ORGANIZATION or ORGANISM

It was God's design that after the Flood, in fulfillment of the command given to Adam, men should disperse themselves throughout the earth, to replenish and subdue it. (See ST 213-219.)

As Noah's descendants increased in number, apostasy soon manifested itself. Those who desired to forget their Creator, and to cast off the restraint of his law, decided to separate from the worshipers of Jehovah. Accordingly they journeyed to the plain of Shinar, on the banks of the river Euphrates. Here they decided to build a city, and in it a tower which should be the wonder of the world. This tower was to be so high that no flood could sweep it away. Thus they hoped to secure their own safety, and make themselves independent of God.

God had directed men to disperse throughout the earth, to replenish and subdue it; but these tower-builders determined to keep their community united in one body, and to found a monarchy which should eventually embrace the whole earth.

Among the men of Babel, there were living some who feared God, although they had been deceived by the pretensions of the ungodly, and drawn into their schemes. These men would not join this confederacy to thwart the purposes of God. They refused to be deceived by the wonderful representations and the grand outlook. For the sake of these loyal ones, the Lord delayed his judgments, and gave the ungodly time to reveal their true character. But the great majority were fully united in their heaven-daring undertaking. They heeded not the counsel of the Lord, but strove to carry out their own purposes.

This confederacy was born of rebellion against God. The dwellers on the plain of Shinar established their kingdom for self-exaltation, not for the glory of God. Had they succeeded, a mighty power would have borne sway, banishing righteousness, and inaugurating a new religion. The world would have been demoralized. The mixture of religious ideas with erroneous theories would have resulted in closing the door to peace, happiness, and security. These suppositions, erroneous theories, carried out and perfected, would have directed minds from allegiance to the divine statutes, and the law of Jehovah would have been ignored and forgotten. Determined men, inspired and urged on by the first great rebel, would have resisted any interference with their plans or their evil course. In the place of the divine precepts they would have substituted laws framed in accordance with the desires of their selfish hearts in order that they might carry out their purposes.

But God never leaves the world without witnesses for him. At the time of the first great apostasy after the flood, there were men who humbled themselves before God, and cried unto him. "0 God," they pleaded, "interpose between thy cause and the plans and methods of men."

"And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower [the great idol-building], which the children of men builded." Angels were sent to bring to naught the purposes of the builders.

The tower had reached a lofty height, and it was impossible for the workmen at the top to communicate directly with those at the base; therefore men were stationed at different points, each to receive and report to the one next below him the orders for needed material, or other directions regarding the work. As messages were thus passing from one to another, the language was confounded, so that material was called for which was not needed, and the directions received were often the reverse of those that had been given. Confusion and dismay followed. All work came to a standstill. There could be no further harmony or co-operation. The builders were wholly unable to account for the strange misunderstandings among them, and in their rage and disappointment they reproached one another. Their confederacy ended in strife and bloodshed. Lightnings from heaven broke off the upper portion of the tower, and cast it to the ground. Men were made to feel that there is a God who ruleth in the heavens, and that He is able to confuse and to multiply confusions in order to teach men that they are only men.

God bears long with the perversity of men, giving them ample opportunity for repentance; but He marks all their devices to resist the authority of His just and holy law.

Up to this time men had spoken the same language; now those that could understand one another's speech united in companies; some went one way, and some another. "The Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth." In our day the Lord desires that His people shall be dispersed throughout the earth. They are not to colonize. Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." When the disciples followed their inclination to remain in large numbers in Jerusalem, persecution was permitted to come upon them, and they were scattered to all parts of the inhabited world.

For years messages of warning and entreaty have been coming to our people, urging them to go forth into the Master's great harvest fields, and labor unselfishly for souls.

From Testimonies written in 1895 and in 1899 I copy the following paragraphs: -

"True missionary workers will not colonize. God's people are to be pilgrims and strangers on the earth. The investments of large sums of money in the building up of the work in one place is not in the order of God. Plants are to be made in many places. Schools and sanitariums are to be established in places where there is now nothing to represent the truth. These interests are not to be established for the purpose of making money, but for the purpose of spreading the truth. Land should be secured at a distance from the cities, where schools can be built up in which the youth can be given an education in agricultural and mechanical lines.

"The principles of present truth are to become more widespread. There are those who are reasoning from a wrong point of view. Because it is more convenient to have the work centered in one place, they are in favor of crowding everything together in one locality. Great evil is the result. Places that should be helped are left destitute.

"What can I say to our people that will lead them to follow the course that will be for their present and future good? Will not those in Battle Creek heed the light given them by God? Will they not deny self, lift the cross, and follow Jesus? Will they not obey the call of their Leader to leave Battle Creek, and build up interests in other places? Will they not go to the dark places of the earth to tell the story of the love of Christ, trusting in God to give them success?

