Your ShelfYour Projects

CONFIDENCE

11%

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 1, 1876

FromThe Review and Herald, Review and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 22.

Read the full edition

CONFIDENCE

By James White

That which gives our cause efficiency and power more than any other thing is the union and confidence enjoyed. It is not so bad to suffer impositions and abuses from being too confiding, as to become jealous of every one and sour over the wrongs of others, whether real or imaginary. This is especially wrong and sinful when manifested to tried friends in the cause, in the absence of the clearest evidences on which to base doubts. It is the duty of the servants of God to press together. Satan will suggest doubts in the minds of the brethren and sisters, and inspire feelings hard to control. He must be resisted by a constant effort to put the most favorable construction on the words and actions of others. Satan will suggest the worst construction. He will even fire the mind and heart to give expression to the most unfavorable construction of even the sincere words and acts of those of the brotherhood.
No one loves to be blamed, unless it be the fool. It is more than most people can bear to be blamed for their faults. But when sincere people, who are in the fear of God seeking to do right, have their words and actions criticised, and the worst construction possible put upon them by the suggestions of Satan, it is then that good people's hearts are deeply wounded. If wrongs exist in the minds of the brethren, whether real or imaginary, our churches and Conferences are open for investigation. And there is a proper way to meet all these matters of wrong.
But those persons who will sour and grow really bitter under the suggestions of Satan, and find fault with their brethren in a back-biting style, and create doubts, and cause distractions, are no more worthy of membership with those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus than Satan himself. These become railers in the full sense of the word, and should have the benefits of the most thorough discipline of the church. “But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.” 1 Cor. 5:11.
The time is not far distant when the fault-finder, wherever he may disturb the peace of our people, will be asked, Have you taken the measures stated by Christ in such matters? Or, Have you called for an investigation of these things? And if he answers in the negative, all God-fearing, peace-making people will refuse to keep company with him; because in the strongest sense of the word such an one will be regarded as a railer. The cause will never be safe from the influence of apostates and impostors until that point shall be reached. It is a matter of devout thanksgiving to God that as a people we are fast approximating to a state of scriptural discipline and confidence.
No one can form any idea of the sad results of want of proper confidence in the work in the past, only those who have passed the fiery ordeal, and have had their spirits wounded, and their hearts rent, by the cruel rule of Satan in this matter. God would have had a strong people in the city of Rochester, N. Y., but for this. There were men of ability and wealth in and near that city when the Spirit of God indicated that the Press should be located there in 1852. But on account of their unfaithfulness, and even the cruelty of some, the Spirit of God as plainly indicated that the Press should be moved, because of the frown of God upon his professed people. The Rochester church has since been blotted out, mostly by deaths, so that the last home where a teacher of the present truth could find free refreshment in that great city was closed up when our esteemed sister, widow Lamson, moved to Olcott last winter.
When the Press was moved from Rochester to Battle Creek, it was done by the decision of a handful of brethren from Michigan and Indiana, who met in a room sixteen by fourteen feet (according to measurement we took May 14, 1876), and that room was not half full. These precious souls were confiding, kind, and liberal. God blessed them and their work of faith. The testimony of those who had the burden of the work was anxiously sought for in all parts of Michigan where churches were raised up. The cause grew rapidly and firmly. And from 1859 to 1872, one-third of our strength as a denomination was in the little Peninsular State.
And in Michigan our ablest ministers have been raised up, and from Michigan the field has been supplied from Maine to California, from Minnesota to Texas. For the past fifteen years Michigan has had two-thirds of her ministerial talent out of the State, and yet our cause has grown faster and firmer in this State than in any other. The State of New York might have had this great blessing. And God is now testing California. Who can ponder these things without calling to mind the bitter curse upon the inhabitants of Meroz, because they came not up to the help of the Lord against the mighty; and how even the harlot Rahab has the honor of being enrolled among the heroes of faith for confidingly assisting the servants of God? We can conceive of hardly a higher crime that man can commit against his fellows than for the professed follower of Jesus Christ to give himself up to a spirit of fault-finding, murmuring, and railing against worthy members of the brotherhood, in the absence of the clearest evidence in the case.
J. W.