The Church: Its Organization, Order and Discipline

An Address of Caution

An address, signed by William Miller, Elon Galusha, W. N. Whiting, Apollos Hale, and J. V. Himes, cautioned against the danger of “yielding to a spirit of revenge against the churches on account of their injustice toward us, and of waging an indiscriminate warfare against all such organizations.” This advice was given a few weeks after Elder Storr’s statement against any form of organization. It seemed designed of the Lord to hold the people from assuming too ultra ground on the subject of church order and organization. COOD 87.3

While we can recognize the hand of the Lord in bringing out a people by the second angel’s message, free from the power of creeds, and placed in condition where they could search for and accept his truth, this liberty was not a permission to run into anarchy and confusion. It was just as true then that liberty did not mean license, fanaticism, or confusion as in the days of the apostles, when it was said to the Galatians, “Brethren, we have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13. COOD 88.1