Dear Brother:
Your letter of the 17th, in answer to mine of the 6th,
goes so far afield from anything expected, or, as I think, called for by
my letter, that I am disposed to follow you there, and do all that I can
to take all grounds for your having any perplexity about me or my course.
Indeed if you had remembered things that at the beginning I said to you,
you need not to have been perplexed at all concerning me if you expected
me to be consistent at all.
First as to the General Conference matters, and my
relations to the Committee. Before the General Conference of 1897, at
College View, the conditions were that in that Conference things came to a
dead-lock. By the Committee and presidents in council, I, in my absence
was appointed to read the Testimonies to find the way out. God did lead us
out gloriously. A change was made; Bro. Irwin being elected president. And
I was made a member of the Committee.
It was not very long, however, before the same
influence that had produced the situation at College View, was again at
work. I saw it plain enough to satisfy me, and by the time of the General
Conference of 1899 at South Lancaster, things were in a bad shape in some
respects, though not near so far along as at College View. In the South
Lancaster Conference one day, all unexpectedly, and unintentionally on the
part of anybody in the Conference, the power of God came in a special
manner, bringing the whole Conference to its knees at once, and working a
great deliverance again. Bro. Irwin stated openly in the Conference (1899)
that he has been a coward. The whole matter can be read in the Bulletin of
that Conference (1899) for that day. On another day in that Conference,
the power of God came in specially and carried the deliverance further.
By action of that Conference, I was continued on the
Committee. It was not long before the same old influence was at work; and
in about a year they had got such a hold again, that, rather than to be
compromised, I resigned from the Committee.
Then came the General Conference of 1901 at Battle
Creek According to the arrangements I was to report the proceedings of the
Conference; and according to the arrangements, Brs. Prescott and Waggoner
were not expected evidently to have even that much to do. But before the
Conference actually assembled in session, there occurred that meeting in
the Library room of the College Building, in which Sr. White spoke on
General Conference matters and organization, declaring that there must be
"an entire new organization and to have a Committee that shall take in not
merely half a dozen that is to be a ruling and controlling power, but it
is to have representatives of those that are placed in responsibility in
our educational interests in our Sanitariums, etc., that there should be a
renovation without delay. To have this Conference pass on and close up as
the Conferences have done, with the same manipulating, with the very same
tone, and the same order,-God forbid! God forbid, brethren... And until
this come we might just as well close up the Conference to-day as any
other day... This thing has been continued for the last fifteen years or
more, (1901 minus 15 takes us back to 1886), and God calls for a change.
"God wants a change, and it is high time---it is high
time that there was ability that should connect with the Conference, with
the General Conference right here in this city. Not wait until it is done
and over with, and then gather up the forces and see what can be done. We
want to know what can be done right now.
"From the light that I have, as it was presented to me
In figures. There was a narrow compass here; there within that narrow
compass Is a king-like, kingly ruling power. God means what He says when
He says, "I want a change here." Will it be the same thing? Going over and
over the same ideas, the same committees-and here Is the little throne-the
king is in there, and these others are all secondary. God wants that these
committees that have been handling things for so long should be relieved
of their command and have a chance for their life, and see If they cannot
get out of this rut that they are in,--which I have no hope of their
getting out of, because the Spirit of God has been working, and working,
and yet the king is still there. Now the Lord wants His Spirit to come in.
He wants the Holy Ghost king.
"From the light that I have had for some time, and has
been expressed, over and over again, not to all there are here, but has
been expressed to individuals-the plan that God would have all to work
from, that never should one mind or two minds or three minds nor four
minds, or a few minds I should say, be considered of sufficient wisdom and
power of control and mark out plans and let it rest upon the minds of one
or two or three in regard to this broad, broad field that we have.
"And the work all over our field demands an entirely
different course of action than we have had; that there needs the laying
of a foundation that is different from what we have had... In all these
countries, far and near, He wants to be an arousing, broadening, enlarging
power. And a management which is getting confused in itself, not that
anyone is wrong or means to be wrong, but the principle is wrong, and the
principles have become so mixed and so fallen from what God's principles
are.
"These things have been told, and this standstill has
got to come to an end. But yet every Conference has woven after the same
pattern, it is the very same loom that carries it, and finally it will
come to naught."
She declared that God wants us to take hold of this
work, every human agency. Each one is to act in their capacity in such a
way that the confidence of the whole people will be established in them
and that they will not be afraid, but see everything just as light as day
until they are in connection with the work of God and the whole people...
