The force of these quotations will be more clearly seen when the reader gets before his mind a view of the situation. Until the year 1861, there was no organized conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The Testimonies all along had been speaking of plans and the need of “counseling together” to secure unity in the work, and save confusion. There was no system by which the labor of a minister could be regulated, or who should labor in a specified field. Sometimes three ministers would be with one small company at one time, neither knowing that the others were to be there, and this, too, in a place where there was no special need of even one minister. The labors of a minister were often scattered from place to place with no concentrated effort. Thus it was becoming more and more evident to our people that something was “wanting” to remedy this growing difficulty. COOD 116.1