34
Christian Leadership
consent to stand in a position which God alone should occupy.—
Letter
344, 1907
, p. 3 (October 1, 1907, to A. G. Daniells, G. A. Irwin, and
W. W. Prescott).
[29]
This Kind of Management Must Change—Did the Lord counsel
you to devise the various means to work and control human minds?
No, I tell you, no. The case of Elder Littlejohn has been strangely
mismanaged. He has appealed to me to set things right, but I have
done nothing about it; it was not the time. Your course in the treatment
of him was all wrong. It bears the signature of the adversary of souls.
Your treatment of Frank Belden in his work was not right; it is strange
fire, not the fire of God’s kindling. This kind of management must
come to an end, else God will work in a way that will not be pleasing
to those who have done this work. These men have not been right,
they needed judicious management, but those who tried to manage
them needed themselves to be managed.
Did your devising in regard to the Gospel Primer meet the approval
of God? No; the principle upon which you acted was wrong. Individual
service is to be rendered to God, not to be controlled by man or by
any set of men. Movements have been made which mean much in
their outworking. An example has been given by men who are serving
where they should not be, which is leavening your Conferences. The
Presidents of Conferences are being imbued with a spirit to rule, to
require men to bow to their judgment; if any refuse, the course pursued
toward them is such as to fill heaven with indignation.
How can God move upon the churches to contribute their hard
earned means to be handled by men who are self-sufficient, selfish,
and so arrogant and overbearing that the frown of God is upon them?
Our institutions need cleansing as did the temple when Christ was
upon the earth. Man lords it over men’s consciences, man dictates to
his fellow-men as God. Everywhere throughout the field this spirit is
leavening hearts with the same narrow and selfish purposes. Reaction
must come, and who shall then set things in order? Jesus says, “He
that will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow me.”—
Letter 65, 1895
, pp. 7, 8 (June 19, 1895).
[30]
The President Sets the Example—You refer to your office as
President of the General Conference, as if this justifies your course of
action, which you deemed wholly right, but which, from the light the
Lord has been pleased to give me, I deem to be wrong in some respects.