的丈夫。你们二人都持有的传道人应该保持尊严的想法与我们主的榜样不一致。基督的传道人应当谨慎自守、温柔、仁爱、恒久忍耐、怜悯、宽容和谦恭。他应当慎重周到，思想和言谈高尚，行为举止无可指摘。这才是福音的尊严。但是如果一个传道人来到一个他能照顾自己的家里，他就应当尽一切办法自助；他也应当用自己的榜样鼓励勤奋的精神，在自己没有很多别的责任和负担时参加体力劳动。参加有益的劳动不会减损他的尊严，而会使他更健康有活力。血液循环也会得到更好的平衡。体力劳动，会放松脑力，使血液从大脑流到身体其它的部分。你的丈夫需要更多的体力劳动以便减轻大脑的负担。体力锻炼还会促进消化。他若愿意在不急着聚会讲道时每天花点时间从事体力锻炼，就会对他很有益，也不会减损传道的尊严。应该与我们神圣救主的榜样一致。【2T.568.2】[8]
§18
My dear sister, I speak plainly; for I dare not do otherwise. I plead with you to take up lifes burdens instead of shunning them. Help your husband by helping yourself. The ideas which you both hold of the dignity to be maintained by the minister are not in accordance with the example of our Lord. The minister of Christ should possess sobriety, meekness, love, long-suffering, forbearance, pity, and courtesy. He should be circumspect, elevated in thought and conversation, and of blameless deportment. This is gospel dignity. But if a minister comes to a family where he can wait on himself, he should do so by all means; and he should by his example encourage industry by engaging in physical labor when he has not a multiplicity of other duties and burdens. He will not detract from his dignity, and will better relate himself to health and life, by engaging in useful labor. The circulation of the blood will be better equalized. Physical labor, a diversion from mental, will draw the blood from the brain. It is essential for your husband to have more physical labor in order to relieve the brain. Digestion will be promoted by physical exercise. If he would spend a part of every day in physical exercise, when not positively urged by a protracted effort in a course of meetings, it would be an advantage to him, and would not detract from ministerial dignity. The example would be in accordance with that of our divine Master. {2T 568.2}[8]
§19
我们爱你，希望你能成功，力求获得那更美好的生活。[9]
§20
We love you, and want you to be successful in your efforts in striving for the better life.[9]
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1869年9月30日写于密西西比河“基奥卡克”号轮船上【2T.569.1】[10]
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Steamer Keokuk, Mississippi River, Sept. 30, 1869. {2T 569.1}[10]