1890
(Manuscript Light in God’s Word)
1891 January 6
(to U. Smith)
1891 March 24
(Article Our Present Dangers)
1891 March
(Article read at Gen. Conf. of 1891)
The Lord has been calling his people. In a most marked manner he has revealed his divine presence. But the message and the messengers have not been received but despised. I longed that those who have greatly needed the message of divine love would hear Christ's knock at the door of the heart, and let the heavenly guest enter. But at the hearts of some Jesus has knocked in vain. In rejecting the message given at Minneapolis, men committed sin. They have committed far greater sin by retaining for years the same hatred against God's messengers, by rejecting the truth that the Holy Spirit has been urging home. By making light of the message given, they are making light of the word of God. Every appeal rejected, every entreated unheeded, furthers the work of heart-hardening, and places them in the seat of the scornful. (EGW 1888 Materials, p. 913)
1891 March
(pamphlet Danger in Adopting Worldly Policy in the Work of God)
But not all are following the light. Some are moving away from the safe path, which at every step is a path of humility. God has committed to his servants a message for this time; but this message does not in every particular coincide with the ideas of all the leading men, and some criticize the message and the messengers. They dare even to reject the words of reproof sent to them from God through his Holy Spirit.
What reserve power has the Lord with which to reach those who have cast aside his warnings and reproofs, and have accredited the testimonies of the Spirit of God to no higher source than human wisdom? In the Judgment, what can you who have done this, offer to God as an excuse for turning from the evidences he has given you that God was in the work? “By their fruits ye shall know them.” I would not now rehearse before you the evidences given in the past two years of the dealings of God by his chosen servants; but the present evidence of his working is revealed to you, and you are now under obligation to believe. You cannot neglect God's messages of warning, you cannot reject them or treat them lightly, but at the peril of infinite loss. Caviling, ridicule, and misrepresentation can be indulged in only at the expense of the debasement of your own souls. The use of such weapons does not gain precious victories for you, but rather cheapens the mind, and separates the soul from God. Sacred things are brought down to the level of the common, and a condition of things is created that pleases the prince of darkness, and grieves away the Spirit of God. Caviling and criticism leave the soul as devoid of the dew of grace as the hills of Gilboa were destitute of rain. Confidence cannot be placed in the judgment of those who indulge in ridicule and misrepresentation. No weight can be attached to their advice or resolutions. You must bear the divine credentials before you make decided movements to shape the working of God's cause.
To accuse and criticize those whom God is using, is to accuse and criticize the Lord, who has sent them. All need to cultivate their religious faculties, that they may have a right discernment of religious things. Some have failed to distinguish between pure gold and mere glitter, between the substance and the shadow.
The prejudices and opinions that prevailed at Minneapolis are not dead by any means; the seeds sown there in some hearts are ready to spring into life and bear a like harvest. The tops have been cut down, but the roots have never been eradicated, and they still bear their unholy fruit to poison the judgment, pervert the perceptions, and blind the understanding of those with whom you connect, in regard to the message and the messengers. When by thorough confession, you destroy the root of bitterness, you will see light in God's light. Without this thorough work you will never clear your souls. You need to study the word of God with a purpose, not to confirm your own ideas, but to bring them to be trimmed, to be condemned or approved, as they are or are not in harmony with the word of God. The Bible should be your constant companion. You should study the Testimonies, not to pick out certain sentences to use as you see fit, to strengthen your assertions, while you disregard the plainest statements given to correct your course of action. (EGW 1888 Materials, p. 953-955)
1892 April 15
(to J. H. Kellogg)
1892 July 26
(Advent Review and Sabbath Herald article, “Search the Scriptures”)
1892 August 30
(to U. Smith)
1892 September 1
(to O. A. Olsen)
“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Christ “was in the world, and the world was made by Him”; but the world had sunk to such terrible depths of unbelief that when its own Creator came to it, it knew Him not. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But 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.” This grace is not inherited.
I wish that all would see that the very same spirit which refused to accept Christ, the Light that would dispel the moral darkness, is far from being extinct in this age of the world. There are those in our day who are no more ready to recognize and acknowledge light than were the people when the prophets and the apostles came with messages from God, and many rejected the message and despised the messenger. Let us beware that this spirit is not entertained by any one of us. [Rev. 2:1-5, quoted.] (EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1018, 1019)
Why do not brethren of like precious faith consider that in every age, when the Lord has sent a special message to the people, all the powers of the confederacy of evil have set at work to prevent the word of truth from coming to those who should receive it?
If Satan can impress the mind and stir up the passions of those who claim to believe the truth, and thus lead them to unite with the forces of evil, he is well pleased. If once he can get them to commit themselves on the wrong side, he has laid his plans to lead them on a long journey. Through his deceptive wiles he will cause them to act upon the same principles he adopted in his disaffection in heaven. They take step after step in the false way, until there seems to be no other course for them except to go on, believing they are right in their bitterness of feeling toward their brethren. Will the Lord's messenger bear the pressure brought against him? If so, it is because God bids him stand in his strength and vindicate the truth that he is sent of God.
When men listen to the Lord's message, but through temptation allow prejudice to bar the mind and heart against the reception of truth, the enemy has power to present the most precious things in a distorted light. Looking through the medium of prejudice and passion, they feel too indignant to search the Scriptures in a Christlike spirit, but repudiate the whole matter because points are presented that are not in accordance with their own ideas.
When a new view is presented, the question is often asked, “Who are its advocates? What is the position of influence of the one who would teach us who have been students of the Bible for many years?” God will send His words of warning by whom He will send. And the question to be settled is not what person is it who brings the message; this does not in any way affect the word spoken. “By their fruits ye shall know them.”
