p. 5 | An Outside View by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 5, 1908

An Outside View

By Editor

While some former members of this denomination, and a few who do not themselves seem to know where they stand, are seeking to create the impression that Seventh-day Adventists are now disunited, and that it is only a question of time when this whole movement will go to pieces, it is interesting to note how the situation is viewed by one who has never been connected with this body, and who looks at things from an unprejudiced standpoint. We therefore quote the following paragraph from an article in The Sabbath Recorder (Seventh-day Baptist), written by a correspondent who had been severely criticized in that paper for stating, in substance, that the Seventh-day Adventists were really doing more for Sabbath reform than the Seventh-day Baptists, and that it was out of place for a Seventh-day Baptist writer (referring to Dr. A. H. Lewis' article from which quotations were made in a recent REVIEW) to talk about the dissension and the disintegration among this people. In reply this correspondent said, in part:—

However, I am only one of a great many who are standing off and looking on, and we see the Seventh-day Adventists going forward with zeal with the message they claim they have to give to the world, with special emphasis on the Sabbath truth; we see them with more members, with more schools, more sanitariums, more missionaries, and more money than they ever had before in their history, and in perfect harmony, with the exception of a very, very few dissenters at Battle.Creek.

This correspondent of the Recorder has stated the simple facts in few words. There is no disunion among the Seventh-day Adventists. There are a very few who have departed from the truth, and have therefore been disfellowshipped; and there are some others who are uncertain of their own position, but are really tending in the same direction. On the other hand, our reliable statistics prove that there has been a steady and rapid advancement in all features of our work during the very time while these difficulties were being met, and visits to nearly all parts of the world-wide field of our operations make it clear to us that the disunion and disintegration are found only in the minds of “a very, very few dissenters.” Our local and union conferences at home and abroad are occupied in hearing the reports of progress, and in the consideration of aggressive plans for hastening the work in all fields. The domination of the much-advertized hierarchy, the exercise of spiritual tyranny, the reckless expenditure of money so constantly insinuated in some quarters, and the predicted disintegration which are the favorite themes of the very, very few, do not appear to be even thought of in these assemblies. The one desire is to learn more concerning this great message both as a doctrine and as an experience, and to unite all our forces in the one work of proclaiming “the everlasting gospel” to all the world in this generation. Our recent troubles are almost forgotten, swallowed up in the absorbing zeal for the advancement of the truth.

There are doubtless individual exceptions to this general statement. There may be a president of a conference who is betraying his trust, and is therefore widely advertised anonymously as a leading member of the denomination, or a man of great influence, etc., etc., but this whole effort to discredit the denomination and its leaders is a case of much smoke and little fire.

We know full well that an increase in membership and institutions and money and missionaries is not a demonstration of the truthfulness of a doctrine or the justification of any certain administration, but these things ought to be in evidence if the work is of God. Perhaps we feel more keenly even than the very, very few over the fact that this message does not advance even more rapidly, and perhaps we labor just as earnestly for the hastening of this work, but we certainly do not derive any inspiration in that direction from those prophets of evil who are constantly looking for evidences of the fulfilment of their distorted visions.

Let the facts be known exactly as they are, and we have no fear of the result. Let the people insist upon knowing the exact facts, instead of believing insinuations and innuendoes, and they will find their confidence in this advent movement steadily increasing.