If a person is narrow, his heart is narrow. What does it mean to be a large person? It means to be a person whose heart is large. He may accomplish much without feeling anything. He may enjoy much without undue concern about it. The reason for this is that such a person is large. For someone to feel all the time that he has accomplished something is a characteristic of smallness.

A person who oversees God's people needs much wisdom, but the secret of wisdom is to have a large heart. I do want to spend quite a bit of time here with the brothers and sisters on the question of largeness of heart. You have no idea how much this matter affects those serving as elders. Many of your inaccurate judgments are caused by your narrow heart. On the surface it appears that you lack wisdom, but actually, the problem comes because your heart is narrow. When many matters are poorly managed, you may attribute the cause to your foolishness, but actually your foolishness comes from your narrow heart. If you would only enlarge your heart, immediately you would become a person of wisdom.

Therefore, brothers, learn to enlarge your heart in all things. For anyone to pretend to be large is pride. For anyone to strive to be large is presumptuous. We should never behave in that way, but in dealing with any matter, we must learn to enlarge ourselves. Whether in learning the truth, in seeking to be spiritual, in contacting the brothers and sisters, in discerning others, or in managing affairs, we must learn to be large. Whenever we touch the affairs of the church and whenever we touch any spiritual matter, we have to learn to be large in our heart. We need to continue to be large. Largeness can solve many problems.

Suppose today everyone else in the church knows about a certain matter, but this matter is concealed from you. In your heart would you blame others? If your heart is large, you will not do this. Otherwise, you will surely complain about it. Perhaps a brother offends you today. Are you able to let the matter go? It depends on whether your heart is large or small. Surely, if your heart is small, you will not be able to let it go. If it is large, you will be able to let it go. Everything in the church can be governed by this principle.

Between 1936 and 1937, for a year or two I worked frequently in a certain place in North China. At that time there was a group of brothers who were all lovable ones. Almost all of them loved the Lord, but the strange thing was that there was always trouble in that church. The ones who stirred up the trouble were not other brothers and sisters, but the few responsible ones. During that period I visited there once nearly every three or four weeks. Each time I went, I would release a few messages. After releasing the messages, I would call the responsible brothers together to fellowship and pray, and to solve the problem among them. But not too long after I left, trouble would arise again.

I remember clearly that it was there that I first spoke on David being the typical example of one who had experienced the cross. The Lord really gave me the light at that time, and I released some very strong words. The theme of the message that time touched on the point that a leading one must learn to choose and experience the cross. After the message was given, these few leading brothers all praised and thanked the Lord, and they thought their problem was solved. They all prayed together and shook hands with each other. I left there with much joy, feeling very happy that the problem in their midst was over. But in less than two or three weeks, news came that they were having trouble again.