(Testimonies for the Church Volume 1 85, 122-3, 164, 233, 270, 572-3, 644, 688)
The Conference was held at Rocky Hill, in the large, unfinished chamber of Brother Belden’s house. The brethren came in until we numbered about fifty; but these were not all fully in the truth. Our meeting was interesting. Brother Bates presented the commandments in a clear light, and their importance was urged home by powerful testimonies. The word had effect to establish those already in the truth, and to awaken those who were not fully decided.
(1T 85.1)
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We were invited to meet with the brethren in the State of New York the following summer. The believers were poor, and could not promise to do much toward defraying our expenses. We had no means with which to travel. My husband’s health was poor, but the way opened for him to work in the hayfield, and he decided to make the effort. It seemed then that we must live by faith. When we arose in the morning, we bowed at our bedside and asked God to give us strength to labor through the day. We would not be satisfied unless we had the assurance that the Lord heard us pray. My husband then went forth to swing the scythe, not in his own strength, but in the strength of the Lord. At night, when he came home, we would again plead with God for strength to earn means to spread His truth. We were often greatly blessed. In a letter to Brother Howland, July, 1848, my husband wrote: “God gives me strength to labor hard all day. Praise His name! I hope to get a few dollars to use in His cause. We have suffered from labor, fatigue, pain, hunger, cold, and heat, while endeavoring to do our brethren and sisters good, and we hold ourselves ready to suffer more if God requires. I rejoice today that ease, pleasure, and comfort in this life are a sacrifice on the altar of my faith and hope. If our happiness consists in making others happy, we are happy indeed. The true disciple will not live to gratify beloved self, but for Christ, and for the good of His little ones. He is to sacrifice his ease, his pleasure, his comfort, his convenience, his will, and his own selfish wishes for Christ’s cause, or never reign with Him on His throne.”
(1T 85.2)
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When at Oswego, New York, June, 1855, I was shown that God’s people have been weighed down with clogs; that there have been Achans in the camp. The work of God has progressed but little, and many of His servants have been discouraged because the truth has taken no more effect in New York, and there have been no more added to the church. The Messenger party has arisen, and we shall suffer some from their lying tongues and misrepresentations, yet we should bear it all patiently; for they will not injure the cause of God, now they have left us, as much as they would have injured it by their influence had they remained with us.
(1T 122.1)
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God’s frown has been brought upon the church on account of individuals with corrupt hearts being in it. They have wanted to be foremost, when neither God nor their brethren placed them there. Selfishness and exaltation have marked their course. A place is now open for all such where they can go and find pasture with those of their kind. And we should praise God that in mercy He has rid the church of them. God has given many of these persons up to their own ways to be filled with their own doings. An excitement and sympathy now leads them, which will deceive some; but every honest one will be enlightened as to the true state of this company, and will remain with God’s peculiar people, hold fast the truth, and follow in the humble path, unaffected by the influence of those who have been given up of God to their own ways, to be filled with their own doings. I saw that God had given these persons opportunity to reform, He had enlightened them as to their love for self and their other sins; but they would not heed it. They would not be reformed, and He mercifully relieved the church of them. The truth will take effect if the servants of God and the church will devote themselves to Him and His cause.
(1T 122.2)
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I saw that the people of God must arouse and put on the armor. Christ is coming, and the great work of the last message of mercy is of too much importance for us to leave it and come down to answer such falsehoods, misrepresentations, and slanders as the Messenger party have fed upon and have scattered abroad. Truth, present truth, we must dwell upon it. We are doing a great work, and cannot come down. Satan is in all this, to divert our minds from the present truth and the coming of Christ. Said the angel: “Jesus knows it all.” In a little from this their day is coming. All will be judged according to the deeds done in the body. The lying tongue will be stopped. The sinners in Zion will be afraid, and fearfulness will surprise the hypocrites.
(1T 123.1)
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I saw that we should not put off the coming of the Lord. Said the angel: “Prepare, prepare, for what is coming upon the earth. Let your works correspond with your faith.” I saw that the mind must be stayed upon God, and that our influence should tell for God and His truth. We cannot honor the Lord when we are careless and indifferent. We cannot glorify Him when we are desponding. We must be in earnest to secure our own soul’s salvation, and to save others. All importance should be attached to this, and everything besides should come in secondary.
(1T 123.2)
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I saw the beauty of heaven. I heard the angels sing their rapturous songs, ascribing praise, honor, and glory to Jesus. I could then realize something of the wondrous love of the Son of God. He left all the glory, all the honor which He had in heaven, and was so interested for our salvation that He patiently and meekly bore every indignity and slight which man could heap upon Him. He was wounded, smitten, and bruised; He was stretched on Calvary’s cross and suffered the most agonizing death to save us from death, that we might be washed in His blood and be raised up to live with Him in the mansions He is preparing for us, to enjoy the light and glory of heaven, to hear the angels sing, and to sing with them.
