Earlier text: BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEARTNOTES FROM GENERAL CONFERENCE
MRS. E. G. WHITE: I did not know how we should get along at this meeting. The Lord gave me instruction regarding this. I was referred to an incident in the life of the prophet Elisha. The prophet was in Dothan, and thither the king of Syria sent horses and chariots and a great host, to take him. “And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” “And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And He smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.” God presented this to me, and I did not know what it meant. I did not understand it. I pondered over it, and then, as the lesson was fulfilled, I began to grasp its meaning. I do not know that I should ever have seen the significance had it not been fulfilled right here. Who do you suppose has been among us since this Conference began? Who has kept away the objectionable features that generally appear in such a meeting? Who has walked up and down the aisles of this Tabernacle?—The God of heaven and His angels. And they did not come here to tear you in pieces, but to give you right and peaceable minds. They have been among us to work the works of God, to keep back the powers of darkness, that the work God designed should be done should not be hindered. The angels of God have been working among us. If any people have reason to praise God, we have. Angels of God have been at work here. The Lord knew our needs, and sent us food which has given spiritual strength, and light, showing us how we should work. We have been trying to organize the work on right lines. The Lord has sent His angels to minister unto us who are heirs of salvation, telling us how to carry the work forward. Remember that there is a much better way to get along than to have controversy. When I was upon the waters of the Pacific amid the confusion and noise, the Lord spoke to me: Do not enter into any controversy. Speak to the people that they be of one mind. When you are all in Christ, there can be no variance. Your brother may not have just the same manners and ways of speech as you have, but God does not require this of him. He may be able to reach a class that you can not reach. The very word which you wish he had not spoken may be the word which will bring conviction to hearts. Christ has made none of you church tinkers. My brethren and sisters who are going to foreign fields, perhaps you will be connected with those whose habits and customs are not like yours. Do not let this hinder your work for the Master. Do all in your power to come into Christian relation with those for whom you shall work. May it not be that your ideas need changing? Remember that there is as much room in the world for one as for another. Let us every one strive to be assimilated to the likeness of Christ. There are those in the Church who have made mistakes. But because of this, do not tear yourselves apart from them. I wish to ask, Is it not best for us to do all in our power to heal the souls that are wounded nigh unto death. Is it not best for us to try to prevent the enemy from gaining the victory over those for whom Christ died? Shall we not do the work Christ did? He said, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” If any of you should have a sheep, and it should fall into a hole, would you not take it out, even on the Sabbath day? And shall we not think as much of a man as we do of an animal? The moral image of God is to be restored in man. It was to make it possible for this to be done that Christ came from the heavenly courts to this earth, full of heaven’s compassion and heaven’s love, to stand at the head of humanity. Christ was ever kind and merciful, but He gave the most scathing rebukes to the hypocritical Pharisees. I hope that such rebukes as these will never have to fall on our leaders. Let these men remember the temptations which come to the young, and do all in their power to help them. Christ is spoken of as a tender Shepherd, who lovingly cares for the young, carrying them in his arms. If one hundred times more of this work were done by our leading men, they would be carrying out the plan of God. And by this work, the rough edges would be removed from their characters. They would be polished after the similitude of a palace. After this meeting has closed, and we have separated, Satan will come to you with his temptations. He will bring up before you the errors and mistakes that have been made in the past. Remember that God has buried these, and He does not want you to think any more about them. I was never more astonished in my life than at the turn things have taken at this meeting. This is not our work. God has brought it about. Instruction regarding this was presented to me, but until the sum was worked out at this meeting, I could not comprehend this instruction. God’s angels have been walking up and down in this congregation. I want every one of you to remember this, and I want you to remember also that God has said that He will heal the wounds of His people. Press together, press together. Let us be united in Christ. God is dishonored by disunion. I shall not keep you much longer, but I wish to say a few more words; for I feel that perhaps I shall never again see those who are going from us. I want to read you a few words, that