An Important Council by A. G. Daniells

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 9, 1902

An Important Council

By A. G. Daniells

A very important council of the General Conference Committee was held in Battle Creek, Mich., November 10-25. All the members of the committee residing in the United States, except two, attended this council. These brethren left behind them the details of the work pertaining to their separate fields, and addressed themselves most earnestly to questions and problems of world-wide interest.

The report of the proceedings fill between fifty and sixty typewritten pages. A very brief statement of the proceedings is given elsewhere in this number of the REVIEW. Much of the valuable work done by the committee, can only be seen as the plans are worked out by the conferences and churches, and by the whole people.

Some of the recommendations which we print in this issue will, I feel sure, be studied with deep interest by many of our people. I refer especially to those dealing with the financial policy of the denomination, and also the plans to be followed by the Mission Board for the development and the progress of the work in all parts of the world.

Ever since the opening of the campaign for the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons” to pay off the debts of our educational institutions, there has been a constant and pressing demand on the part of our people generally to know whether or not this move would actually reduce our debts. Everywhere the question has been asked if the leaders, those who have been mainly responsible in the past in creating these debts, had really repudiated this unsound policy, or whether they would proceed to make new debts as fast as the old ones were paid off.

Having read what Sister White has written during the last two or three years about the reproach of debt, and the repeated warnings to shun them as we would shun disease, even leprosy, and having heard many earnest appeals from ministers, conference committees, and school boards to rise up and roll away the reproach, the people have justly demanded that the debt-making policy of the past be abandoned, and that from now on we proceed to raise the money to pay our way as we go. Officers of the General, union, and State conferences, and especially of our schools, have assured the people everywhere that this would be done. Nothing short of this assurance could have enabled us to do what has been done during the last two years in the work with “Christ’s Object Lessons.”

Feeling deep down in their hearts the sting of the reproach of our debts, and having some degree of assurance that the debt-making era of the denomination had closed, the people have been working loyally and courageously during the last two years to wipe out the debts of the denomination. They have raised over fifty thousand dollars for the Christiania publishing house. They have raised about fifty thousand dollars for the Material Fund of “Christ’s Object Lessons.” They have raised, by devoting time to the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons,” about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for our school debts. And they have assumed and distributed among themselves for payment, about one hundred thousand dollars of the General Conference Association’s debts. They have also paid off debts on various local institutions and enterprises.

All this has been done by our people during the last two years in addition to the regular donations to the Mission Board and to many new local enterprises. These latter gifts to the cause have probably been as large as ever before in our history during the same period of time. And it has been done cheerfully, with the hope that our debts were really being reduced, and not merely changed from our schools to other institutions.

But notwithstanding all that has been said and written about the evil of debts, notwithstanding the many promises to stop making debts, and notwithstanding the earnest, loyal efforts of our people to lift the great burdens resting upon them, there has been a strong tendency to go on making new debts. As far as this has been done and become known, it has discouraged the hearts of our people.

In view of the present situation, it is but just that the position and determination of the General Conference Committee should be clearly understood. Neither the committee as such nor any of its officers are responsible for any new debts that have been made during the last two years. They have resolutely adhered to the policy outlined in the recommendations of the recent council, and printed in another column. That policy is to conduct our work on a cash basis, pay off the debts already existing, and hereafter decline to become responsible for financial obligations which they have not created by their own action.

We are quite aware that it will not be an easy task to stand uncompromisingly by this policy. But it is right, and it is the only way we shall ever get free from the burden of debt now resting upon us. Therefore it must be maintained.

It should be understood that in no way are we casting reflections upon any one who has been responsible in past years for the obligations that rest upon us. None of us can cast stones, for we are all more or less guilty. But we have learned a more excellent way. We are reforming. We see as we never have before the evils of debts. We acknowledge the unfairness, the injustice, of one man, or a few men, creating obligations for others to carry without first obtaining their consent. We recognize the fairness of the proposition that those who are to pay debts must be consulted about making them, and that those who make them on their own responsibility should have the privilege of paying them.

But in our efforts to establish and maintain a cash policy, we must not abandon a progressive policy. We must not lose sight of the great work to be done for the world, and settle down to do nothing but pay our debts. This has not been done. As already pointed out, the contributions of our people to missions have been as large during the last two years as in any two preceding years in their history. The program as outlined by the recommendations which appear in the printed proceedings of the council will show that there is no intention that the cash policy shall lead us to take in sail, shut off steam, and do nothing but pay debts. We plan for a greater forward movement than we have yet seen. Hundreds of laborers and many thousands of dollars must be dedicated to the destitute, unworked countries.

In harmony with this policy is the recommendation to raise twenty thousand dollars for a sanitarium for Great Britain. This should be done in the early part of 1903. The British field has waited long for a sanitarium, but the brethren will not contract debt. They are now raising all the money they can. They will purchase property when they can pay for it. We shall take pleasure in helping them when an opportunity is given us to do so.

The committee has stated its position in plain terms in these recommendations to be published, that all the people may know where we stand, and the end for which we are working. Recent communications from the spirit of prophecy on this point are very plain and reassuring. The following is addressed especially to the General Conference Committee:—

“The Lord would not be glorified by your placing a yoke of debt upon the General Conference. In a special manner he has wrought to break from the necks of his people the binding yokes of debt which they have worn so long. The conference must not again tread the same path that they have trodden.”

In another communication a most emphatic warning is given as follows:—

“By working on wrong plans men have brought debt upon the cause. Let not this be repeated. Let those at the head of the work move carefully, refusing to bury the cause of God in debt. Let no one move recklessly, heedlessly, thinking, without knowing, that all is well.”

Comment regarding other parts of the proceedings with which this article deals must be reserved for another time.

A. G. DANIELLS.