The Elders by An Elder

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 7, 1862

The Elders

By An Elder

Which are among you, I exhort. 1 Pet. v.

Organization has set apart in the church an order of men called elders; one in each church to take the lead in worship, &c., when messengers are not present. This order of men are generally lay members, and upon them rests somewhat of responsibility.

The church on all common occasions looks to them to go in and out before them; and if they fail to come up to the work, how is the loss to be made up? If they are cold and formal, if they are behind their flocks in spirituality, if the elder is wrong and sullen, or stiff and distant, or rough and short, or bitter and arrogant; or noisy, or empty, or officious, or overbearing, or hasty, or unteachable, or envious, or conceited, or self-confident, or supercilious, or rash, or unsociable, or ignorant and willful, or unrefined, how it pierces the hearts of his brethren.

Peter is clear in his exhortation to the elders, that they should be ensamples to the flock.

O, how blessed it would be to see all the elders examples in everything good and praiseworthy!

But it must be so. The church cannot go backward, but forward; and when the leader or elder takes the lead in all that is good, when his example is blameless, then the church grows in grace, and knowledge, and power; but when the church must drag its leader, or elder, then its movement is not a natural one, and it cannot thrive.

Satan works systematically against the people of God; and when he weakens the elder of a church, he knows he has done the church itself a great injury.

The nation is suffering untold damage from the weakness, and imbecility, and corruption, among its army officers. Let it not be so among us. Let us as a people arise, and for this let each elder strive for the victory.

Let us study the best means of doing good to our brethren; how we can be most acceptable to them while we are at the same time faithful to our duty to God.

Let us study 1 Pet. v. Let us ponder upon it. Let us get into the work with the whole heart.

We want more vigor, more of the Spirit of God, more strength, more power from on high.

When we see an army supplied with competent, disciplined officers, we say it is sure to win the day; but if its officers are slack, and ill-conditioned, all predict its downfall.

Let us each feel the burden of souls, and the burden of the message. Let us mourn as much the fall of a member, as if a favorite son had fallen into the enemy's hand. I have seen an elder almost crazy at the loss of a favorite child, but he could tell of the fall of the members of his flock unmoved. The church can arise, and will, when all its parts work in union.

Brethren, let us move forward, not by doing some great thing, but in all the simplest acts of life and duty, infusing into all the life and vigor of the Spirit of God, in humility and godly fear.

AN ELDER.