you may see what God is willing to do for His people. Christ is praying to His Father, and He says: “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. . . . They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” Is this possible? It must be, or Christ would not have said it. He is ready to give us all the preciousness there is in the virtue of His character. There is joy in the Lord, joy in sanctification, in unity, in receiving Christ as our Saviour. To those who are about to take up the work in new fields, I would say, Remember that Christ is by your side. He says, My right hand will uphold you. His blessing will rest upon you. If you will walk in the light of His countenance, you will be lights in the world. Regarding this, Christ says, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill can not be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” You are going forth to carry the torch of truth. Kindle your taper from the divine altar, and bear the truth to those who are in darkness. You may be sure that angels of God will be round about you. As you impart to others, you will realize that the life of Christ in you is as a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life. The word of God is to be your daily food. Christ says, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” Talk the truth wherever you go. There is more power in visiting families, talking to them of the truth, and praying with them, than there is in all the sermons that can be given. This does not mean that you are not to speak from the desk. You are; but you are to take time also for house-to-house labor. As you do this work, angels of God will be by your side, and will give you words to speak. Thus you will become all-round, efficient gospel workers, of whom people will say, They have nothing but the truth on their lips. God help us to be Christians in every sense of the word. I may never meet you again on this earth. I feel that my life is almost over. I may meet you again; God knows; I do not. But if we meet no more here below, God grant that we may meet around His throne, each wearing on his brow, a crown of immortality. Oh, what a time of rejoicing that will be! and we shall tell the story of our trials and difficulties on this earth, tell it, not with sorrow, but with joy. God knows that we have only just begun the study of His word. He knows that many have only a surface knowledge of the truth. When in the redeemed family above we follow Him whithersoever He goeth, He will open to us the mysteries of His word. When this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruptible shall put on incorruption, He will say, Child, come up higher. We shall be caught up to meet our Lord in the air. The Saviour will welcome us with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,”—the joy of seeing souls redeemed. Then He will lead us by the living waters, and escort us through the paradise of God. He will show us the beauty and loveliness of His word, which now we do not half understand. Then we shall cast our glittering crowns at His feet, and touching our golden harps, fill all heaven with rich music, singing, “Worthy, worthy is the Lamb, who died, and who lives again, a triumphant conqueror.” W. A. Spicer: I have often felt that we make too much of a distinction between home and foreign work. We feel that it is something very strange to go abroad. I believe that every worker in a297 foreign land has seen persons come into the field whose usefulness was marred, perhaps fatally, by a feeling of inflation,—“I have been chosen to go abroad; I have been chosen to go into foreign fields.” And we at home help that on by keeping up that distinction, and putting around the foreign work a sort of halo of romance and glory. It makes me feel ashamed every time anybody talks to me that way. The foreign work is just the same as any other part of the Lord’s work. We have such a spirit of provincialism that we sometimes think it is a tremendous feat to go somewhere. But the world is really very small. The Lord counts all the nations of the earth “as the small dust of the balance; behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” But sometimes men get an idea that the earth is so big, that it turns their heads to go halfway around it. We simply want to go at the work quietly, without talking nonsense about it, and have good, simple, saving sense. The Lord’s work is the Lord’s work; saving souls is saving souls; and I can not feel the way some appear to feel about different spots on this earth. I never have been in a place yet, traveling about, but what I felt as if I would like to stop there and go to work. If God sends you somewhere, go to that place, and go to work. That is all there is about it. Really, the most important thing in a foreign field is not the particular training the man has had (that is important), but it is the simple question as to whether he has good-sense. It is just what the man is himself, just the influence and force that he himself carries. That is what makes the man. Let him, then, be a medical man with a medical education, or let him be a preacher with experience in preaching the truth publicly; but no matter what the training, if there is not, down deep in the heart, a basis of good sense, just a settling down to the work of God without any nonsense, there