Untitled article by Arthur G. Daniells

Untitled article

Arthur G. Daniells

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Mar 22, 1906

A Statement of Facts Concerning Our Present Situation—No. 7

In the third and fourth numbers of this series of articles it was clearly shown that wrong plans of administration have been one of the primary causes of the trouble that has existed for years between the general body and what was considered its medical missionary department. The evil in the plan of organization was the centralizing policy by which it was intended to bind the medical missionary workers and institutions of the denomination to the Medical Missionary Association in such a way that the few men composing its Board would have a controlling power, to a greater or less extent, over our medical missionary work throughout the world.

This same evil principle of centralization worked its way into the administrative plans of the Publishing department, and also of the General Conference itself. To centralize authority, control, and power in a few men at a local point means to bind and circumscribe the workers in the great field, and to hinder the progress of the work.

Many Testimonies of warning, reproof, and instruction were sent to the General Conference committee, the Review and Herald trustees, and the Medical Missionary Board, pointing out the harm this centralizing policy was doing our cause. This was one of the greatest hindrances to the progress of our work in both home and foreign fields when we came to the General Conference session of 1901. It was necessary that this evil thing should be smitten, and that it should be utterly repudiated by the General Conference and all its subordinate organizations.

When the 1901 conference convened, centralization was the first question to receive attention. Sister White, who for years had received and given much instruction regarding this evil, dealt with it in the most earnest, positive, determined manner. It was natural, and consistent, if not absolutely necessary, that, first of all, the General Conference should be sharply reproved for its wrong in this matter. The General Conference is the highest, the most representative, and the most important organization in the denomination. It should have discerned and repudiated wrong principles of organization, and thus have set a good example to all other organizations in the denomination. Its failure to do this is undoubtedly the reason why it was singled out, and openly and severely reproved as it was in the conference of 1901.

That conference was a mystery to the delegates. Some were surprised, some were disappointed, some were perplexed and confused, some were alarmed, some were jubilant, and some were cheered and encouraged. But although the real meaning of what seemed a sharp turn in affairs was understood by but few, if any, at the time, it has been growing plainer to many ever since.

It is perfectly plain now, that it was both consistent and necessary to deal with the highest organization first. After setting the superior body straight, there would be more hope of correcting its subordinates. And it is just as plain at this time, that every word of counsel addressed to the General Conference then was intended for every other organization that had made the same mistake in its policy. And it is also plain that the course pursued by the General Conference in acknowledging and correcting the wrongs for which it was reproved, should have been followed by the other organizations that were doing the same wrongs.

It will be helpful in this connection to reproduce some of the counsel given the General Conference at that time, and also to point out the steps taken by the conference to follow the instruction given. In Sister White's addresses she made the following statements:—

What we want now is a reorganization. We want to begin at the foundation, and to build upon a different principle. . . . According to the light that has been given me—and just how it is to be accomplished I can not say—greater strength must be brought into the managing force of the conference.

Two or three men, who have never seen the barren fields, where workers have had to wrestle with all their might to advance an inch, should not control matters. . . . Those who have worked upon wrong principles are amenable to God for the condition of the work in foreign fields.

Now I want to say, God has not put any kingly power in our ranks to control this or that branch of the work. The work has been greatly restricted by the efforts to control it in every line. . . . If the work had not been restricted by an impediment here, and an impediment there, and on the other side an impediment, it would have gone forward in its majesty.

Here are the men who are standing at the head of our various institutions, of the educational interests, and of the conferences in different localities and in different States. All these are to stand as representative men, to have a voice in molding and fashioning the plans that shall be carried out. There are to be more than one or two or three men to consider the whole vast field. The work is great, and there is no one human mind that can plan for the work which needs to be done.

New conferences must be formed. It was in the order of God that the union conference was organized in Australasia. The Lord God of Israel will link us all together. The organizing of new conferences is not to separate us; it is to bind us together.

When we first met in conference, it

was thought that the General Conference should extend over the whole world. But this is not in God's order. Conferences must be organized in different localities, and it will be for the health of the different conferences to have it thus. This does not mean that we are to cut ourselves apart from one another, and be as separate atoms. Every conference is to touch every other conference, and be in harmony with every other conference.

Immediate and decided steps were taken by the delegates to carry out this instruction. At the first meeting of the session a large committee representing all parts of the field, all the principal lines of our work, and all our leading institutions, was chosen and instructed to study the needs of the cause in the entire field, and bring before the conference such plans for reorganization and advancement as might be agreed upon. As a result of this step, plans of reorganization were adopted by the conference which met every important suggestion that came through the spirit of prophecy. The working out of these plans has brought most excellent and satisfactory changes in our plans of administration in all parts of our great field, and in every phase of our work. Of these changes I will treat in my next article.

A. G. DANIELLS.