The Story of our Health Message

Mrs. White’s Notable Address

The General Conference of 1901 was an epochal one in the history of Seventh-day Adventists. It was a meeting of reorganization, of earnest study of basic principles, in an effort to strengthen every department of denominational endeavor. On the day before the conference was to open, Mrs. White addressed a representative group of leaders, pointing out that with the rapid growth and extension of the work in all the world the responsibilities resting upon the few should be widely distributed. Referring to the small number of men who were entrusted with the responsibilities of leadership, and who often dealt with problems relating to conditions in lands afar, she said: SHM 305.1

“Never should the mind of one man or the minds of a few men be regarded as sufficient in wisdom and power to control the work and say what plans shall be followed. The burden of the work in this broad field should not rest upon two or three men. We are not reaching the high standard which, with the great and important truth we are handling, God expects us to reach.”—E. G. White Manuscript 43, 1901. SHM 305.2

Not only was the General Conference Committee to be enlarged, but it was to be representative of the various lines of work. She said further: “The management of the regular lines must be entirely changed, newly organized. There must be a committee, not composed of half a dozen men, but of representatives from all lines of our work, from our publishing houses, from our educational institutions, and from our sanitariums. ... God desires that His work shall be a rising, broadening, enlarging power. But the management of the work is becoming confused in itself. Not that anyone wishes to be wrong or to do wrong; but the principles are wrong. ... What must be done is to bring in other minds.”—Ibid. SHM 305.3

These thoughts were repeated by Mrs. White before the entire delegation, in the very first meeting, immediately after the report of the General Conference president. “What we want now,” she said, “is a reorganization. We want to begin at the foundation and to build upon a different principle.”—The General Conference Bulletin, April 3, 1901. SHM 305.4

She urged that “men who are standing at the head of our various institutions,” including the educational and medical interests in “different localities and in different states,” should “stand as representative men, to have a voice in molding and fashioning the plans that shall be carried out.” There must be “more than one or two or three men to consider the whole vast field. The work is great, and there is no one human mind that can plan for the work which needs to be done. ... There must be a renovation, a reorganization; a power and strength must be brought into the committees that are necessary.”—Ibid. SHM 306.1