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Historical Foreword
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work they loved. This was seen in the spirit which developed in the
hearts of men who engaged in discussions and debates. It was seen
in the experience of businessmen connected with the cause. It was
seen in the experience of missionaries going out to new countries,
who, with narrow concepts of the work, found it difficult to move
forward in the way God would have them take. It was seen in the
tendency shown by some to depend upon the leaders at Battle Creek
for guidance in the minute affairs of a far-flung mission work. It was
seen in the way leading men at Battle Creek, heavily burdened with
institutional work, attempted to give detailed direction to the work
in distant lands of which they knew little
.
As the Seventh-day Adventist Church came to the Close of the
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year 1887, it had a total world membership of 25,841, with twenty-
six local conferences and one mission in North America and four
local conferences and six missions overseas. The General Confer-
ence Committee consisted of seven men, the Committee having
been cautiously enlarged in 1882 from three members to five and
in 1886 from five to seven. To take care of the legal business of the
cause, the General Conference Association had been formed with a
Board of five Trustees. Various branches of the work had developed
into somewhat autonomous organizations, such as the “International
Sabbath School Association,” The “Health and Temperance Associ-
ation,” and the “International Tract and Missionary Association.” As
has been noted, for two years, mid-1885 to 1887, Ellen White had
been in Europe. Now she was back in the United States, residing
at her Healdsburg, California, home. There were two publishing
houses in operation in the United States: the Review and Herald in
Battle Creek, Michigan, and the Pacific Press in Oakland, Califor-
nia. Each of these publishing houses did considerable commercial
work to keep its equipment and personnel fully employed, and thus
to maintain facilities needed for denominational printing. At each
of these offices a leading journal was published,
The Review and
Herald
in Battle Creek and
Signs of the Times
In Oakland
.
During the preceding year or two some differences of opinion
had been expressed in articles appearing in these journals, concern-
ing the law in Galatians. In each case the editors of the journals
championed opposing positions. Ellen White, while still in Switzer-
land, wrote to the editors of
Signs of the Times
counseling against