Part I—What Hath God Wrought

Originally published in Adventist Review, June 11, 1981

As I have been with you during the past day, I have thought again and again that if Ellen White were here, surely she would declare, “What hath God wrought!”SPCSSW 1.1

From my boyhood days I have memories of a subject that was of primary interest in our home. That subject was the self-supporting work in the great Southland. My father was ordained to the ministry at the age of 29. He became a member of the General Conference Committee the next year in 1884. He served on that committee for 53 years until his death at the age of 83. The White family have been very close to every phase of the work of the denomination, operating not alone in the lines of administration of the church and its direct evangelistic program, but in medical, educational and publishing areas. But these interests never obscured the interests in the work which was being done by noble, consecrated families who were directly employed in the promulgating of the message of the soon-coming Saviour.SPCSSW 1.2

Just as familiar in our home conversation as the names of Daniells, Loughborough, Evans, Spicer, Westphal and Anderson were the names of Sutherland, Magan, Brallier, DeGraw, and Druillard. Every time my father made a trip east, and he found that he could swing down through the Southland, he did so. And on his return home we would eagerly await for the Friday evening or the Sabbath afternoon hour where, around the open fireplace, we would hear of the latest exploits—the struggles and the successes of the Walens, the Ards, the Mulfords, the Wests, the Wallers, the Jaspersons. We wept as we learned of the hardships and difficulties. We rejoiced in their successes and their triumphs. One of my first tasks in the “Elmshaven” office as a boy, as I put in a few afterschool hours, was the setting of the type for a letterpress communication which had been built around a letter written by Mrs. Walen in gratitude for some clothing and bedding donated by some families on the West Coast for the use of needy families in the South. My father gave it the title of “The Story of a Blanket”. We followed that blanket through its experiences in the South where it was finally made into fomentation cloths and carried to the homes of the people and eventually worn to shreds in its helpful ministry.SPCSSW 1.3

As I speak to you today—a group of men and women who are knit together in the Association of self-supporting Institutions—I feel I am speaking as one who knows something of the self-supporting work. On the completion of my course in business administration at Pacific Union College and my subsequent marriage, Mrs. White and I accepted an invitation to serve in the business office at Madison College. I was assistant to the accountant, George Fuller, and Mrs. White was secretary, first to Miss Bessie DeGraw, and later to Dr. Sutherland. It was after spending a year in Madison College, as employees in this parent self-supporting institution, that I was called to assist my aging father in his work of the custody of the Ellen G. White writings. My interest in self-supporting work has ever been keen. I feel that I am one of you, for I have sat in the councils, and I have participated in the activities of self-supporting workers. It was with rejoicing that we observed the bettering of an understanding on the part of self-supporting workers, of what was being spoken of as the organized work of the church; and observed what was being accomplished by the self-supporting workers in winning the fuller recognition of the Seventh-day Adventist leaders for the contributions which were being made by this group of laborers.SPCSSW 1.4

I take pleasure this morning in speaking to you on the topic assigned to me—“The Spirit of Prophecy Counsels on Self-supporting Work”. It is these counsels which have called into being this ever-growing line of useful services. It is these counsels which form the charter of the self-supporting work, and they might be referred to as the license under which, within the framework of the organization of the church, the various branches of self-supporting work operate as an integral part of the work of the church.SPCSSW 2.1

The Spirit of Prophecy counsels encourage, justify, support and defend the various lines of soul-winning work conducted by workers who are responsible for their own financial support. These counsels direct to certain specific lines of labor most profitable for such workers. They caution against a restraining hand upon such work when it is properly conducted. Beyond this, I find no special counsels delineating minutely how the self-supporting worker shall labor. There are not two lines of Spirit of Prophecy counsel—one for the worker in regular denominational employ and the other for the worker who is self-supporting. There is not one line of instruction on how the self-supporting sanitarium shall be operated and another line of counsel for those who operate a conference-owned sanitarium. The work is one. The objectives are one. The methods are the same.SPCSSW 2.2

The world must be warned, and to accomplish this Ellen White sets forth the picture of the utilization of the total forces of the church—regularly employed workers giving their full time and strength to the work and those who while earning a livelihood do all they are able to hasten the work. For, wrote Ellen White in the Pacific Union Recorder, March 24, 1904:SPCSSW 2.3

“It is not alone by men in the high places of responsibility in the ministry, not alone by men holding positions on boards or committees, not alone by the managers of our sanitariums and publishing houses, that the work is to be done which will cause the earth to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. This work can be accomplished only by the whole church acting their part under the guidance, and the power of God.”

Much might be said of the work of the church. Many quotations might be presented. The work before it is summed up well in words penned in 1895, and appearing in the Review and Herald, and now found in the book, Evangelism, 16:SPCSSW 2.4

“The weighty obligation of warning a world of its coming doom is upon us. From every direction, far and near, calls are coming to us for help. The church, devotedly consecrated to the work, is to carry the message to the world.... A world, perishing in sin, is to be enlightened. The lost pearl is to be found. The lost sheep is to be brought back in safety to the fold.... Who will bear the light to those who are wandering in the darkness of error?”

Appeals of this kind ringing in the ears of the Sutherlands, the Mulfords, and the Bralliers, and scores of others, led them to renounce easier tasks and more comfortable situations to enter the much neglected and especially difficult part of the harvest field in self-supporting work. And from the beginnings made there a little over half a century ago, has grown a fruitful soul-winning work—an important part of the work of the church, an auxiliary work with features throughout the far-flung North American Division.SPCSSW 2.5