YOU see, then, that self-government, reorganization from the General Conference back to the individual, means self-support for every individual Seventh-day Adventist in the world, at whatever he is engaged, whether it be preaching, nursing, printing, farming, blacksmithing, or what not. And all these are equally Christian and honest and gospel occupations. Each Christian who work in a blacksmith shop is doing gospel work as certainly as am I who stand in the pulpit and preach—if that is his calling, and this is mine. And while he is a blacksmith, that is his place to preach. But you know that it has been almost an epidemic among Seventh-day Adventists that a man who is a farmer, a blacksmith, or a carpenter, must sell out, and go away from where he is, so that he can work “in the cause.” The man who is not working in the cause when he is shoving the plane, swinging a hammer, or guiding the plow, cannot be a worker in the cause when he sells out, and leaves that occupation to be a worker “in the cause.” The man who is not a worker in the cause in the occupation where he is now engaged, cannot be a worker “in the cause” to quit that altogether, and go out to preach. The cause is simply the development of Christian character, where each one of us is. That is all that the cause is. And Christian character is developed only by earnest consecration and honest occupation in whatsoever we may be called just now to do.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 9.1

Just think of this: Jesus Christ came into this world, and lived here until he was crucified out of it. And the time he worked at a trade was nearly six times as long as the time he spent in preaching. He spent eighteen years at a trade, working right along; while he preached in the gospel ministry only about three and one-half years. And he was a worker in the cause, and just as much the Saviour of the world, when he was sawing, planning, and hammering as when he was preaching the sermon on the mount. He never thought it necessary to sell out, so that he could work “in the cause.” It is true that his work in the cause outgrew the shop, and even the work at that trade, as such; but it was still only the cause in which he worked. And thus he demonstrated that Christian work at a trade is as certainly working in the cause of God as is any other kind of work.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 9.2

Now you see that this same principle goes into our schools. That is one of the divine principles that God gave as the foundation of our school system from the day he announced it to Seventh-day Adventists forty years ago. That is why he wants the trades in the schools. That is why he wants not only the students to learn the trades, but the teachers to learn the trades, so that the young people shall go forth from our schools independent of this whole world and everything in it, able, with their two bare hands, to make their way in this world, and to make the world their opportunity for success. That is what it is for. And that is right.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 9.3

The man who in this world is made a new creature, who is clothed with the power of God, imbued with the divine principle of work, and the divine energy and consecration to put every faculty of is being into what comes to his hand to do, to make it the best that can be made on the earth, is not dependent on anybody for occupation. Why, he can make it for himself. If he wants work, and nobody calls him, he will make it for himself. If he wants a conference, so he can be president of it, he will make one; for he can do it. He asks no odds of anybody or anything in this world; he finds his resources in God.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 9.4

You said at the beginning of this study to-night that self-government is found only in God, that God is all in all to the man. And you stated that self-government means self-support. Then every man who finds self-government in God, finds also his resources in God. And I know that there are resources in God to supply all the demands that ever can come to any soul in this wide world, and in any place on the earth.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 9.5

Now let us wake up, and be men, Christian men, and teach this to our youth, have our schools inculcate it, and teach it to our people everywhere. Then every Seventh-day Adventist will be independent of everything and everybody on the earth; for he will find his resources only in God. God will be his motive power. If he wants to make something, and a machine is needed to make it, he will make the machine in order to make the thing that has to be made by the machine. He has it in him, because God is in him; his resources are in God. Inventiveness, development, thought,—all these belong to the people who belong to God. Please, brethren, do not think this extravagance. This is the truth.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 9.6

Another thing goes with this; that is, when you and I as ministers lead the people that way, when we educate the people that way, we shall have a people so apt, so thorough, and so qualified in whatsoever they ought to put their hand to, that the Sabbath, instead of being a detriment, will be an advertisement of their faithfulness, and will be a recommendation to men who want faithful work done. I know, so do you know, people to-day who are independent of everybody in this world so far as Sabbath keeping is concerned. Their work goes right on; and the work in place where if the Sabbath ever could interfere, it would interfere there. But no question is ever asked about that. Why?—Because their work is so valuable, so well done, it is such Christian work, that men in this world who want faithful work done, want that kind of people. And the more of them they can find, the more glad they are that they are in the world.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 9.7

