Chapter 5—The Testimonies Slighted VC

Healdsburg, California,
June 20, 1882 (5T 62) MC VC

Dear Brethren and Sisters in Battle Creek (5T 62) MC VC

I understand that the testimony [Reference is here made to the preceding article.] which I sent to Brother -----, with the request that it be read to the church, was withheld from you for several weeks after it was received by him. Before sending that testimony my mind was so impressed by the Spirit of God that I had no rest day or night until I wrote to you. It was not a work that I would have chosen for myself. Before my husband’s death I decided that it was not my duty to bear testimony to anyone in reproof of wrong or in vindication of right, because advantage was taken of my words to deal harshly with the erring and to unwisely exalt others whose course I had not in any degree sustained. Many explained the testimonies to suit themselves. The truth of God is not in harmony with the traditions of men, nor does it conform to their opinions. Like its divine Author, it is unchangeable, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Those who separate from God will call darkness light, and error truth. But darkness will never prove itself to be light, nor will error become truth. (5T 62.1) 2 I MC VC

The minds of many have been so darkened and confused by worldly customs, worldly practices, and worldly influences that all power to discriminate between light and darkness, truth and error, seems destroyed. I had little hope that my words would be understood; but when the Lord moved upon me so decidedly, I could not resist His Spirit. Knowing that you were involving yourselves in the snares of Satan, I felt that the danger was too great for me to keep silent. (5T 62.2) MC VC

For years the Lord has been presenting the situation of the church before you. Again and again reproofs and warnings have been given. October 23, 1879, the Lord gave me a most impressive testimony in regard to the church in Battle Creek. During the last months I was with you I carried a heavy burden for the church, while those who should have felt to the very depths of their souls were comparatively easy and unconcerned. I knew not what to do or what to say. I had no confidence in the course which many were pursuing, for they were doing the very things which the Lord had warned them not to do. (5T 63.1) MC VC

That God who knows their spiritual condition declares: They have cherished evil and separated from Me. They have gone astray, every one of them. Not one is guiltless. They have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, and have hewed out to them broken cisterns that can hold no water. Many have corrupted their ways before Me. Envy, hatred of one another, jealousy, evil surmising, emulation, strife, bitterness, is the fruit that they bear. And they will not heed the testimony that I send them. They will not see their perverse ways and be converted, that I should heal them. (5T 63.2) MC VC

Many are looking with self-complacency upon the long years during which they have advocated the truth. They now feel that they are entitled to a reward for their past trials and obedience. But this genuine experience in the things of God in the past makes them more guilty before Him for not preserving their integrity and going forward to perfection. The faithfulness for the past year will never atone for the neglect of the present year. A man’s truthfulness yesterday will not atone for his falsehood today. (5T 63.3) MC VC

Many excused their disregard of the testimonies by saying: “Sister White is influenced by her husband; the testimonies are molded by his spirit and judgment.” Others were seeking to gain something from me which they could construe to justify their course or to give them influence. It was then I decided that nothing more should go from my pen until the converting power of God was seen in the church. But the Lord placed the burden upon my soul. I labored for you earnestly. How much this cost both my husband and myself, eternity will tell. Have I not a knowledge of the state of the church, when the Lord has presented their case before me again and again for years? Repeated warnings have been given, yet there has been no decided change. (5T 63.4) MC VC

I saw that the frown of God was upon His people for their assimilation to the world. I saw that the children of Brother ----- have been a snare to him. Their ideas and opinions, their feelings and statements, had an influence upon his mind and blinded his judgment. These youth are strongly inclined to infidelity. The mother’s want of faith and trust in God has been given as an inheritance to her children. Her devotion to them is greater than her devotion to God. The father has neglected his duty. The result of their wrong course is revealed in their children. (5T 64.1) MC VC

As I spoke to the church I tried to impress upon parents their solemn obligation to the children, because I knew the state of these youth and what tendencies had made them what they are. But the word was not received. I know what burdens I bore in the last of my labors among you. I would never have thus tasked my strength to the utmost had I not seen your peril. I longed to arouse you to humble your hearts before God, to return to Him with penitence and faith. (5T 64.2) MC VC