"It is not God's plan for our people to crowd into Battle Creek. God says: 'Go work to-day in My vineyard. Get away from the places where you are not needed. Plant the standard of truth in towns and cities that have not heard the message. Prepare the way for My coming. Those in the highways and hedges are to hear the call.'

"God will make the wilderness a sacred place as His people, filled with the missionary spirit, go forth to make centers for His work, to establish sanitariums, where the sick and afflicted can be cared for, and schools, where the youth can be educated in right lines."

"It has been urged that there were great advantages in having so many institutions in close connection; that they would be a strength to one another, and could afford help to those seeking education and employment. This is according to human reasoning; it will be admitted that, from a human point of view, many advantages are gained by crowding so many responsibilities in Battle Creek; but the vision needs to be extended."

Notwithstanding frequent counsels to the contrary, men continued to plan for centralization of power, for the binding of many interests under one control. This work was first started in the Review and Herald Office. Things were swayed first in one way, and then in another. It was the enemy of our work who prompted the call for the consolidation of the publishing work under one controlling power in Battle Creek.

Then the idea gained favor that the medical missionary work would be greatly advanced if all our medical institutions and other medical missionary interests were bound up under the control of the medical missionary association at Battle Creek.

I was told that I must lift my voice in warning against this. We were not to be under the control of men who could not control themselves, and who were not willing to be amenable to God. We were not to be guided by men who want their word to be the controlling power. The development of the desire to control has been very marked, and God sent warning after warning, forbidding confederacies and consolidation. He warned us against binding ourselves to fulfil certain agreements that would be presented by men laboring to control the movements of their brethren.

An Educational Center

The Lord is not pleased with some of the arrangements that have been made in Battle Creek. He has declared that other places are being robbed of the light and advantages that have been centered and multiplied in Battle Creek. It is not pleasing to God that our youth from all parts of the country should be called to Battle Creek to work in the Sanitarium, and to receive their education. When we permit this, we are often guilty of robbing needy fields of their most precious treasure.

Through the light given in the Testimonies, the Lord has indicated that He does not desire students to leave their home schools and sanitariums to be educated in Battle Creek. He instructed us to remove the College from this place. This was done, but the institutions that remained failed of doing what they should have done to share with other places the advantages still centered in Battle Creek. The Lord signified His displeasure by permitting the principal buildings of these institutions to be destroyed by fire.

Notwithstanding the plain evidences of the Lord's providence in these destructive fires, men have not hesitated to stand before their brethren in council meetings, and make light of the statement that these buildings were burned because men had been swaying things in directions which the Lord could not approve.

Principles have been perverted. Men have been departing from right principles, for the promulgation of which these institutions were established. They have failed of doing the very work that God ordained should be done to prepare a people to "build up the old waste places" and to stand in the breach, as represented in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. In this scripture the work we are to do is clearly defined as being medical missionary work. This work is to be done in all places. God has a vineyard; and he desires that this vineyard shall be worked unselfishly. No parts are to be neglected. The most neglected portion needs the most wide-awake missionaries to do the work portrayed in the following scripture: -

"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, ... and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like, a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in."

For His own name's sake God will not permit the froward and the independent to carry out their unsanctified plans. He will visit them for their perversity of action. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." But I am instructed to say that in His judgments the Lord will remember mercy. He declares: -

"I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him."

"The spirit of my people should fail before me," saith the Lord, "if I were to deal with them in accordance with their perversity. They could not endure my displeasure and my wrath. I have seen the perverse ways of every sinner. He who repents and does the works of righteousness, I will convert and heal, and restore unto him my favor."

Concerning those who have been deceived and led astray by unconsecrated men, the Lord says: "Their course of action has not been in accordance with my will; yet for the righteousness of my own cause, for the truth's sake, for the sake of those who have preserved their fear and love of God, I, who create the fruit of the lips, will put my message into the lips of those who will not be perverted. Although some may be deceived and blinded in their ideas of men and the purposes of men, I will heal every one who honors my name. All the penitent of Israel shall see of my salvation. I, the Lord, do rule, and I will fill with praise and thanksgiving the hearts of all who are nigh and far off, even all the penitent of Israel who have kept my ways."

"Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy., I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." (Review and Herald, Dec. 10, 1903.)

Our position in the world is not what it should be. We are far from where we should have been had our Christian experience been in harmony with the light and the opportunities given us, had we from the beginning constantly pressed onward and upward. Had we walked in the light that has been given us, had we followed on to know the Lord, our path would have grown brighter and brighter. But many of those who have had special light are so conformed to the world that they can scarcely be distinguished from worldlings. They do not stand forth as God's peculiar people, chosen and precious. It is difficult to discern between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.

