MR No. 811—Ellen White’s Confidence in Her Calling
By looking constantly to Jesus, from morn till eve, with the eye of faith, we shall be strengthened. God will make the most precious revelations to His hungering, thirsting people. They will find that Christ is a personal Savior. They feed upon His word, for it is spirit and life. This word kills the natural, earthly nature, and a new life in Christ Jesus is created. The Holy Spirit comes as a Comforter to them. Love takes the place of hatred, and the heart receives the mold of the divine similitude. The image of Christ is reproduced in the human agent, and by the transforming efficacy of the grace of Christ he becomes a new creature. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12, 13). This is the new birth.
(10MR 166.1)
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.... And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace” (verses 14, 16). The yearning after entire conformity to the will of God, after His holiness and peace, opens the eyes of the understanding to see the doctrines of the Word. Thus God’s children are strengthened and established; they are “steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58King James VersionAmerican Standard VersionWebster’s BibleAmerican King James VersionDarby BibleWorld English BibleYoung’s Literal Translation).
(10MR 166.2)
The Lord is soon to appear in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, to take those who have received Him to the mansions He has gone to prepare for them. We are anxiously awaiting His coming. We need to keep the armor on. We need to be all that the name Christian signifies. We need to live in habitual communion with God our Savior, abiding in Him.
(10MR 167.1)
Christ has given us no assurance that to attain perfection of character is an easy matter. It is a conflict, a battle, a march, day after day. All who reach the standard must learn the lesson that it is through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of heaven. If we sit with Christ on His throne, we must be partakers with Him of His suffering. “It became Him ... in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10). “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8King James VersionAmerican Standard VersionWebster’s BibleAmerican King James VersionDarby BibleWorld English BibleYoung’s Literal Translation). Shall we then be timid and cowardly because of the trials we meet as we advance? Shall we not meet them without repining and complaints? ...
(10MR 167.2)
The Lord would not have His servants unjustly charged by their fellow laborers with the guilt of many sins. Those who do this do much harm by creating a sentiment which will cut off the influence of those against whom they speak. False impressions will be made. Every effort should be made to present the facts as they exist. It is essential for the one who has borne false witness to see that he has been guilty of a great wrong in causing dissension in the church and in creating false sympathy, thus leading others into the same error and endangering their souls....
(10MR 167.3)
The Lord gave me my appointment in my youth. It was a mystery to me. After a severe struggle, I accepted the work, and in my experience I have 168proved that the Lord had unmistakable, far-reaching, wonderful plans in it all. Out of my weakness I was made strong. Many a time in the ever-recurring necessities, I was made strong in His strength. I was helpless and ready to die, but He renewed me and lifted me up, and I abide unto this time [1897].
(10MR 167.4)
Nothing has been made more distinct and plain than that the Lord has chosen me to do His work, His great work. I was taken from among the young, in the deepest affliction, and the conflict and experience has been growing from year to year until I no more doubt that this frail thread of humanity has helped to compose the web that God is weaving in the loom of heaven.
(10MR 168.1)
I have learned to trust in God and not to expect anyone but Him to understand the work He has given me to do. Others, with the knowledge of the way God has led me, may be unappreciative and unsympathetic. They may have no more idea of the work given me than a child. I have had experience after experience with my supposed-to-be unchangeable friends, whom I have found to be as trustworthy as a reed shaken by the wind, unable to read and understand my life struggle. They have given themselves up to evil surmisings, to watching for evil, to duplicity and falsehood. I have met with this ignorance of spiritual things until I have learned to say with Paul, “None of these things move me” (Acts 20:24). They may say, “She hath a devil,” or “She doeth these things by the power of the devil.” They may say anything their hearts lead them to say. I know myself of the hardships, the disappointments, the anguish of spirit, that I have been compelled to know, when I have realized that I am alone. I stand in God, with heart and mind open to the Heaven-revealed truth. I stand against men of low degree and against 169men of high degree, conscious that the truth revealed to me nearly fifty-three years ago was from God. No human being has been able to wrest it from me. At times I have had to face nearly the whole church in defense and vindication of the Heaven-sent light. Yet God has upheld me, and these many years an unchangeable testimony has been borne. Looking over more than half a century of experience, I can say with confidence, “O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works, and will declare them” (See Psalm 71:17King James VersionAmerican Standard VersionWebster’s BibleAmerican King James VersionDarby BibleWorld English BibleYoung’s Literal Translation). The puny arm of man has been powerless to hinder.
(10MR 168.2)
Though my heart is pained when I see how little the work given me by God is comprehended, yet I am neither discouraged nor disposed to yield up the work God has given me. I know that God has laid this work upon me. Any course that my brethren may take will not alter my mission or my work. Again and again I have been obliged to stand against those who cry, “Lo, here is Christ,” and “Lo, there is Christ. Lo, this is new truth.” The crusade against the work of God has been firm and determined, yet those engaged in it have not accomplished their purpose.