(1T 123.3)
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The following view was given at Ulysses, Pennsylvania, July 6, 1857. It relates to things as they have existed in ----- and other places in New York.
(1T 164.1)
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There have been so many church trials among the brethren in the State of New York, that God has not had the least to do with, that the church have lost their strength, and they know not how to regain it. Love for one another has disappeared, and a faultfinding, accusing spirit has prevailed. It has been considered a virtue to hunt up everything about one another that looked wrong, and make it appear fully as bad as it really was. The bowels of compassion that yearn in love and pity toward brethren, have not existed. The religion of some has consisted in faultfinding, picking at everything bearing the appearance of wrong, until the noble feelings of the soul are withered. The mind should be elevated to dwell upon eternal scenes, heaven, its treasures, its glories, and should take sweet and holy satisfaction in the truths of the Bible. It should love to feed upon the precious promises that God’s word affords, draw comfort from them, and be lifted above trifles to weighty, eternal things.
(1T 164.2)
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But, oh, how differently has the mind been employed! Picking at straws! Church meetings, as they have been held, have been a living curse to many in New York. These manufactured trials have given full liberty to evil surmising. Jealousy has been fed. Hatred has existed, but they knew it not. A wrong idea has been in the minds of some, to reprove without love, hold others to their idea of what is right, and spare not, but bear down with crushing weight.
(1T 164.3)
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I was shown the course of H and I. Although reproved, they have not corrected their wrongs. The people of God, especially in the State of New York, have been affected by their wrong course. Their influence has been injurious to the cause of God. For the last ten years they have been often presented before me in vision, their wrongs have been shown me, and I have written to them concerning these things. But they were careful to conceal from their brethren the fact that they had been reproved, fearing it would have a tendency to destroy their influence. Those who were affected by their wrong course, should have been benefited by the reproofs which they received. I should have placed these messages in the hands of judicious brethren in the church, that if necessary, all might understand the instruction the Lord saw fit to give His people. But when I related the messages given me for these brethren to anyone but themselves, they censured me in the most unsparing manner. This caused me so much suffering of mind that I have been led to conceal what the Lord has given me in regard to the wrongs of individuals.
(1T 233.1)
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It was pride of heart which led these brethren to manifest so much fear lest others should know that they had been corrected. If they had humbly confessed their wrongs to the church, they would have acted out the faith they professed to have in the visions, and the church would have been strengthened to receive correction and confess their faults. These teachers stood in the way of the flock. They set them a wrong example, and the church have looked to them, and when reproved have inquired: “Why have not these ministers been reproved, when we are following their teachings?” A door has thus been opened for Satan to tempt them as to the truthfulness of the visions.
(1T 233.2)
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The brethren have been deceived and wronged. They believed that we were in union with these teachers, and followed their instructions, when they were all wrong. I have written to these ministers in anguish of spirit as I have seen the cause of God wounded by their injudicious course. How anxiously have I watched the effect of these messages. But they laid them aside, and the brethren were not permitted to know anything about them, therefore could not be benefited by the instructions which the Lord saw fit to give.
(1T 233.3)
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The prophecy of Isaiah 3 was presented before me as applying to these last days, and the reproofs are given to the daughters of Zion who have thought only of appearance and display. Read verse 25: “Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.”Isaiah 3:25. I was shown that this scripture will be strictly fulfilled. Young men and women professing to be Christians, yet having no Christian experience, and having borne no burdens and felt no individual responsibility, are to be proved. They will be brought low in the dust and will long for an experience in the things of God, which they have failed to obtain.
(1T 270.1)
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War lifts his helmet to his brow; O God, protect Thy people now.
(1T 270.2)
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August 3, 1861, I was shown that some have feared that our churches would become Babylon if they should organize; but those in central New York have been perfect Babylon, confusion. And now unless the churches are so organized that they can carry out and enforce order, they have nothing to hope for in the future; they must scatter into fragments. Previous teachings have nourished the elements of disunion. A spirit has been cherished to watch and accuse, rather than to build up. If ministers of God would unitedly take their position, and maintain it with decision, there would be a uniting influence among the flock of God. Separating bars would be broken to fragments. Hearts would flow together and unite like drops of water. Then there would be a power and strength in the ranks of Sabbathkeepers far exceeding anything we have yet witnessed.
