HE apostolic gift is evidently the gift set for the leadership and administration of the work of the church.

"First apostles," is the scriptural order. The gift of prophecy has ever taught the proper recognition of the responsibilities and duties of administrative leadership. Never, on the basis of the rare gift committed to her, did Mrs. White assume the place of administrative leader.

Not as a leader, but as a "messenger," she viewed her responsibility, bearing messages from God for the guidance of leaders and people. She felt herself, under God, subject to counsel and action of the administrative body, the General Conference, in cooperating with undertakings of the movement.

This attitude is illustrated by one experience. Mrs. White found herself in a land over the sea, to which she had gone by General Conference invitation. But she was sick, and apparently helpless to undertake active work in a new field. "I deeply regretted having crossed the broad waters," she related. "Why, at such an expense, was I in this country?" And in her physical misery and helplessness she wept. "But," she wrote, "I did not long indulge in the luxury of tears." She was there in obedience to the request of the General Conference, acting in the fear of God. She says:

"I said to myself, 'Ellen G. White, what do you mean? Have you not come to Australia because you felt that it was your duty to go where the Conference judged it best for you to go? Has not this been your practice?'

"I said, 'Yes.'

"'Then why do you feel almost forsaken and discouraged? Is not this the enemy's work?'

"I said, 'I believe it is.'

"I dried my tears as quickly as possible and said, 'It is enough. I will not look on the dark side any more. Live or die, I commit the keeping of my soul to Him who died for me.'

"I then believed that the Lord would do all things well, and during this eight months of helplessness I have not had any despondency or doubt. I now look at this matter as a part of the Lord's great plan, for the good of His people here in this country, and for those also in America, and for my good."-Selected Messages, book 2, pp. 233, 234.

It was on recognition of the responsibility of the apostolic or administrative gift in the church that the personal surrender and trust were based. And those years, 1892 to 1900, in Australia were wonderfully fruitful for good. There was worked out, under the divine guidance which came through the gift of prophecy, the union conference plan of organization, which obtains with blessed efficiency in our work in all the world. And in Australia and New Zealand a base was built up that carries the great and blessed burden of the island fields of the South Pacific.

Men who knew nothing of our view of the gift of prophecy saw a building-up influence in the work of Mrs. White that left its visible mark on this cause. Many years later, in 1932, I was riding with one of our business brethren in Victoria. He said to me:

"Some time ago I met one of Australia's leading businessmen, now largely retired from affairs. Knowing that I had become a Seventh-day Adventist, he said to me: 'Do you know, Mr. Sandeman, I hold it as one of the cherished memories of my life that it was my privilege, in representing the business community, to welcome Mrs. E. G. White to Australia when she arrived from America many years ago. She impressed me as a remarkable woman; and we recognize the fact that her stay in this country contributed much to the development of the work your people have built up. I shall always count it a privilege that I had a part in welcoming that gifted lady to this country.' "

We think of the quiet, retiring woman, not given to appearing before the general public--save, perhaps, at times speaking by invitation in a town hall on Christian temperance or the Christian life and Christian home. And yet we know how, by the gift given her, she encouraged the administrative leaders and guided helpfully in the upbuilding of the work. Men of affairs, looking on, saw in it the work of a woman to whom they attributed unusual natural gifts.

In 1915 the leading religious magazine of America, then the New York Independent, had occasion to refer to the widespread work of Seventh-day Adventists and to the solid achievements of the denomination in the way of educational, publishing, and medical institutions in many lands. The editor said: "And in all this Ellen G. White has been the inspiration and guide. Here is a noble record, and she deserves great honor."

The special gift to help build up the cause was not in Ellen G. White. This was seen from that first call in girlhood. It was not of herself, timid and shrinking, that there came a force that worked mightily in cooperating with the early leaders in building up a movement fulfilling the prophecy. One sees it in the first work the youthful instrument was called to perform. She says of those first steps:

"In my second vision, about a week after the first, the Lord gave me a view of the trials through which I must pass, and told me that I must go and relate to others what He had revealed to me. . . . After I came out of this vision I was exceedingly troubled, for it pointed out my duty to go out among the people and present the truth. My health was so poor that I was in constant bodily suffering, and to all appearance had but a short time to live....

"For several days, and far into the night, I prayed that this burden might be removed from me, and laid upon some one more capable of bearing it. But the light of duty did not change, and the words of the angel sounded continually in my ears, 'Make known to others what I have revealed to you.' . . . How could I, a child in years, go forth from place to place, unfolding to the people the holy truths of God? ... My father ... repeatedly assured me that if God had called me to labor in other places, He would not fail to open the way for me."-Life Sketches, pp. 69, 70.