will be a crushing, depressing failure. God calls us to take hold of this foreign work in a simple way, without recourse to methods and ideas, which popular religion sometimes resorts to in sending men and money into foreign fields. It is often taken up as something aside from their regular work. We are to do the work as the regular work of God, because the message is to go to every nation before the Lord comes. We who are in America ought not to have the thought that the foreigner is a strange being; for America is made up of “foreigners.” We get rid of that after we get out for a few years among other people, and we find that God “hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” Here in America the little children wonder why the children in India do not tumble off the earth, because, as it is thought, their heads are down. Over in India the children may think the same about American children. Sometimes you will see Americans abroad who say: “Why, how strange everything is! How strangely they do this! How strange that man looks!” I have heard people talk that way, who were not conscious at all that the crowd was eyeing them because they looked so strange. We are just as strange to other people as they are to us. If the Lord will take away the self-consciousness that ruins us, He can help us to reach the people a great deal better than we have allowed Him to do very often. That thought of Americanism, of nationalism, is something to reckon with. I was born an American. I am not ashamed of it; but I am not proud of it; and that makes all the difference in the world in being able to help people outside of America; for any man who is proud of the fact that he is an American, has erected a barrier between himself and every soul who is not an American. Anybody who has been in a foreign field has observed that difficulties, which perhaps it has taken years to clear away, have been created by those who kept that national spirit forward. It is a part of the old paganism of Rome, which caused men to worship the genius of the empire, instead of God. That thing is so drilled into men that it clings to the natural heart. It was sometimes taught us in our schools, in the little school histories of the United States. It was worked into us, and made our hearts thrill with the fighting spirit. That same spirit keeps on thrilling in minds and hearts, even after men have entered the work of God, and gone out into foreign fields. The Lord wants to take that spirit out of our hearts. We are to give this message of God in the spirit and power of Elijah. How did John the Baptist go forth when he bore the message of the coming Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah? We read in the first chapter of John: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” He was “sent from God.” It makes all the difference in the world whether a man is sent from God, or whether he is sent from America or from some other land. You find this spirit of nationalism in all lands. Wherever you go, in every nation you will find that same national conceit, and every man feels like praising and glorifying his country. Why?—Simply because it has produced “such a great man as I am;” that is all. It is simply the conceit of the individual in all the people, that creates that national spirit of rivalry and self-exaltation that is at the bottom of nearly every war that stirs our world. That man John was “sent from God.” Oh, let us be sent from God! That is the way Jesus came on His mission. He knew that “He was come from God, and went to God,” and He could say: “He that sent me is with me.” It does one no good to take along from America a national feeling into the fields; but if you can be sent from God, and can say, “He that sent me is with me; the Father hath not left me alone,” you have something a great deal closer to you than America. When Jesus knew He was sent from God, and went to God, He knew something that we also need to know. Too many are sent from America, and they go to America. We want to be sent from God, and to have God’s house as our home. [Voices: Amen! ] Abraham, the “father of the faithful,” who was sent out, “not knowing whither he went,” went simply because God called him to go. He did not care where he went, so long as God was with him. God said of him that he and his children “were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” He might have returned into the country out of which he came, we are told, if he had desired to do it; but he and those who had his faith testified that they were seeking “a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.” Many times friends have asked me if I were not glad to be back again in my native land. I can not feel that way at all. I am glad to see friends, glad to see my aged parents; but about the land, about the earth, how can I be glad about that? It is mainly like earth in any other place. If my work were here, I should be glad to be here; but my work is outside, and I am glad to be outside. I do believe if we let the Lord separate us from that provincialism, that spirit which the world calls patriotism, God will give us sentiments of another kind. The man going abroad who fosters that thing down in his heart, even though he may say to himself, “I will keep quiet about that; for I believe it will be discreet to do so, and not let