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Testimonies for the Church Volume 6
It was in these times and under the influence of the spirit of
prophecy counsels that the ground structure was laid for organiza-
tional changes in the administration of the denomination’s world work.
As the cause was pioneered and developed rapidly under the favorable
conditions of Australia, steps were taken to bind the local conference
organizations into a “union conference,” thus establishing an organiza-
tional unit between the local conference and the General Conference.
This made possible, on-the-ground planning by the group of work-
ers close to the problems, and thus relieved the General Conference
of many minor details. The result was encouraging and formed the
pattern which was soon to be followed throughout the denomination
.
In the lines of medical evangelism a beginning was made in Aus-
tralia during this period, but in the United States it was a time of great
expansion. A medical college was set in operation which attracted an
increasing number of Seventh-day Adventist youth desiring prepara-
[7]
tion as medical missionaries. New branch institutions were opened,
receiving their guidance, finance, and personnel from the great parent
institution at Battle Creek. A large work was also launched for the
fallen and unfortunate. But good enterprises are often threatened with
the danger of overemphasis, thereby bringing an unbalance into the
work of God as a whole. So now it seemed that the medical missionary
work, which had been designated as the right arm of the message,
threatened to become the body
.
Too, while there was great advance in the development of medical
missionaries and medical missionary work in connection with the
Battle Creek Sanitarium, there was growing indifference on the part of
some Seventh-day Adventists to the basic principles of healthful living.
These conditions help us to understand the significance of the repeated
appeals in volume 6 calling the people to higher standards of living,
urging a united medical and evangelistic ministry, delineating our duty
to orphans and the aged of the household of faith, and cautioning
against an unbalanced work
.
As the denominational work developed in many fields, literature
found an ever increasingly important place. Colporteur evangelists
constituted an army, with the individual colporteur a part of the recog-
nized staff of gospel heralds in each section of the world field. In not a
few instances these literature evangelists had formed the spearhead of