Yet now when I send you a testimony of warning and reproof, many of you declare it to be merely the opinion of Sister White. You have thereby insulted the Spirit of God. You know how the Lord has manifested Himself through the spirit of prophecy. Past, present, and future have passed before me. I have been shown faces that I had never seen, and years afterward I knew them when I saw them. I have been aroused from my sleep with a vivid sense of subjects previously presented to my mind; and I have written, at midnight, letters that have gone across the continent and, arriving at a crisis, have saved great disaster to the cause of God. This has been my work for many years. A power has impelled me to reprove and rebuke wrongs that I had not thought of. Is this work of the last thirty-six years from above or from beneath? (5T 64.3) MC VC

Suppose—some would make it appear, incorrectly however—that I was influenced to write as I did by letters received from members of the church. How was it with the apostle Paul? The news he received through the household of Chloe concerning the condition of the church at Corinth was what caused him to write his first epistle to that church. Private letters had come to him stating the facts as they existed, and in his answer he laid down general principles which if heeded would correct the existing evils. With great tenderness and wisdom he exhorts them to all speak the same things, that there be no divisions among them. (5T 65.1) MC VC

Paul was an inspired apostle, yet the Lord did not reveal to him at all times just the condition of His people. Those who were interested in the prosperity of the church, and saw evils creeping in, presented the matter before him, and from the light which he had previously received he was prepared to judge of the true character of these developments. Because the Lord had not given him a new revelation for that special time, those who were really seeking light did not cast his message aside as only a common letter. No, indeed. The Lord had shown him the difficulties and dangers which would arise in the churches, that when they should develop he might know just how to treat them. (5T 65.2) MC VC

He was set for the defense of the church. He was to watch for souls as one that must render account to God, and should he not take notice of the reports concerning their state of anarchy and division? Most assuredly; and the reproof he sent them was written just as much under the inspiration of the Spirit of God as were any of his epistles. But when these reproofs came, some would not be corrected. They took the position that God had not spoken to them through Paul, that he had merely given them his opinion as a man, and they regarded their own judgment as good as that of Paul. (5T 65.3) MC VC

So it is with many among our people who have drifted away from the old landmarks and who have followed their own understanding. What a great relief it would be to such could they quiet their conscience with the belief that my work is not of God. But your unbelief will not change the facts in the case. You are defective in character, in moral and religious experience. Close your eyes to the fact if you will, but this does not make you one particle more perfect. The only remedy is to wash in the blood of the Lamb. (5T 66.1) MC VC

If you seek to turn aside the counsel of God to suit yourselves, if you lessen the confidence of God’s people in the testimonies He has sent them, you are rebelling against God as certainly as were Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. You have their history. You know how stubborn they were in their own opinions. They decided that their judgment was better than that of Moses and that Moses was doing great injury to Israel. Those who united with them were so set in their opinions that, notwithstanding the judgments of God in a marked manner destroyed the leaders and the princes, the next morning the survivors came to Moses and said: “Ye have killed the people of the Lord.” Numbers 16:41. We see what fearful deception will come upon the human mind. How hard it is to convince souls that have become imbued with a spirit which is not of God. As Christ’s ambassador, I would say to you: Be careful what positions you take. This is God’s work, and you must render to Him an account for the manner in which you treat His message. (5T 66.2) MC VC

While standing over the dying bed of my husband, I knew that had others borne their part of the burdens, he might have lived. I then pleaded, with agony of soul, that those present might no longer grieve the Spirit of God by their hardness of heart. A few days later I myself stood face to face with death. Then I had most clear revealings from God in regard to myself, and in regard to the church. In great weakness I bore to you my testimony, not knowing but it would be my last opportunity. Have you forgotten that solemn occasion? I can never forget it, for I seemed to be brought before the judgment seat of Christ. Your state of backsliding, your hardness of heart, your lack of harmony of love and spirituality, your departure from the simplicity and purity which God would have you preserve—I knew it all; I felt it all. Faultfinding, censuring, envy, strife for the highest place, were among you. I had seen it and to what it would lead. I feared that effort would cost me my life, but the interest I felt for you led me to speak. God spoke to you that day. Did it make any lasting impression? (5T 67.1) MC VC

When I went to Colorado I was so burdened for you that, in my weakness, I wrote many pages to be read at your camp meeting. Weak and trembling, I arose at three o’clock in the morning to write to you. God was speaking through clay. You might say that this communication was only a letter. Yes, it was a letter, but prompted by the Spirit of God, to bring before your minds things that had been shown me. In these letters which I write, in the testimonies I bear, I am presenting to you that which the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision—the precious rays of light shining from the throne. (5T 67.2) MC VC