Evils Resulting from Centralization and Colonization
135
the properties of the body to corrupting force. There will be no bowels
of mercy, no tender consideration, no fighting against objectionable
traits of character, which so quickly develop into giants of evil. Unless
this root of bitterness is cast out of the soul, it will continually spring
up, and by it many will be defiled.—
Manuscript 131, 1899
.
The Review and Herald and the Pacific Press have been presented
to me as cherishing a spirit of rivalry. The admonitions and warnings
God has given them to bring about a reform are not heeded. Annoyance
is felt, disagreeable sensations are awakened when reproof comes; but
[158]
the work that needs to be done to cleanse these institutions from
selfishness, covetousness, and unfair dealing is not done....
All the light, all the evidence, that God in reproof has given you
has been reasoned away by some and made to mean something that
was not understood.... God designs that the offices from which our
publications go forth shall be living channels of light. Why do you not
labor to establish every line of business upon right principles?—
Letter
150, 1899
. (See
Testimonies for the Church 7:173, 174
.)
Cooperation Is God’s Plan—Let every department of our work,
every institution connected with our cause, be conducted on consider-
ate, generous lines. Let every branch of the work, while maintaining
its own distinctive character, seek to protect, strengthen, and build
up every other branch. Men of varied abilities and characteristics are
employed for carrying forward the various branches of the work. This
has always been the Lord’s plan. Each worker must give his own
branch special effort; but it is the privilege of each to study and labor
for the health and welfare of the whole body of which he is a member.
Not consolidation, not rivalry or criticism, but cooperation, is God’s
plan for His institutions.—
Testimonies for the Church 7:174
.
Cooperation, Not Merger—Let the B. C. publishing house and
the Pacific Press regard each other as sister institutions. In coopera-
tion they can exert a healthful influence upon each other, but not in
consolidation. These institutions are not to become merged into one.
The managers in Battle Creek have indulged unchristian, unbrotherly
feelings, even envy and jealousy, toward the Pacific publishing house.
They have had a feverish desire to belittle that institution, and to bring
it under their own jurisdiction, but the light that I have had for years
is that these institutions must stand separate, each preserving its own