Truth is often preached by one who has not experienced its power; but it is truth nevertheless, and is blessed to those who, drawn by the Spirit of God, accept it. But when the truth is presented by one who is himself sanctified through it, it has a freshness, a force, that gives it a convicting power to the hearer. The truth, in its power upon the heart, is precious, and the truth addressed to the understanding is clear. Both are needful—the word and the inward testimony of the Spirit.
In regard to the testimony that has come to us through the Lord's messengers, we can say, We know in whom we have believed. We know that Christ is our righteousness, not alone because He is so described in the Bible, but because we have felt His transforming power in our own hearts. (EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1022-1024)
Should the Lord's messengers, after standing manfully for the truth for a time, fall under temptation, and dishonor Him who has given them their work, will that be proof that the message is not true? No, because the Bible is true. “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Sin on the part of the messenger of God would cause Satan to rejoice, and those who have rejected the messenger and the message would triumph; but it would not at all clear the men who were guilty of rejecting the message of truth sent of God. (EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1025)
1892 September 2
(to A. T. Jones)
The crisis is just before us. The fierce conflict of mind with mind, of principle with principle, of truth with error, which is fast approaching, and which has already begun, calls for constant vigilance. This world is the great field where the last battle is to be fought. Now every man who is on the Lord's side will come up to the battle of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and the walls of antichrist shall fall before the Captain of the Lord's host. Then let not the chosen of God be found in opposition to the messengers and messages He sends; but let the ability and tact of every soul, by all Scriptural and holy means, be employed to give greater efficiency and strength in the aggressive warfare—not against brethren, not against the Lord's anointed—but against the Satanic agencies that they must meet.
The Lord will speak through His messengers. They are only the human instrumentalities, possessing no grace or loveliness of their own, and are powerful and efficacious only as God, the eternal Spirit, shall work upon human hearts. The treasure of the everlasting gospel is in earthen vessels. Paul may plant, and Apollos may water, and this is the extent of their ability: God only giveth the increase. There must be no dishonoring of God, no grieving of His Holy Spirit, by casting dishonor or reflection upon God, who selects His messengers to bear a message to the world, by refusing the message of God's words from the lips of any of His servants, by whom He may send it. Many souls rob themselves of great blessings, and Christ of glory which should redound to Him; because they do not take heed to this, there is confusion, and defection, and weakness. (EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1037-1039)
1892 September 19
(to Uriah Smith)
It is quite possible that Elder Jones or Waggoner may be overthrown by the temptations of the enemy; but if they should be, this would not prove that they had had no message from God, or that the work that they had done was all a mistake. But should this happen, how many would take this position, and enter into a fatal delusion because they are not under the control of the Spirit of God. They walk in the sparks of their own kindling, and cannot distinguish between the fire they have kindled and the light which God has given, and they walk in blindness as did the Jews. (EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1044, 1045)
Oh, that self may be subdued in each one of us who profess to believe in Jesus! Oh, that pride may be laid in the dust! Oh, that we may more fully reflect the image of Jesus! As never before we should pray not only that laborers may be sent forth into the great harvest field, but that we may have a clear conception of truth, so that when the messengers of truth shall come we may accept the message and respect the messenger. Oh, that darkness may not settle upon any soul, but that the illuminating Spirit of Christ shall fall upon His people. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and the glory of our Redeemer is His character; this we must behold with spiritual vision. I would pray as did the apostle, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” [Eph. 1:17, 18].
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” [1 Thess. 2:13]. The word of God cannot work effectually in the heart when it is barred out by unbelief. The message which the messengers have been proclaiming is the message to the Laodicean church. [Rev. 3:14-20, quoted.]
This message has not had the influence that it should have had upon the mind and heart of the believers. The true state of the church is to be presented before men, and they are to receive the word of God not as something originating with men, but as the word of God. Many have treated the message to the Laodiceans as it has come to them, as the word of man. Both message and messenger have been held in doubt by those who should have been the first to discern and act upon it as the word of God. Had they received the word of God sent to them, they would not now be in darkness. “For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and the Father, and of Christ” [Col. 2:1, 2]. (EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1050, 1051)
Those who name the name of Christ should adopt Christian maxims. They should fear to ridicule the message or the messenger. Let no man say that this conversation is in heaven, while he is manifestly groveling in the dust, and his thoughts and feelings are as far separated from God as the east from the west. The true Christian will fear to make light of God's message, lest he may lay a stumbling block in the way of a soul who may see and imitate his example.
The church of God is to shine as a light to the world, but Jesus is the illuminator, and He is represented as moving among His people. No one shines by his own light. The Lord God almighty and the Lamb are the lights thereof. The message given us by A. T. Jones, and E. J. Waggoner is the message of God to the Laodicean church, and woe be unto anyone who professes to believe the truth and yet does not reflect to others the God-given rays. Elder Smith, had you been unprejudiced, had not reports affected you and led you to bar your heart against the entrance of what these men presented; had you, like the noble Bereans, searched the Scriptures to see if their testimony agreed with its instruction, you would have stood upon vantage ground, and been far advanced in Christian experience. If you had received the truth into a good and honest heart, you would have become a living channel of light, with clear perception and sanctified imagination. Your conceptions of truth would have been exalted, and your heart made joyful in God. God would have given you a testimony clear, powerful, and convincing. But the first position you took in regard to the message and the messenger, has been a continual snare to you and a stumbling block. (EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1052)
1892 September
(Advent Review and Sabbath Herald article, “Address to the Church”)