ORGANIZATION or ORGANISM　

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 servantsHis 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.)　

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