I saw that it is even so: “From even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath.”Leviticus 23:32. Said the angel: “Take the word of God, read it, understand, and ye cannot err. Read carefully, and ye shall there find what even is, and when it is.” I asked the angel if the frown of God had been upon His people for commencing the Sabbath as they had. I was directed back to the first rise of the Sabbath, and followed the people of God up to this time, but did not see that the Lord was displeased, or frowned upon them. I inquired why it had been thus, that at this late day we must change the time of commencing the Sabbath. Said the angel: “Ye shall understand, but not yet, not yet.” Said the angel: “If light come, and that light is set aside or rejected, then comes condemnation and the frown of God; but before the light comes, there is no sin, for there is no light for them to reject.” I saw that it was in the minds of some that the Lord had shown that the Sabbath commenced at six o’clock, when I had only seen that it commenced at “even,” and it was inferred that even was at six. I saw that the servants of God must draw together, press together.
(1T 116.1)
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I was shown the case of Stephenson and Hall of Wisconsin. I saw that while we were in Wisconsin, in June, 1854, they were convicted that the visions were of God; but they examined them and compared them with their views of the age to come, and because the visions did not agree with these, they sacrificed the visions for the Age-to-Come. And while on their journey East, last spring, they both were wrong and designing. They have stumbled over the Age-to-Come, and they are ready to take any course to injure the Review; its friends must be awake and do what they can to save the children of God from deception. These men are uniting with a lying and corrupt people. They have had evidence of this. And while they were professing sympathy and union with my husband, they (especially Stephenson) were biting like an adder behind his back. While their words were smooth with him, they were inflaming Wisconsin against the Review and its conductors. Especially was Stephenson active in this matter. Their object has been to have the Review publish the Age-to-Come theory, or to destroy its influence. And while my husband was openhearted and unsuspecting, seeking ways to remove their jealousy, and frankly opening to them the affairs of the office, and trying to help them, they were watching for evil, and observing everything with a jealous eye. Said the angel as I beheld them: “Think ye, feeble man, that ye can stay the work of God? Feeble man, one touch of His finger can lay thee prostrate. He will suffer thee but a little while.”
(1T 116.2)
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I was pointed back to the rise of the advent doctrine, and even before that time, and saw that there had not been a parallel to the deception, misrepresentation, and falsehood that has been practiced by the Messenger party, or such an association of corrupt hearts under a cloak of religion. Some honest hearts have been influenced by them, concluding that they must have at least some cause for their statements, thinking them incapable of uttering so glaring falsehoods. I saw that such will have evidence of the truth of these matters. The church of God should move straight along, as though there were not such a people in the world.
(1T 117.1)
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I saw that decided efforts should be made to show those who are unchristian in life their wrongs, and if they do not reform, they should be separated from the precious and holy, that God may have a clean and pure people that He can delight in. Dishonor Him not by linking or uniting the clean with the unclean.
(1T 117.2)
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The Captain of our salvation leads His people on step by step, purifying and fitting them for translation, and leaving in the rear those who are disposed to draw off from the body, who are not willing to be led, and are satisfied with their own righteousness. “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”Matthew 6:23. No greater delusion can deceive the human mind than that which leads men to indulge a self-confident spirit, to believe that they are right and in the light, when they are drawing away from God’s people, and their cherished light is darkness.
(1T 333.1)
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The class in ----- who have been drawing off from the body have possessed a hard, bitter spirit against those whom God is using as His instruments to bring His people up united upon the only true platform. Their spirit is opposed to the work of God, and their influence has brought reproach upon the cause of God, and has made our faith disgusting to unbelievers, and caused Satan to exult. Those who are walking in church capacity and trying to serve God, may for a time be annoyed with those among them who are not right, and who have been shown me as self-righteous and pharisaical; but if they are patient, and walk humbly before God, earnestly praying for His power and Spirit, they will advance, and those who are unsound in the faith will be left behind.
(1T 333.2)
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Brother J was presented before me, and I was shown that his course has not been pleasing to God. He was unstable. He has been befogged with the Age-to-Come, and as there is not the least harmony between the Age-to-Come theory and the third angel’s message, he lost his love for and faith in the message, and felt irritated because so much had been said in regard to it. The third angel is proclaiming a most solemn message to the inhabitants of the earth; and shall God’s chosen people be indifferent to it, and not unite their voice to sound this solemn warning? Brother J is deceived, and is deceiving others. His theme has been consecration, when his heart was not right. His mind has been divided. He has had no anchor to hold him, and has been floating about without a settled faith. Much of his time has been occupied in relating to one and another reports and stories calculated to distract and unsettle minds. He has had much to say in regard to my husband and myself, and against the visions. He has stood in a position, “Report, ... and we will report it.” God sent him not on such a mission. He has not known whom he has been serving. Satan has been using him to throw minds into confusion. What little influence he had he has used to prejudice minds against the third angel’s message. He has by false reports presented the visions in a wrong light, and weak souls who were not established in all the present truth have fed upon these things instead of clean provender thoroughly winnowed. He has been deceived in regard to sanctification. Unless he now changes his course, and is willing to be instructed, and cherishes the light given, he will be left of God to pursue his own course and follow his own imperfect judgment until he will make shipwreck of faith, and by his unwise course become a signal warning to those who choose to go independent of the body. God will open the eyes of honest souls to understand the cruel work of those who scatter and divide. He will mark those who cause divisions, that every honest one may escape from Satan’s snare.