the people know of it,” will find that it will come out in spite of his efforts to hold it inside, and that it will create in the foreigners’ hearts that same spirit of nationalism and opposition; it is a barrier to separate men. I pray that the Lord will give us His love from heaven, that we may see the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God, and may understand that we have been born again. You remember what David says, in the eighty-seventh Psalm: “Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. I will make mention of Rahab [Egypt, a great land, a magnificent country, so proud of itself] and Babylon [that was “the glory of kingdoms”] to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.” I suppose it would have been accounted a great credit to a man to have been born in Babylon, or to have been a member of the Egyptian kingdom. But what does the psalmist say?—“And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the Highest himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there.” Oh, we want to be born again! I do not know of any more intensely practical issue in the consideration of the details of foreign missions than just that; and I believe every worker from abroad would say so. We have seen ruin just upon that point. I believe that when the Pentecostal blessing comes, it will come into some of these details, and straighten them out. We shall get hold of God. I do not care, when the Lord writes up His people, whether He puts it down (of course He will not do it) that I was born in the good State of Minnesota; but if He will put it down that I was born from above, born into the heavenly Zion, then He will establish me with His people. We need to be so thoroughly born again that we shall leave out these little trappings of nationalism. This may be a suggestion to teachers in our schools, in the teaching of history, to beware lest they train the youth and children into these things that have made it so hard for multitudes to go out into the work of God. As to the question of training workers, it is evident that the worker must be trained at home in the work itself. It is not that the man can get the training at home that may fit him for special details abroad; but still it is a fact that while the cry from abroad is not for clever, brilliant men at all, but for simple men, it is a cry for seasoned men. A stick of timber may be good and all right; but if it is not seasoned, it may give way, when the strain is put upon it. Just so with workers. We want to be seasoned in the work of God, that we may know in our hearts, and in our lives, and that the brethren may know, that we have settled down to God’s work in a sober, sensible, serious way. You can risk such a man almost anywhere. The needs of the field are great; but it is not simply numbers that are needed in any field, but it is the right ones, the simple ones. We need not think that it requires some great human qualification to work abroad. Just simple sinners, such as we are, saved by the power of God, in the place where God wants them, can do His work. And so the Lord’s Spirit must seek out and choose His own workers. We need to be yielded to Him, so that, as He chooses, there may not be in any one of our hearts a holding back, but that we may say, when the Lord calls us, “Here am I; send me.” The following from the Chicago Tribune of April 30, exposes a grievous lack in the education of our time, one which needs to be understood and corrected in all the schools of Seventh-day Adventists:— The freshmen and sophomores of Columbia University are in a condition of humiliation because they have recently been put through a spelling examination, the spelling book not being considered an adjunct of the higher education. The results of the examination are generally humiliating, as they indicate that the spelling book is not an adjunct of either the higher or the lower education to the extent it should be. It is not unlikely that if the spelling test were applied to the students of all other colleges, the result would be the same. It might even prove disastrous to the faculties of the higher, and the teachers of the lower, schools. Ignorance of orthography is not confined to scholars and students. It is possible that, if further tests were instituted, a corresponding ignorance of some of the other “R.’s” might be revealed. If the present agitation in some quarters against the three R.’s and the craze for manual training shall continue without restraint, it is not unlikely that we shall have a10 class of abnormally developed students who can not write, read, spell, or cipher correctly. The fault lies both with the colleges and with the schools. The college authorities take it for granted that those applying for admission can pass examination in the fundamentals, and hence pay no attention to such a trifling matter as orthography, even though bad spelling is a disgraceful blemish when he who has it lays claim to being well educated. The schools, on the other hand, are to blame for sending such crude material to the colleges, though they have been encouraged to do so because the colleges have attached no importance to the fundamentals. Now that Columbia has set the example, it is to be hoped other colleges will follow it. Once let it be understood that candidates can not be matriculated who fail to pass examination in the fundamentals of common school training, the lower schools will send applicants properly equipped. Of what profit is it to a man, though he gain a whole world of curious knowledge, if he can not spell? CONFERENCE ECHOES