(10MR 169.1)
Had I not known that God was my teacher and my stronghold, I must have been discouraged when so many started up and cut themselves loose from the work God had given them to do, bringing in new theories, new impressions, and new principles. But the word has come, “Heed them not; go straight forward. I am thy Teacher: I am at thy right hand, and will uphold thee.” I know that the Lord will help me work my vein of gold and silver and bring out my precious ore after many think that no more is to be had.
(10MR 169.2)
With every departure of our institutions from straight lines, with every new departure from right principles, strange methods and principles are brought in. But abuses come with them and follow one after another in endless succession....
(10MR 170.1)
God is calling for volunteers, for men who will not turn away from the truth they have strenuously advocated for years to advocate erroneous doctrines. Because some have not been diligent students, because they do not understand the true reasons of the genuine faith, there will be no less power or fewer laborers. Others will take the places made vacant in the ranks, who will be receptive and who will appreciate the sacred character of truth.
(10MR 170.2)
At the eleventh hour, when the work grows harder and the people are more hardened, there will be a variety of talent brought in. These workers will prove faithful and receive their penny. Sacrificing men will step into the places made vacant by those who would not be fitted for a place in the heavenly temple. These resources will continue to come in. The Lord will provide openings and facilities. He will call upon the youth to fill up the places made vacant by deaths and apostasies. He will give young men and women, as well as those who are older, the cooperation of the heavenly intelligences. They will have converted characters, converted minds, converted hands, converted feet, and converted tongues. Their lips will be touched with a living coal from the divine altar. If they will learn the lesson of walking humbly before God, if they will not seek to invent new plans, but will do that which the Lord has appointed them to do, they will be enabled to carry God’s plan onward and upward without narrowing it....
(10MR 170.3)
All who join the ranks of Sabbathkeepers should become diligent Bible students, that they may know the pillars and groundwork of the truth. They should study prophetic history, which has brought us down point by point to where we are at the present time. This is God’s plan for our school. Young men should attend who desire to become educated for any line of work, who have capabilities, and see the necessity of learning more and still more where we stand today in prophetic history, uniting link after link in the prophetic chain, even from Genesis to Revelation. Christ is the Alpha, the first link, and the Omega, the last link, of the gospel chain, which is welded in Revelation. These young men will not have fixed habits of wrong, or defects in disposition and character that will make them inflexible.
(10MR 171.1)
With what care should everyone come to the study of the Scriptures! With what a determination to know all that it is possible for him to know of the reasons of every point of the faith. Especially should he study the sanctuary question, and the first, second and third angel’s messages....
(10MR 171.2)
Let the youth obtain a knowledge of the Bible in our schools. Then let them work on that which they are persuaded is the truth. Those who come to our schools will also be taught that God will hold them responsible for their reason and the way they use it; for their time and how they spend it; for their speech and how they employ it. These are God’s precious talents.
(10MR 171.3)
The youth should keep advancing in knowledge during the school term. Then they should make use of the knowledge they have obtained, for the benefit of others. They are to pray to God constantly—when they are by themselves, at the family altar, and when they walk in the streets. They are to uplift their hearts to God, praying to be kept from temptation. God will 172give such youth more than natural judgment and intuition. If they will give themselves to Him, He will give them skill and adaptability. They will have mistakes to correct and victories to gain, and gradually they will grow into stronger, wiser men and women in Christ Jesus.
(10MR 171.4)
Success will come when the youth are educated in this way. It will not come from natural ability, but from the molding of the heart by Christ. By beholding Christ they become changed from glory to glory, from character to character. Righteousness and truth are in the inward parts; [they] work outward in the expressions, and form the tenor of the character. Students must constantly be taught from the Word of God.
(10MR 172.1)
All are to work for unity and harmony of purpose. Everything that is done in connection with the work of God must be divinely done. Truth is something that must be passed on to others. There are souls to be saved, souls who must have the truth for this time from the Word of God, to prepare them for that which is opening before us. Satan is moving with intensity from beneath and is bringing all his forces to bear to unsettle those who have once been established in the truth. These are the very ones who, by yielding up the truth which they have once advocated, can do the greatest harm to the cause of God. Quite a large number will enter this path because the truth they once believed has not been brought into their life-practice. But those who depart from the faith and refuse to give the last message of warning to the world will walk in paths in which the Lord does not lead. Satan goes before them clothed as an angel of light. They will follow on in false paths until they shall discern what is comprehended in the wrath of the Lamb.—Letter 98a, 1897, pp. 6-8, 10-19. (To Bro. McCullaugh, April9, 1897.)
(10MR 172.2)