Manuscript Releases, vol. 17 [Nos. 1236-1300]

Explanatory Note

[The opinions in this document were expressed by Ellen White at a time when only a small group represented the General Conference. After the General Conference was reorganized in 1901 to provide broad representation, Mrs. White took a different view. At the 1909 General Conference she encouraged strong support for the General Conference. At that session she said: “At times, when a small group of men entrusted with the general management of the work have, in the name of the General Conference, sought to carry out unwise plans and to restrict God's work, I have said that I could no longer regard the voice of the General Conference, represented by these few men, as the voice of God. But this is not saying that the decisions of a General Conference composed of an assembly of duly appointed, representative men from all parts of the field should not be respected. God has ordained that the representatives of his church from all parts of the earth, when assembled in a General Conference, shall have authority.... Let us give to the highest organized authority in the church that which we are prone to give to one man or to a small group of men.”—Testimonies for the Church 9:260, 261. See further The Early Elmshaven Years, by A. L. White, pp. 75-94, 108-110.] 17MR 220.1