By Uriah Smith
The meeting which has just closed in Battle Creek, possessed some characteristics that are worthy of more than ordinary notice. We refer to the harmony of feeling, the unanimity of sentiment, that prevailed during the whole session. Day after day, the delegates assembled in the Tabernacle, which was crowded with friends and visitors (wholly unlike previous gatherings of this kind), and gave their attention each day to a large variety of matters, involving almost interminable interests, on which it was clearly apparent that friction and conflict of opinion might arise; yet nothing of this kind appeared; and through all the meeting, not one word was spoken, either on the floor of the house or out of meeting, so far as we are aware, that could be construed to be an attack upon a brother, or an unkind reflection upon any of his views or positions. The paramount desire seemed to be to come together in a permanent understanding with one another, and view all things with the same feelings, and in the same light. If anything was not understood, an explanation was kindly, earnestly, and sincerely asked, and given, and thus every query was cleared up, that all the subject might be fully understood, and all agree in the conclusions reached. In this course there was no room for disagreement; and so there was a drawing together, not a discordant note being heard in all the deliberations. The pervading influence, which was so strong as to be almost sensibly felt, was for “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” This state of things is what has been held in view, for years, as the desirable and ideal condition to be reached, but never so fully approached as on this occasion. This manifestation of a desire for a spirit of harmony and co-operation, was a great source of gratification and rejoicing to all present, so much so that the remark was often heard, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” The last two meetings of the session, on the afternoon and evening of April 23, were devoted to praise services, and were memorable occasions, especially the latter. Although beginning at seven o’clock in the evening, the time was crowded more than full, and it was found impossible to bring the exercises to a close before ten o’clock. On this occasion, Brother N. Z. Towne was set apart to the work of the gospel ministry, by prayer and the laying on of hands—ordination prayer, by A. T. Jones; charge, investing him with the duties and obligations of a minister of the gospel, by S. N. Haskell. The testimonies of all were full of thanksgiving and praise for the good season enjoyed throughout the Conference. The current of joy and praise, of confidence and courage, that swept over the congregation was so strong that it seemed that nothing could stand against it, and that we were beginning to have a foretaste of Acts 3:19, and a little of that refreshing which is to come from the presence of the Lord when He is about to send Jesus for the restitution of all things. It seemed that no misgivings nor doubt nor skepticism could stand before the spirit of that meeting. We do not say that all possibility of surmising, distrust, and alienation, was eliminated from the occasion; for it is said that unbelief will always find a hook to hang itself upon; but the encouraging feature in this case was the fixed and settled purpose that was manifest in regard to the manner in which to meet such temptations when they arise. The promise is that when “the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Confidence in the Lord and His work will neutralize most of the assaults of the enemy upon us, and baffle him in his work. When things seem strange and unaccountable, is it best to embarrass the situation still more, by indulging in jealousy, and mistrust, and surmising? or would it be better to woo that Spirit which is to lift up a standard? And, assured that God has charge, and is leading in the work, leave to Him those matters which are beyond our control, and which we should only make worse by trying to manage by our puny arms and by our blind wisdom. Shall we have faith in God, faith in one another? Shall we put the best construction on everything we meet with, and hold it in the best light, above all things looking to that which is most important to us,—our own standing in the sight of God, and our relation to Him? In this way we can make constant progress, and not be disturbed or stumbled by the obstacles which the enemy will always try hard to throw in our way. It was a great privilege to the brethren and sisters to have Sister White again among us, and to listen once more to her words of counsel and admonition. Though laboring under the weight of more than three-score years and ten, besides a measure of bodily feebleness, she has been remarkably sustained both mentally and physically, in her untiring labors for the good of the people. Looking back upon this first Conference of the new century, the writer can join the large number who gave their verdict concerning this occasion by saying, “This is the best meeting we have ever attended.”