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ORGANIZATION

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 29, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 5.

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ORGANIZATION

By Earnest A. Raymond

A Perfectly Working System

EARNEST A. RAYMOND
As IN our human body of flesh the only avenue of approach to the mind, the heart and soul, is through some of our members, the senses, so all God’s dealings with the Church are through its individual members. As the impression of sound is caught and transmitted by the ear, and light in all its varied appearances by the eye, and smell and taste and feeling by their own special organs, so the Master Workman, in building His Church, follows nature’s perfect plan, and selects and uses first this tool, then that one, according as its special gift of fitness has made it peculiarly adapted to the work.
The great Weaver of man’s destiny, so infinitely skilled, plies not one shuttle or two, but unnumbered are the agencies He employs; well-nigh infinitely varied are the arts and gifts with which He seeks to perfect the tapestry of human life. There exists not a gift of God but what can find its special place and work.
And through it all He remains the God of order. The mind of the Infinite, the mind of the Spirit, knows but one all-absorbing, grand, and glorious thought for His children, and as we yield ourselves to that molding power, that divinely organized and organizing Mind, we gradually come, each and all who drink, partake, into that perfect unity of His Spirit. And yet “all these” does that Mind and Power and Spirit work,—all these individual gifts and powers of God in man.
“That it [our vile body] may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able [strong enough] even to subdue all things unto himself.” Even the Omnipotent is able to bring this great conflict in ourselves and the world to a glorious triumph, to “cut it short in righteousness,” only as the “body of Christ works effectually through its individual members.”
It is the organization of co-operation that is needed, the unity of the Spirit that is required, the perfect harmony of every mind, working through every gift, with the mind and power of God.
“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ: from [or by] whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of EVERY PART, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying [upbuilding] of itself in love.”
“Let no man beguile you of your reward, being a voluntary in humility and worshiping of angels [messengers, envoys, those sent], . . . and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.”
No more indeed would beings formed in the image of heaven’s great King be content to remain mere children “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness,” if the plan of God prevailed. They would grow and stand in the noble independence of their God-given manhood and womanhood, and would be fit stones for polishing and using by the Master Builder in the building of His Church.
Shall we lean on human strength? Shall we rely on any human wisdom or experience? “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” Do we have “all confidence” in this brother, that sister? Do we fear for the prosperity of the cause in case certain leading ones were removed by the hand of death, or should they apostatize? Unless our confidence looks beyond and lays hold for itself on the unfailing support of the Omnipotent, “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,” we are in constant peril. We must learn to stand alone with God. On every hand the standard bearers are falling; and not a few secede to the enemy. Let life’s mariner without delay possess himself of that hope, that confidence, which is “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,” because it enters into that “within the veil,” and is firmly fixed to the enduring Rock of ages.
Are we shirking individual responsibility in connection with our educational work as represented by our Sabbath-schools, week-day schools, academies, and colleges? Do we say to ourselves, “It will all come out right somehow,” or, “Those in charge, those at the center of the work, the leading brethren, know more about such things than I, and I need not trouble myself about it; such things have a way of righting themselves”?
Righting themselves, indeed! There could be no greater delusion. Thus we make God a liar, who has plainly said that man shall reap according to his sowing. Do matters indeed run themselves? It is high time that sleepers awake; for God has given “to every man his work.”
Shall any fail to read aright, and to their eternal profit, the great object lesson the Lord is now seeking to teach His people? It is one of personal accountability, of individual responsibility, for the present condition and the future efficiency of our schools.
The great Organizer of mind, the Creator of all man’s varied faculties and capabilities, in setting His shoulder to the work of “lifting the reproach” from His means for their development, has laid the ax at the root of the tree. He will not cut it down, for He planted and ordained it for eternal growth; but it will be pruned with no sparing hand. Every offshoot, every needless sprout, which is absorbing from the roots the nourishment that is needed to sustain the life and healthful vigor of the true stem, must be cut away. And where does He begin the work?—At the leaves? the fruit? By these He indeed has judged, but the cure must be wrought from within, from the heart and center of growth.
Where the true spirit of education lives and thrives; so long as the vital principles of life’s highest development grow and expand with ever-quickening power, no load of debt or any other burden can long weigh down and hold in check, much less render well-nigh helpless. As with the tomb, rock-bound with slabs of granite, and clamped about with bars of steel, the tiny seed, the germ of life, the Spirit-spark, with steady, resistless growth, will find and force its way, and rending every bond asunder, will mount aloft toward heaven a mighty tree, drawing strength and nourishment from what was once its living death.
But the force, the energy, the lifting, working power, the true Helper applies from within. Of what avail would it be to cut asunder the iron bands, to lift away the ponderous weights of granite, if no answering throb responded from within? That Life, though even thus imprisoned in the person of its creature, needs no fictitious, superficial aid. The human agent, manhood’s imprisoned germ, needs the exercise, requires the experience, of personal responsibility, of individual striving against every obstacle. We learn to do by doing, each for himself. By striving alone in power divine, we learn to conquer, and no man shares or takes from us our victor’s crown.
For this reason it is that God, in relieving His educational work, and ours, has given “to every man his work,” has bidden every Seventh-day Adventist to have a part. And to this end was it that “God suffered a parable to be enacted at our last General Conference.” Individual accountability, personal responsibility and effort, is the call of the hour. Have we heard? Do we hear and heed? Shall we quit ourselves like men?
The great Educator has not seen fit at this crisis to enter into a controversy with men concerning means and methods and agents. He wastes no time in picking off imperfect fruit, in plucking leaves that but express results, not causes. He goes to the root of the matter. He reorganizes the human elements of His educational system, He energizes each individual member, and bids him work effectually to the “full capacity of every part.”
Then shall the results be seen,—the edifying, upbuilding of itself in love, “increasing with the increase of God.” Then shall the worthless fruit, the misshaped leaves, drop away to make place for the new and better, according to the law of life from God; and every branch and twig of the human plant collective (“they shall be all taught [educated] of God”) shall literally be drawn out to bud and blossom and bear perfect fruit in the glorious sunshine of heaven’s love.
“The whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth [by every joint supplying, or, every supplying joint], according [in harmony with, with a view to, specially fitted] to the effectual working in the measure [extent, capacity] of every part,” “all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together.”
Such indeed is a working model of organization.” Fitly joined together by God himself, the joining, the binding together, the correlation, is for co-operation, and with a direct view to the effectual working to the fullest capacity, of every part. And the sole purpose of the joints and bands of the Church divinely organized is for co-operative sympathy and help, the “knitting together,” the “nourishment ministered.”
Such is God’s organized and working Church. Let no man say that its plan is impracticable. It bears the mark and seal of the Maker himself; it is warranted to increase with the increase of God, and that, let it be remembered, is many hundred fold what is now being accomplished.
Does such a plan tend to tear down, to disorganize? Mark well its every detail, study carefully its every part: indestructible material, the life of God; friction reduced to a minimum, the unity of the Spirit; power never ceasing, that of the Omnipotent; the result, more than human heart could think or desire—the increase of God, “the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.”
Thus shall true organization indeed remain, “established” on the Rock, “strengthened” by Him who upholds all things by the word of His power, by whom all things consist, “settled” for eternity by the Infinite himself.