Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 25, 1905

Editorial

By Editor

A Sign of Growth

FOR many years after its organization the General Conference met each year. As the work extended, it became evident that too much time and expense were involved in an annual session of the conference, and biennial sessions have been held since 1889. It will be seen from the report in this issue that it has now been decided that the General Conference shall hereafter meet once in four years, and that this quadrennial meeting shall be a genuine world's conference. This is another sign of the growth of the work, and of a definite purpose to embrace the whole world in the plans for giving this message. We believe that this action of the conference will commend itself to our people generally as being thoroughly in harmony with the whole spirit and purpose of our present organization, according to which the administration of local and sectional interests is committed to local and union conferences, while the General Conference becomes a world-wide missionary organization, with a general supervision of the whole field. This arrangement of conference sessions will make it possible for the General Conference Committee to hold representative councils as often and in such places as circumstances demand, and between the quadrennial sessions to hold at least one meeting of the full committee, probably in one of the foreign fields, for a survey of the whole work. We regard this action of the conference as a marked indication of the broad missionary spirit which is being revealed in this meeting in a most encouraging way. Our watchword, “The Advent Message to all the World in This Generation,” is not being forgotten.