All the provision was made in heaven, all the facilities, all the riches
of the grace of God was imparted to every worker that was connected with
the cause, and every one of these are wholly dependent upon God. And when
we leave God out of the question, and allow hereditary and cultivated
traits of character to come in, let me tell you, we are on very slippery
ground.
God hath His servants—His church, established in the
earth, composed of many members, but of one body; that in every part of
the work one part must work as connected with another part, and that with
another part, and with another part, and these joined together by the
golden links of heaven and there is to be no kings in the midst of all.
There is to be no man that has the right to put his hand out and say: No
you cannot go there. We won't support you if you go there. Why, what have
you to do with the supporting? Did you create the means? The means comes
from the people. And those who are destitute fields- the voice of God has
told me to instruct them to go to the people and tell them their
necessities, and to draw all the people to work just where they can find a
place to work, to build up the work in every place they can.
Upon that instruction and much more to the same effect
in that talk, you and Bro. Prescott and others took hold of the matter
pertaining to the then pending General Conference (1901), set aside
entirely the old order of things, and started it new. At the opening of
the General Conference, April 2, Sr. White spoke briefly to the same
effect as in the College Building the day before. Bro. Irwin followed with
a few words; and then you spoke a few words and introduced a motion that
the usual rules and precedents for arranging and transacting the business
of the Conference be suspended, and the General Committee be hereby
appointed ... to constitute a general or central committee, which shall do
such work as necessarily must be done in providing the work of the
Conference, and preparing the business to bring before the delegates. Thus
the new order of things was started.
The night of that very first day of the conference, I
was appointed to preach the sermon. Since I had been appointed to report
the proceedings, I expected to have no preaching or other work to do.
Therefore when I was called to preach, I supposed that it was designed to
have me preach that one time during the conference, and have me do it at
the beginning, so that I could go on afterwards unmolested with the
reporting. I spoke on Church Organization. When the meeting was over, I
supposed that my preaching during the Conference was done. Therefore, I
was surprised when only two days afterwards-April 4, you came to me at the
reporter's table and said, we want you to preach tonight! I said I
supposed that my preaching was over, since I have the reporting to do. I
cannot do this and preach often. You said to me. "You have light for the
people, and we want them to have it." I consented and preached again on
the subject of Church Organization, developing the subject further, and on
the same principles precisely as on the night of April 2.
In that Conference (1901) the General Conference was
started toward the called-for reorganization. All understood that the call
was away from a centralized order of things in which one man or two men or
three or four men or a few men held the ruling and directing power, to an
organization in which, all the people as individuals should have a part,
with God, in Christ, by the Holy Spirit as the unifying, and directing
power. Indeed, the day before my second sermon on organization, Sister
White had said, April 3-we want to understand that there are no gods in
our Conference. There are to be no kings here, and no kings in any
Conference that is formed, "All ye are brethren."
"The Lord wants to bind those at this Conference heart
to heart. No man is to say I am a god, and you must do as I say. From the
beginning to the end this is wrong. There is to be an individual work. God
says, "let him take hold of my strength, [that] he may make peace with me;
[and] he shall make peace with me." Isaiah 27:5.
"Remember that God can give wisdom to those who handle
His work. It is not necessary to send thousands of miles to Battle Creek
for advise, and then have to wait weeks before an answer can be received
Those who are right on the ground are to decide what shall be done. You
know what you have to wrestle with, but those who are thousands of miles
away do not know." Bulletin 1901, pp. 69-70. And on the very day of my
second sermon, April 4, she said in a talk at 9.00 am., this meeting will
determine the character of our work in the future. How important that
every step shall be taken under the supervision of God. This work must be
carried in a very different manner to what it has been in the past
years.--Bulletin 1901, p. 83.
In this understanding an entire new Constitution was
adopted; and that such was the understanding in adopting this Constitution
is plainly shown in the discussions. Under this Constitution the General
Conference Committee was composed of a large number of men, with power to
organize itself by choosing a chairman, etc. No president of the General
Conference was chosen; nor was any provided for. The presidency of the
General Conference was eliminated to escape a centralized power, a one-man
power, a king-ship, a monarchy. The Constitution was framed and adopted to
that end in accordance with the whole guiding thought in the Conference
from the beginning in that room in the College Building.
Shortly after the Conference ended, you suggested
during the meeting at Indianapolis that my sermon on organization ought to
be printed in a leaflet so that our people everywhere could have it for
study in the work of reorganization. Your suggestion was agreed to and I
was directed to prepare it for printing. I did so and it was printed at
General Conference direction in Words of Truth Series No. 31, extra May
1901. (Some History, Some Experience and Some Facts, A.T. Jones, pp.
10-15.)
BOOKSTORE