So a young girl was soon out among groups of scattered believers in the Second Advent, joining older laborers in encouraging the people to hold fast to the "blessed hope." It was a time of trial to many who had expected Christ to come at the end of the 2300-year prophetic period, in 1844. Multitudes had given up all faith in the soon coming of the Saviour. Winds of doctrine were blowing and eccentric and wild movements abounded.

At seventeen this young woman was facing mesmerists, rebuking fanaticism, warning against the setting of a new time.

At eighteen and nineteen she was laboring in Vermont and Massachusetts. She bore important testimonies regarding the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, and regarding the Sabbath truth, which had just come to her attention.

At twenty-two her messages were pressing the leaders to launch definitely a publishing work.

At twenty-five most important instruction came regarding organization and church order. At that time much sentiment among the believers did not favor organization, and there was no way to keep disorderly elements from pressing in. Mrs. White wrote: "I saw that this door at which the enemy comes in to perplex and trouble the flock can be shut. I inquired of the angel how it could be closed. He said, 'The church must flee to God's Word and become established upon gospel order, which has been overlooked and neglected."'-Early Writings, p. 100.

All this was not a work naturally belonging to a young woman. No committee would ask a girl to undertake the task. And no call of a committee could qualify a youth for such service. But God had called, and the effectiveness of the work was in the messages borne. Evil and disorderly elements were trying to put the leaven of error into the work. Our pioneers saw to the full the truth of the warning of the prophecy that "the dragon" was wroth with the remnant, and had come forth to make war with the movement that stood for God's commandments. And no wonder the enemy warred against the gift of prophecy in the movement, for by that gift the evils threatening were so continually exposed. One of the pioneers, recounting the effective working of the messages by this gift in early times, wrote in 1866:

"They reveal the devices of Satan. They warn us against his snares. They have nipped in the bud, scheme after scheme of fanaticism which the enemy has tried to foist into our midst. They have exposed hidden iniquity, brought to light concealed wrongs, laid bare the evil motives of the false-hearted. They have warded off dangers from the cause of truth upon every hand."--U. Smith in The Review and Herald, June 12, 1866.

The pioneer workers, responsible to keep the movement on right lines and clear of evil, saw things done by that gift that they well knew no young woman could do unaided by divine direction. They thanked God for it.

Again and again in those early days the youthful messenger was called upon to point out, among strangers she had never seen before, some whose lives were secretly evil, while pretensions to piety were being used to secure a place in the little flock. Sometimes those pointed out acknowledged the fault and sought God for pardon, while in other cases a person might rise up and flee the place.

It was not alone in the first years and in those Eastern States that these experiences came. In 1935, at a meeting in Oregon, I met an elderly believer who told me of an experience that had meant much to him, many years before in Minnesota:

"At first," he said, "I was skeptical, though a member of the church. I doubted about Mrs. White's work. But I was at a meeting in Minnesota where she was present. She spoke, exhorting and admonishing. In the course of the talk she pointed out one man, an elder of the church. In a kind, appealing manner, but earnestly and sternly, she said that in a quiet way he was teaching ideas contrary to the faith of the body. And, further, that he was doing wrong in his conduct-leading a double life unknown to his brethren. It fairly took my breath away. But the man stood up and said that all Mrs. White had said was true. All my skepticism and doubting vanished. I had seen with my own eyes and heard with my ears a thing that I knew could have been done only through the Spirit of God."

In giving counsel in places where conditions and personalities were unknown to her by any acquaintance, Mrs. White often spoke with sureness and precision, as the Spirit had presented situations to her mind. One such occasion was the first council she attended in Europe. It was held at Basel, Switzerland, in 1885. One of the veteran workers there, who acted as her interpreter in French, wrote:

"How interesting and wonderful it was to hear Sister White correctly delineate the peculiarities of different fields she had seen only as the Lord had shown them to her, and show how they should be met; to hear her describe case after case of persons she had never seen with her natural vision, and either point out their errors or show important relations they sustained to the cause, and how they should connect with it to better serve its interests!

"As I had a fair chance to test the matter, having been on the ground, and knowing that no one had informed Sister White of these things, while serving as an interpreter, I could not help exclaiming, 'It is enough. I want no further evidence of its genuineness."'-D. T. Bourdeau in The Review and Herald, Nov. 10, 1885.

It was no exhibition to prove anything to anybody. It was just the regular work of giving counsel for the upbuilding of the cause of God by the spiritual gift imparted. When a people see this year after year for many years, and reap the fruitage of the wonderfully helpful counsel through a spiritual gift, no technicalities of criticism can cast so much as a shadow on a life record. It is as clear as a sunbeam.

The same influence is seen in the working of this gift in fostering all departments of the cause.