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Concerning the Work of Sister White

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 2, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 43.

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Concerning the Work of Sister White

By GEO. O. STATES.

ON receiving the REVIEW containing the sad news of the death of our beloved Sister White, my mind reverted to the long ago, when I was but a child, and some meetings were held in the summer of 1853 for the believers in Jackson County, Mich.
My mother had but recently begun to keep the Sabbath. The work in Michigan was comparatively new, and most of the Michigan ministers were present. Our people had heard considerable about a sister in the East to whom the Lord was making wonderful revelations through visions, and were very much divided on the question, some being bitterly opposed to anything of the kind, others thinking more favorably of the idea.
On this occasion Sister White was taken off in open vision, and was shown some things relating to the work in Michigan. On coming out of this vision she related the wrong course that some were taking, which was marring the Lord's work. Things were shown her that the people knew were true, and they knew that Brother and Sister White had no way of knowing about them only as the Lord presented them to her in this vision.
Among other things, she was shown that some of the ministers were using tobacco, and they were reproved for so doing. These meetings brought things to a crisis, and some were thoroughly convinced that the visions were from the Lord, and took their stand as firm believers of this wonderful gift in the remnant church. Others rejected the light and soon began to oppose the work.
To our acceptance of the gift and work of the spirit of prophecy we owe our present system of organization. There is no question but that enough has been given and written out to take this people through if it is studied and lived out.
It has been my lot to watch the result of not heeding the counsel given through this gift in the remnant church. Some say that the Sabbath and other parts of the message are all right. They declare how firmly they will hold to all but the writings of Sister White, but they soon give up every point of the message. “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.”
GEO. O. STATES.