ORGANIZATION by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 22, 1861

ORGANIZATION.

By Editor

We are glad to see our people awake to this subject. To us it is a sign of better days. But great caution should be used in taking members into the churches. There should be great faithfulness in the examination of persons who offer themselves as members. If we, without examination, take into our churches all who profess the Sabbath, we may find our condition worse than it now is. If the matter of organization be judiciously and faithfully managed, it may prove the means of relieving the brethren of many who are a burden and hindrance to the cause: first, in showing all the necessity of doing right; and, second, those who will not receive admonition and instruction can be left where they belong; viz., outside of the church.

Some have absurd views of Christian liberty, and it will be exceedingly hard for them to see the necessity of the strict discipline taught in God's word. Their unsanctified feelings and views of freedom lead directly to confusion and insubordination. Let these be faithfully instructed in the pure doctrine of Christian unity taught in the gospels and in the epistles. Said Christ in his agonizing prayer for his disciples, "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee." See John xvii, 17-21. Said Paul, "That ye may be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." 1 Cor. i, 10. Said Peter, "Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous." 1 Pet. iii, 8. "Likewise ye younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." Chap. v, 5.

All should understand New Testament discipline before uniting with a church. Let those who cannot yield to the pure discipline of the word remain outside until they can. Goats will at once wander away from the fold, but the sheep and lambs, should they be left out awhile, will bleat around the fold.