We are told in God’s word to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” What does this mean?—Fear lest you shall err in choosing the timber for your character-building. God alone can supply solid timber. Well may mortal man be afraid lest he shall weave into his character the defective threads of his inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong. Well may he tremble lest he shall not submit all things to him who is working in his behalf, that God’s will may be done in him.
– The Review and Herald, April 25, 1899