Confidence

Safe Leaders—We see the need of earnest, devoted men to take up the work that must be carried forward in the future .... We are not to regard any human being as one to be believed and trusted, unless it is evident that he is established in the truth of the word of God.ChL 20.1

Some who have been leaders in the work of God are seeking to make of none effect the work that God has placed in the world to educate His people, and to prepare them to stand the test of the miracle-working powers that would make void the precious facts of faith that have for the last sixty years been given under the power of the Holy Spirit.—Letter 256, 1906 (August 1, 1906, Ministering Brethren in Australia).ChL 20.2

The Cause Suffers—When you weaken the confidence of God's people in their leaders, you weaken the cause of God. The minds of the people are left in uncertainty. They cannot depend anywhere. I cannot engage in the work in making prominent the weakness and errors of God's people.—Letter 13, 1871, p. 5 (September 2, 1871 to James White).ChL 20.3

The People Have Lost Confidence—It is working upon wrong principles that has brought the cause of God into its present embarrassment. The people have lost confidence in those who have the management of the work. Yet we hear that the voice of the Conference is the voice of God. Every time I have heard this, I have thought it was almost blasphemy. The voice of the Conference ought to be the voice of God, but it is not, because some in connection with it are not men of faith and prayer, they are not men of elevated principle. There is not a seeking of God with the whole heart; there is not a realization of the terrible responsibility that rests upon those in this institution to mold and fashion minds after the divine similitude.—Manuscript 37, 1901, p. 8 (April, 1901, Talk by Mrs. E. G. White in the Review Chapel regarding the Southern work).ChL 20.4