Organization Among Seventh-day Adventists and the General Conference
Organization with Seventh-day Adventists was not so much a choice as a matter of necessity, and was first entered into very cautiously by some, and rather reluctantly by others. And as numbers have increased, and missionary fields have opened before us, we have all come to prize our simple and, to human view, complete organization. And while we value our organization, we should respect the important offices we elect men to fill. Our General Conference is the highest earthly authority with our people, and is designed to take charge of the entire work in this and all other countries. The officers of our State Conferences, and, also, those of our institutions located at Battle Creek, are expected to respect our General Conference Committee as the men appointed to take the general supervision of the cause in all its branches and interests. They should be regarded as the safest counselors and the proper persons to give advice in all important matters. One or more of the General Conference Committee should be present at each State Conference, and should be invited to take part in all deliberations and counsels, especially in licensing men to improve their gifts in teaching the word of God, and auditing accounts, and settling with ministers. It is simply an insult to our system of organization to urge the President of the General Conference, and other members of the Committee, to attend State Camp-meetings, do nearly all the preaching, and most of the other labor, and not show proper regard for their position and judgment in the important business of the State Conferences. These men, who labor from State to State, and have their minds exercised with the matters pertaining to the general wants and dangers of the cause, are far better prepared to judge of the local wants of State Conferences than their own officers possibly can be. Every auditing committee should avail themselves of the experience and good judgment of the President of the General Conference. If he is not eminently qualified to give good counsel in all important matters, he is not competent to fill his office in any respect. The history of our cause bears a decided testimony in favor of our system of organization. The men who framed it, and introduced it, felt the importance of their work. The Guiding Hand was with them, which is the reason why the lapse of more than ten years has not revealed defects which have demanded changes. We unhesitatingly express our firm convictions that organization with us was by the direct providence of God. And to disregard our organization is an insult to God's providential dealings with us, and a sin of no small magnitude. We say, then, let our General Conference Committee be sustained in their efforts to establish order, build up our institutions, and establish others that are needed. We certainly should do this with a becoming zeal, or we should abolish our General Conference, and let each State Conference, and each church, and each member, virtually constitute an independent body. The permanency of the cause, and united effort of all our people to push the work forward, depends upon the establishment and maintenance of order. And this cannot be done without proper organization. And organization only exists in form when the offices of such organization are trampled under foot. No man, capable of filling any office in the cause of God, will feel exalted by such promotion. The true principle bearing upon this subject is expressed by our Lord in these words: “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” While those who are leaders and officers should be regarded as such, the respect which they may receive will, unless they are downright novices, lead them to highly esteem and love those who sustain them in their official duties. The several State Conferences are appointing men to move to Battle Creek to take charge of the leading interests of our cause located in that city. This subject would not have been agitated, and the plan would not have received the sanction of our General Conference, had it not been indispensably necessary. There was no real want of talent among our people at Battle Creek to make it necessary that others should come in. Neither has there been a lack of faithful warnings of the consequences if they did not come up and sustain those who had the burden of the work upon them, and the cause at heart. But all such warning and entreaties for them to come up and stand free and clear in the counsel of God, for the right, and against wrong, seemed to be lost upon them, with very few exceptions. And as those who should have been the responsible persons in the Battle Creek church failed to stand where they should, and do what God would have blest them in doing, men and families are now being appointed by our State Conferences, under the supervision of the General Conference Committee, to move to Battle Creek, and take charge of the work at headquarters. These representative men and families stand in close connection with our efficient General Conference Committee. Should one of them prove not to be the person for the place, he will be reported back to his State Conference by the General Conference Committee, and another will be appointed by the State Conference to fill his place. Now shall the General Conference, and, also, our State Conferences, be sustained by our people far and near? Shall the representative men and families, who bear the burdens of the work at Battle Creek, have the prayers and confidence of the people everywhere? Doubtless there will be those who, awaking to the position their past unfaithfulness and rebellion now places them, will make an effort to obtain sympathy, especially from those who do not understand the facts in the case. But we do hope that our brethren everywhere have sufficient confidence in the good judgment of our General Conference Committee, and our State Conferences, in their appointments of representative men, and in the men themselves, who have come to Battle Creek at great sacrifices to do the will of God, not to be prejudiced against any important action of the men who have the burden and charge of the work. All persons of good sense will admire the wisdom and safety of our arrangements to guard our institutions and cause. They have been made with the greatest care, and no small sacrifice. And now for any of our people to withhold their confidence, sympathy, and support from the General Conference Committee, and the picked men at Battle Creek, and take stock in a spirit of murmuring and fault-finding criticism that may arise in consequence of decided action for the right, and against wrong, would be not only an insult upon General Conference, the State Conferences, the men sent to Battle Creek, but our entire system of order and organization. It is the duty of our General Conference Committee to understand every rope in the ship, to know how matters are moving, to correct wrongs, and to sustain the right. And it would be an exhibition of consummate folly for those who know but very little of the workings of the cause to set up their judgment against those who know all about it, and are annually appointed to take charge of it. In the earlier history of our cause, in the absence of our system of organization, measures had to be carried on very much by individual influence and effort. This was not only laborious, and sometimes painful to the pioneers in the cause; but what most cut them to the heart was the fact that their very best efforts with their good results, were liable to be counteracted at any time, more or less, by the criticisms, fault-finding, murmuring, and, finally, rebellion of those who seemed to consider it a virtue to hold in doubt, and call in question, the course of those who had the burden of the work. Some have assumed an air of very devout cautiousness, and have occupied a sort of middle61ground between those who were battling for the right, and those who occupied the position of downright rebellion. The influence of such has been the hardest to meet, and they have done the cause the most harm. Others have seemed inspired with a satanic shrewdness in criticising the faithful efforts of those who were wearing themselves out in building up the cause, and they have pressed them, and pursued them, to the very verge of the grave. But these persons would be the very last to take responsibilities upon themselves; and at the same time they appeared to regard it a virtue in them to cast all the doubt and distrust in the minds of the people, upon the course of those who were giving their entire energies, and were sacrificing all that makes this life of any value, to push forward the cause of truth and righteousness. The writer and his faithful companion have drunk largely of this bitter cup. But, thank God, so far as these hopeful words can apply to the case in hand, “Old things have passed away, and, behold all things have become new.” We are very happy to turn over to the General Conference, the State Conferences, and the representative men at Battle Creek, all those very knowing and wise persons who had so much trouble with the management of the pioneers of the cause, they taking it for granted that they understood far better how the cause should be managed than those whom God had called to lead out in it from the very first. These will no longer have the satisfaction of feeling that their course annoys us. The burden has fallen off, and we are happy in a freedom we have not enjoyed in twenty years. We have no time to answer grumbling and complaining letters. These will be either returned, or consigned to the flames. We shall be happy to hear from the real friends of the cause. And all our friends, and the dear friends of truth and righteousness, must allow us, while enjoying the “blessed lonesome” of our quiet, mountain retreat, free from the cares and perplexities of the unfortunate past, to prize very highly the advantages of organization.