p. 15 | Early Experiences by GEO. O. STATES.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 8, 1913

Early Experiences

By GEO. O. STATES.

I WAS deeply interested in the article in the REVIEW of February 27, entitled “The Work of Mrs. E. G. White.” I was glad to learn that our good old REVIEW will soon be publishing some experiences showing how God, through the spirit of prophecy, has led this people from the very start.

I can hardly realize that it is now sixty years since I first heard of the work of Sister White. I was a small child at the time, and my mother had recently embraced the truth. I think it was on the occasion of Brother and Sister White’s first visit to Michigan, when some meetings were being held in Jackson County. Those were the days before any kind of church organization had developed among Seventh-day Adventists, and our little band was passing through some severe perplexities caused by the ungodly lives of some who claimed to be called to preach what was then called “the present truth.” During one of the meetings Sister White was taken off in open vision. That was something that but few of us had ever heard of, and it brought a wonderful solemnity into the meeting, especially when Sister White, after coming out of vision, openly and faithfully reproved the sinful lives of two ministers, one of whom was my teacher in the school, who was an inveterate user of tobacco.

Our people were satisfied that all Sister White knew about our Michigan ministers was what the Lord revealed to her in that vision. The fact that the Lord was revealing light to our little company under such circumstances made a wonderful impression, and many recognized that it was given under the influence of the Spirit of God. They accepted it as light from heaven and advanced in the message. The most of these have died in the blessed hope, but some of us are still alive to testify to these things. “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.”

I am sorry to say that about one half of our little band rejected that light, among them two ministers who started out bitterly opposing the work of Brother and Sister White, and ridiculing the visions. They soon started the paper called the Messenger of Truth, and our Michigan ministers occupied much of their time exposing the falsehoods of the paper. About this time Sister White was shown that if the church would keep at work, preaching the truth regardless of any such people as the Messenger party, the members of that party would yet go to war among themselves, and soon our numbers would be doubled. That counsel was heeded, and the predictions were literally fulfilled. While there were other things shown in that vision, yet I remember only these experiences, and they made such an impression on my mind that it has always remained with me. GEO. O. STATES.