As brethren located where you must be more or less connected, you must draw closer together in your councils, in your association, in spirit, and in all your works. One man among you is not to be made the counselor for all.
(MR311 28.1)
Each one is to stand in his lot and in his place, doing his work. Every individual among you must before God do a work for these last days that is great and sacred and grand. Every one must bear his weight of responsibility. The Lord is preparing each one to do His appointed work, and each one is to be respected and honored as a brother chosen of God, and precious in His sight. One man is not to be selected to whom all plans and methods shall be confided, while the others are left out. If this is done, errors will be made; wrong moves will be taken. Harm, rather than good will be done. No one of you needs to be afraid of the other lest the other shall have the highest place. Without partiality and without hypocrisy each is to be treated.
(MR311 28.2)
The same line of work is not to be given to each worker; and for this reason you need to counsel together in that freedom and confidence that should exist among the Lord’s workmen. All need to have less confidence in self, and far greater confidence in the One who is mighty in counsel who knoweth the end from the beginning.
(MR311 28.3)
When you respect each other, you will respect Jesus Christ. You are to show no preferences; for the Lord does not show preferences to His 29chosen ones. He says, “I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” This is the confidence that the Lord would have you cherish in each other....
(MR311 28.4)
One person must not suppose that his wisdom is beyond making any mistake. God would have the greatest cherish that humility that will lead him to be the servant of all, if duty thus orders.
(MR311 29.1)
But while you are to love as brethren, and think soul to soul, heart to heart, life to life, you are individually to lean your whole weight on God. He will be your support. He is not pleased when you depend on each other for light and wisdom and direction. The Lord must be our wisdom. Individually we must know that He is our sanctification and our redemption. To Him we may look; in Him we may trust. He will be to us a present help in every time of need.
(MR311 29.2)
Whatever your duties in the various lines of work may be, remember that God is the general over all. You must not withdraw from Him to make flesh your arm. You have been too much inclined to measure yourselves among yourselves, and compare yourselves one with another, estimating the importance of your work. Will you remember that your comparisons may fall wide of the mark? It is not position or rank by which the Lord estimates. He looks to see how much of the Spirit of the Master you cherish and how much of the likeness of Christ your work reveals.—Letter 49, 1897.
(MR311 29.3)