You and I are to life up Christianity—I mean Seventh-day Adventist Christianity. You and I as ministers are to life up Seventh-day Adventist Christianity to where it will be a credit to this whole world; so that the world will honor the faithfulness, the honorable dealing, the inventiveness, and the adaptability of Seventh-day Adventist everywhere, and will be glad to have their services, Sabbath or no Sabbath. We are never to rest until Seventh-day Adventists are only that kind of people.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 9.8

And I say again, it all depends upon you and me. It depends upon the ministry here. Think! there are Seventh-day Adventist sanitariums, that is, Christian sanitariums; there are Christian publishing houses; there are Christian colleges; there are conferences. There are all these Seventh-day Adventist organizations in the world. But now what would all these be worth without the gospel? What could they do for the world without the ministry of the gospel? But suppose there was not an item of it. Suppose there was not a Seventh-day Adventist conference on this earth, nor college, nor sanitarium, nor publishing house,—only one solitary individual in possession of the gospel of the third angel’s message. As certainly as he is a minister of the gospel, the gospel I am talking of to-night, as certainly as that one minister of the gospel were here, in him you would have all the sanitariums, and all the publishing houses, and all the colleges, and all the conferences there are or ever shall be on the earth. Yes, sir; as certainly as that man preaches the gospel which is the gospel, so certainly all these things will come. They are all in the gospel which he preaches. Then which stands first? Where is the key of Christianity? Where is the key of the third angel’s message? Where is the key of the Seventh-day Adventist cause? In institutions?—No; in the ministry of the gospel.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 9.9

Then it follows inevitably that every one of us ministers of the gospel, shall preach such a gospel, and never be content for a moment not to preach such a gospel, as has in it the direct creation of conferences, publishing houses, sanitariums, and colleges. Any man who goes forth to preach the gospel from this time forward, dare not go forth to preach it unless that is the gospel that he preaches; unless there is in the gospel that he preaches the power to create all these things; and everywhere he goes, as far as the circumstances demand, these things shall be created; the gospel which he preaches, when received by the people, will save their souls; they will be converted, they will be clothed with the power of God, they will be imbued with the wisdom of God, they will be taught by the Holy Spirit, the knowledge of God will be in them, and they will be wise to devise and plan and invent for right things, whether in workmanship or in thought; and they will be ever building up characters, the identical character of Jesus Christ himself. They will be students and educators. Every family will be a school, and every collection of families where there is a church will establish a church school; and beyond the church school there will be the intermediate school; and from that the youth will go to the college, and then out into the great wide school of the work of the third angel’s message under God. So that every step of the way from the first sermon that the minister preaches, it will be education straight forward until we step into the glorious kingdom of God.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 10.1

And publishing also; that will be in it. They will be interested in studying the literature which is the literature of the gospel. They will have no time for any literature but the literature of the gospel. Then studying the literature of the gospel, as certainly as it is the literature of the gospel, their lives will be wrapped up, their hearts will be enlisted, in making it the literature of other people’s lives. That spreads the literature. But it must be printed. Then that brings the publishing house and the press. And I need not give further details. You see where it runs. But the ministry is the key to the whole of it.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 10.2

Then isn’t it as plain as A B C that you and I, as ministers of the gospel, the preachers of the gospel, are the key of the Christianity and the cause of God in the earth, and that whichever way that key turns, that cause is certain to go?ARSH June 10, 1902, page 10.3

Well then, brethren, which way shall that key turn from this time forward? Come alone, brethren, let us find the power of God as never found before on the earth by mankind. Let us find the gospel in a depth of meaning that never touched men since the apostles stood on the earth. Preaching such a gospel, working in the manifestation of the power of such a gospel,—O, then the ministry will be elevated! God will witness to it, and he himself will elevate it. And he has certified that “men shall call you the Ministers of our God.” Then souls will be brought in by the scores and the hundreds, not by the one, two, three, in a year. Then the cause, from beginning to end, from center to circumference, will be self-supporting, and more. Then will be fulfilled the promises that have never yet been fulfilled, that have never had a chance to be fulfilled: “Thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow.” “And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail.” The time has come for that. That time is here. And it is high time to awake out of sleep. But O, the gospel, the gospel, the power of God!—that is the thing which must accomplish it all—literally, literally, God “manifest in the flesh.” God so in you and me, so possessing you and me, that the motions of our hands, the thoughts of our minds, shall be but the expression of the will of God, by his Spirit,—that is God manifest in the flesh, and that is what we are here for. That is our profession. O, let us rise by the power and grace of God to the height of that grand profession to which he has called you and me as ministers of the gospel.ARSH June 10, 1902, page 10.4

June 3, 1902

July 22, 1902