In the balances of the sanctuary the Seventh-day Adventist church is to be weighed. She will be judged by the privileges and advantages that she has had. If her spiritual experience does not correspond to the advantages that Christ, at infinite cost, has bestowed on her, if the blessings conferred have not qualified her to do the work entrusted to her, on her will be pronounced the sentence: "Found wanting." By the light bestowed, the opportunities given, will she be judged.

God's Purpose for His People

God has in store love, joy, peace, and glorious triumph for all who serve Him in spirit and in truth. His commandment keeping people are to stand constantly in readiness for service. They are to receive increased grace and power, and increased knowledge of the Holy Spirit's working. But many are not ready to receive the precious gifts of the Spirit which

God is waiting to bestow on them. They are not reaching higher and still higher for power from above, that, through the gifts bestowed, they may be recognized as God's peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Repent and Do the First Works

Solemn admonitions of warning, manifest in the destruction of dearly cherished facilities for service, say to us: "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works." Revelation 2:5. Why is there so dim a perception of the true spiritual condition of the church? Has not blindness fallen upon the watchmen standing on the walls of Zion? Are not many of God's servants unconcerned and well satisfied, as if the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night rested upon the sanctuary? Are there not those in positions of responsibility, professing to know God, who in life and character deny Him? Are not many of those who count themselves as His chosen, peculiar people satisfied to live without the evidence that of a truth God is among them to save them from Satan's snares and attacks?

Would we not now have much greater light if, in the past, we had received the Lord's admonitions, acknowledged His presence, and turned away from all practices contrary to His will? Had we done this, the light of heaven would have shone into the soul-temple, enabling us to comprehend the truth and to love God supremely and our neighbors as ourselves. Oh, how greatly Christ is dishonored by those who, professing to be Christians, disgrace the name they bear by failing to make their lives correspond to their profession, by failing to treat one another with the love and respect that God expects them to reveal in kind words and courteous acts!

The powers from beneath are stirred with deep intensity.

War and bloodshed are the result. The moral atmosphere is poisoned with cruel, horrible doings. The spirit of strife is spreading; it abounds in every place. Many souls are being taken possession of by the spirit of fraud, or underhand dealing. Many will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. They do not discern what spirit has taken possession of them.

A Failure to Honor God

One who sees beneath the surface, who reads the hearts of all men, says of those who have had great light: "They are not afflicted and astonished because of their moral and spiritual condition." "Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before Mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not." "God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie," "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved," "but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Isaiah 66:3,4; 2 Thessalonians 2:11,10,12.

The heavenly Teacher inquired : "What stronger delusion can beguile the mind than the pretense that you are building on the right foundation and that God accepts your works, when in reality you are working out many things according to worldly policy and are sinning against Jehovah? Oh, it is a great deception, a fascinating delusion, that takes possession of minds when men who have once known the truth, mistake the form of godliness for the spirit and power thereof ; when they suppose that they are rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing, while in reality they are in need of everything."

God has not changed toward His faithful servants who are keeping their garments spotless. But many are crying, "Peace and safety," while sudden destruction is coming upon them. Unless there is thorough repentance, unless men humble their hearts by confession and receive the truth as it is in Jesus they will never enter heaven. When purification shall take place in our ranks, we shall no longer rest at ease, boasting of being rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing.

Who can truthfully say: "Our gold is tried in the fire; our garments are unspotted by the world?" I saw our Instructor pointing to the garments of so-called righteousness. Stripping them off, He laid bare the defilement beneath. Then He said to me: "Can you not see how they have pretentiously covered up their defilement and rottenness of character? 'How is the faithful city become an harlot!' My Father's house is made a house of merchandise, a place whence the divine presence and glory have departed! For this cause there is weakness, and strength is lacking"

A Call for Reformation

Unless the church, which is now being leavened with her own backsliding, shall repent and be converted, she will eat of the fruit of her own doing, until she shall abhor herself. When she resists the evil and chooses the good, when she seeks God with all humility and reaches her high calling in Christ, standing on the platform of eternal truth and by faith laying hold upon the attainments prepared for her, she will be healed. She will appear in her God-given simplicity and purity, separate from earthly entanglements, showing that the truth has made her free indeed. Then her members will indeed be the chosen of God, His representatives.

The time has come for a thorough reformation to take place. When this reformation begins, the spirit of prayer will actuate every believer and will banish from the church the spirit of discord and strife. Those who have not been living in Christian fellowship will draw close to one another. One member working in right lines will lead other members to unite with him in making intercession for the revelation of the Holy Spirit. There will be no confusion, because all will be in harmony with the mind of the Spirit. The barriers separating believer from believer will be broken down, and God's servants will speak the same things. The Lord will co-operate with His servants. All will pray understandingly the prayer that Christ taught His servants: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10. (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, pp. 247-251.)