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.
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).
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).
The People Have Lost Confidence—It is working upon wrong
principles that has brought the cause of God into its present embar-
rassment. 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).
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