- Preface to Third Edition
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- A Review of Significant History
- Institutional Development
- The 1880's—A Period of Notable Advance
- The Setting of the 1888 Minneapolis Conference
- The General Conference of 1888
- Differing Attitudes Toward Righteousness by Faith
- Consolidation and Its Attendant Problems
- Far-Reaching Publishing-House Problems
- General Conference President Publishers Testimonies
- The General Conference of 1901
- Battle Creek Institutions Suffer God's Judgments
- “Except as We Shall Forget”
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- Instruction to the Disciples
- A Betrayal of Confidence
- A False Message
- Satan's Accusations
- The World Called to Account
- The Encouraging Word
- Words of Accusation Not of God
- A Work of Deception
- A Living Church
- Judas Given Opportunities
- The Church Not Perfect
- Satan Permitted to Tempt
- The Church the Light of the World
- A Divinely Appointed Ministry
- Beware of False Teachers
- Another Example
- The Letter
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- What Constitutes a Christian
- What Ought we to be?
- Frequent Cause of Failure
- Special Dangers of those in Positions of Responsibility
- A Daily Christian Experience Essential
- The Stewardship of Men
- The Office of Misfortune and Adversity
- Position Powerless to Sanctify
- God the Source of Strength
- The Evil of Self-Serving
- Evils of Unsanctified Consolidation
- Divine Unity Necessary
- The Preeminence of the Work of Saving Souls
- The Fallibility of Human Judgment
- Not to be Conscience for Our Fellowmen
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- Appendix Notes
Men to be Counselors, Not Rulers
“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart.” Let us each wait on the Lord, and He will teach us how to labor. He will reveal to us the work that we are best adapted to perform. This will not lead men to start out in an independent spirit, to promulgate new theories. In this time when Satan is seeking to make void the law of God through the exaltation of false science, we need to guard most carefully against everything that would tend to lessen our faith and scatter our forces. As laborers together with God, we should be in harmony with the truth, and with our brethren. There should be counsel and cooperation.TM 490.1
Even in the midst of the great deceptions of the last days, when delusive miracles will be performed in the sight of men in behalf of satanic theories, it is our privilege to hide ourselves in Christ Jesus. It is possible for us to seek and to obtain salvation. And in this time of unusual peril, we must learn to stand alone, our faith fixed, not on the word of man, but on the sure promises of God.TM 490.2
Among all God's workers there should be a spirit of unity and harmony. The Lord has especially blessed some with an experience that has fitted them to be wise counselors. In our several callings there is to be a mutual dependence on one another for assistance. Of this, Peter says:TM 491.1
“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”TM 491.2
But this does not authorize any one man to undertake the work of ordering his brethren arbitrarily to do as he thinks advisable, irrespective of their own personal convictions of duty. Nor are God's chosen laborers to feel that at every step they must wait to ask some officer in authority whether they may do this or that. While cooperating heartily with their brethren in carrying out general plans that have been laid for the prosecution of the work, they are constantly to look to the God of Israel for personal guidance.TM 491.3
Sometimes a man who has been placed in responsibility as a leader gains the idea that he is in a position of supreme authority, and that all his brethren, before making advance moves, must first come to him for permission to do that which they feel should be done. Such a man is in a dangerous position. He has lost sight of the work of a true leader among God's people. Instead of acting as a wise counselor, he assumes the prerogatives of an exacting ruler. God is dishonored by every such display of authority and self-exaltation. No man standing in his own strength is ever to be mind and judgment for another man whom the Lord is using in His work. No one is to lay down man-made rules and regulations to govern arbitrarily his fellow laborers who have a living experience in the truth.TM 491.4
God calls upon those who have exercised undue authority to take off from His workers every dominating hand. Let everyone to whom has been entrusted sacred responsibilities seek to understand his individual duty before God, and do that duty humbly and faithfully. Let no one regard himself as a master, with controlling power to exercise over his brethren. The principles of the word of God are to be taught and practiced.TM 492.1