(1T 270.3)
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Here I think it my duty to state that as this work was in progress, unfortunately a wealthy brother from the State of New York visited Wright after calling at Battle Creek and there learning that we had started out contrary to the opinion and advice of the church and those standing at the head of the work at Battle Creek. He chose to represent my husband, even before those for whom we had the greatest labor, as being partially insane and his testimony consequently as of no weight. His influence in this matter, as stated to me by Brother Root, the elder of the church, set the work back at least two weeks. I state this that unconsecrated persons may beware how they in their blind, unfeeling state cast an influence in an hour which may take the worn servants of the Lord weeks to counteract. We were laboring for persons of wealth, and Satan saw that this wealthy brother was just the man for him to use. May the Lord bring him where he can see, and in humility of mind confess, his wrong. By two weeks more of the most wearing labor, with the blessing of God, we were able to remove this wrong influence and give that dear people full proof that God had sent us to them. As a further result of our labors, seven were soon after baptized by Brother Waggoner, and two in July by my husband at the time of our second visit to that church.
(1T 572.1)
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The brother from New York returned with his wife and daughter to Battle Creek, not in a state of mind to give a correct report of the good work at Wright or to help the feelings of the church at Battle Creek. As facts have since come to light, it appears that he injured the church, and the church injured him, in their mutual enjoyment from house to house in taking the most unfavorable views of our course and making it the theme of conversation. About the time this cruel work was going on, I had the following dream:
(1T 573.1)
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I was visiting Battle Creek in company with a person of commanding manner and dignified deportment. In my dream I was passing around to the houses of our brethren. As we were about to enter, we heard voices engaged in earnest conversation. The name of my husband was frequently mentioned, and I was grieved and astonished to hear those who had professed to be our firmest friends relating scenes and incidents which had occurred during the severe affliction of my husband, when his mental and physical powers were palsied to a great degree. I was grieved to hear the voice of the professed brother from New York before mentioned, relating in an earnest manner, and in an exaggerated light, incidents of which those at Battle Creek were ignorant, while our friends in Battle Creek, in their turn, related that which they knew. I became faint and sick at heart, and in my dream came near falling, when the hand of my attendant supported me, and he said: “You must listen. You must know this even if it is hard to bear.”
(1T 573.2)
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At the several houses we approached, the same subject was the theme of conversation. It was their present truth. Said I: “Oh, I did not know this! I was ignorant that such feelings existed in the hearts of those whom we have regarded as our friends in prosperity, and our fast friends in suffering, affliction, and adversity. Would I had never known this! We have accounted these our very best and truest friends.”
(1T 573.3)
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Our labors in Maine commenced with the Conference at Norridgewock the first of November. The meeting was large. As usual, my husband and myself bore a plain and pointed testimony in favor of truth and proper discipline, and against the different forms of error, confusion, fanaticism, and disorder naturally growing out of a want of such discipline. This testimony was especially applicable to the condition of things in Maine. Disorderly spirits who professed to observe the Sabbath were in rebellion and labored to diffuse the disaffection through the Conference. Satan helped them, and they succeeded to some extent. The details are too painful and of too little general importance to be given here.
(1T 644.1)
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It may be enough to say at this time that in consequence of this spirit of rebellion, faultfinding, and, with some, a sort of babyish jealousy, murmuring, and complaining, our work in Maine, which might have been done in two weeks, required seven weeks of the most trying, laborious, and disagreeable toil. Five weeks were lost, yes, worse than lost, to the cause in Maine; and our people in other portions of New England, New York, and Ohio were deprived of five general meetings in consequence of our being held in Maine. But as we left that state we were comforted with the fact that all had confessed their rebellion, and that a few had been led to seek the Lord and embrace the truth. The following, relative to ministers, order, and organization, has a special application to the condition of things in Maine.
(1T 644.2)
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“The burden of selling our publications should not rest upon ministers who labor in word and doctrine. Their time and strength should be held in reserve, that their efforts may be thorough in a series of meetings. Their time and strength should not be drawn upon to sell our books when they can be properly brought before the public by those who have not the burden of preaching the word. In entering new fields it may be necessary for the minister to take publications with him to offer for sale to the people, and it may be necessary in some other circumstances also to sell books and transact business for the office of publication. But such work should be avoided whenever it can be done by others.”
(1T 688.1)
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The first portion of this extract is qualified by the last part. To be a little more definite, my views of this matter are, that such ministers as Elders Andrews, Waggoner, White, and Loughborough, who have the oversight of the work, and consequently have an extra amount of care, burden, and labor, should not add to their burdens by the sale of our publications, especially at tent meetings and at General Conferences. The view was given to correct those who at such meetings so far came down from the dignity of their work as to spread out before the crowd merchandise which had no connection with the work.
(1T 688.2)
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Our ministers who enjoy a comfortable state of health may, with the greatest propriety, engage at proper times in the sale of our important publications. Especially do the sale and circulation of such works as have recently been urged upon the attention of our people, claim vigorous efforts for them at this time. In four weeks, on our tour in the counties of Gratiot, Saginaw, and Tuscola, my husband sold, and gave to the poor, four hundred dollars’ worth. He first set the importance of the books before the people; then they were ready to take them as fast as he, with several to help him, could wait upon them.
(1T 688.3)
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