The Later Elmshaven Years: 1905-1915 (vol. 6) - Ellen G. White

declared:
When I returned from Australia, I saw that men had assumed a strange
authority over the church of God. Some seemed to consider that if any
official responsibility was placed upon them, they were to treat others as
some unwise school teachers treat their pupils in school. Human teachers
having position, supposed to be helpers to the churches, magnified their
official authority as rulers, and this spoiled them as teachers and shepherds
of the flock. They acted too much as worldly officials act. Those who dared
to differ with them were not encouraged in their work.
She continued, showing the deceptive nature of such attitudes:
It was a great surprise to me that the testimonies I bore, reproving this
work of "lording it over God's heritage," had so little effect upon those
exercising undue authority. They seemed to think they were carrying out
wisely their official responsibilities. This evil in our work must not be
permitted to bear sway again.
The past experience should be sufficient for every soul to know that
position does not give the qualifications necessary to enable a man to rule his
brethren. Ruling is not in the Lord's order. We need to pray, and to watch
unto prayer; we need to experience the deep movings of the Spirit of God,
and to walk intelligently before the Lord.
It will take much close, hard watching on the part of the Conference
officers to uproot the spirit of self-exaltation. This must be done before the
true character of their work is understood, and it is clearly seen that human
wisdom cannot take the place of wisdom from above.
Much more must be done to uproot fully the fibers of this erratic
human power exercised as authority, as though it were the voice of God.--
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