(1T 333.3)
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Brother J received from Elder K a false theory of sanctification, which is outside of the third angel’s message, and wherever received destroys the love for the message. I was shown that Elder K was upon dangerous ground. He is not in union with the third angel. He once enjoyed the blessing of God, but does not now, for he has not prized and cherished the light of truth which has shone upon his pathway. He has brought along with him a theory of Methodist sanctification, and presents that in front, making it of the highest importance. And the sacred truths applicable to this time are by him made of little consequence. He has followed his own light, and been growing darker and darker, and going further and further from the truth, until it has but little influence upon him. Satan has controlled his mind, and he has done great injury to the cause of truth in northern Wisconsin.
(1T 334.1)
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Some of these persons have exercises which they call gifts and say that the Lord has placed them in the church. They have an unmeaning gibberish which they call the unknown tongue, which is unknown not only by man but by the Lord and all heaven. Such gifts are manufactured by men and women, aided by the great deceiver. Fanaticism, false excitement, false talking in tongues, and noisy exercises have been considered gifts which God has placed in the church. Some have been deceived here. The fruits of all this have not been good. “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”Matthew 7:16. Fanaticism and noise have been considered special evidences of faith. Some are not satisfied with a meeting unless they have a powerful and happy time. They work for this and get up an excitement of feeling. But the influence of such meetings is not beneficial. When the happy flight of feeling is gone, they sink lower than before the meeting because their happiness did not come from the right source. The most profitable meetings for spiritual advancement are those which are characterized with solemnity and deep searching of heart; each seeking to know himself, and earnestly, and in deep humility, seeking to learn of Christ.
(1T 412.1)
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Brother Lunt of Portland, Maine, has suffered much in his feelings. He has felt that the spirit which often ruled in their meetings was not in harmony with the message of the third angel. He has had an experience in the fanaticism which has left desolation in the East, and this leads him to look with suspicion upon everything which appears like fanaticism. He has the past before him as a warning and has felt like keeping aloof from, and speaking plainly with, those who had any degree of fanaticism, for he felt that both they and the cause of God were in danger. He has looked upon things in about the right light.
(1T 412.2)
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Pages 116, 117, 122, 123, “The Messenger Party”—In the summer of 1854 there appeared among the Sabbathkeeping Adventists the first disaffection, or apostasy. Two men who had been preaching the message were reproved through the spirit of prophecy for a harsh, censorious spirit, for avarice, and for extravagance in the use of means placed in their hands. Becoming embittered instead of repentant, they joined with a few others in unjust recrimination against Elder and Mrs. White and other leaders, making false charges against them. Although continuing to advocate the Sabbath truth, they began the publication of a slanderous sheet which they called the Messenger of Truth.
(1T 714.1)
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They were joined by elders Stephenson and Hall of Wisconsin. These men had been first-day Adventist preachers, who professed to accept the truths of the third angel’s message, but who continued to hold doctrines regarding the Age-to-Come. According to this theory there was to be, during the millennium, a “second chance” for salvation. They agreed, however, to preach the message, without advocating this question, if the Review would not publish articles against it. However, as indicated in the text, they did not keep their promise and were soon opposing the Review and its supporters.
(1T 714.2)
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The course of these “opposers of the truth” was soon run. Both Stephenson and Hall lost their reason. The Messenger of Truth ceased publication in 1857, and early in 1858 Elder White reported regarding the party: “Not one of the eighteen messengers of which they once boasted as being with them is now bearing a public testimony, and not one place of regular meeting of our knowledge among them.”—The Review and Herald, January 14, 1858.
(1T 714.3)
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Page 190, Systematic Benevolence—In the early days of the message, men impelled by the urge of conviction went forth to preach the new-found truths. They were dependent for their support upon their own labors or the freewill offerings of the believers. Such an uncertain method was more or less spasmodic and fluctuating. Early in 1859 the need for a more certain plan was felt, and earnest study was given to the matter. There grew out of this study the plan called Systematic Benevolence. In harmony with 1 Corinthians 16:2 giving regularly on the first day of the week was recommended, and, as suggested by 2 Corinthians 8:12-14, an equitable distribution of financial responsibility. The plan called for brethren to lay by in store weekly from five to twenty-five cents; the sisters, from two to ten cents; and for property owners to give weekly from one to five cents on each hundred dollars worth of assets.
(1T 714.4)
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The plan was generally received with favor, and here received the endorsement of the spirit of prophecy. The greatest sin in the church was pointed out to be covetousness. (Page 194.) Systematic Benevolence was not presented as a perfected plan, for it was also stated that “God is leading his people” in the matter, and “is bringing” them up. (Page 191.) As plans for support of the work and the ministry broadened, the spirit of liberality was encouraged more and more until at length light from the Scriptures revealed the system of tithes and offerings as they are known in the church today.
(1T 714.5)
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