Covering Gifts by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 19, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 51.

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Covering Gifts

By John Norton Loughborough

Things that Differ—No. 5

Covering Gifts

(Concluded)

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

IN “Testimonies for the Church,” No. 32, page 51, we are informed that “as the coming of Christ draws nigh, . . . men and women will arise professing to have some new light or some new revelation whose tendency is to unsettle faith in the old landmarks. Their doctrines will not bear the test of God’s Word, yet souls will be deceived.” We have, still further on, a description of such persons, in these words: “They are consumed by a fiery zeal which is mistaken for religion; but character is the true test of discipleship. Have they the meekness of Christ? have they his humility and sweet benevolence? is the soul temple emptied of pride, arrogance, selfishness, and censoriousness? If not, they know not what manner of spirit they are of.”—Pages 61, 62.

Let us look at some such cases that have arisen since 1885. As these persons knew that I had so many times witnessed the manifestation of the gift which the Lord had been pleased to give Sister E. G. White, they have sent many of their documents to me, wishing my opinion as to their gift. To look these relics over, in their varied, discordant, and conflicting claims, reminds one of “ye olde curiositie shoppe.”

Let us see. Here is one that came in 1893. This one was indeed a reproof for the way I was teaching Bible workers. It so happened that just two weeks before this testimony (?) was received, a document came from Sister White, containing instruction to the teachers in all our schools. This document recommended the very manner of teaching which the revelation from the new source condemned. I said, “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.’ There is a plain contradiction between these two documents.” One who was zealous for the new revelation said to

me, “That may be the way you look at it, because you are reproved by it.” The movement did not make much headway, for it soon began to bear the very marks that we had been told the false manifestations would bear, “attacking those who had been placed in responsible positions in the cause.” A president in one of the conferences, who, by his management, had brought the conference out of its financial embarrassments, and greatly developed its spiritual standing, was told that he was the wrong man for president, and should not have been placed in that position. There was no disposition on the part of the people to indorse that testimony.

In 1897 another document was placed in my hands that spoke of certain events soon to occur, to be followed by my death. It stated the time of this revelation, and specified that I would “attend two conferences, and then die.” It so happened that when the document was placed in my hands, I had attended five conferences since the revelation was made, and lo! I was still alive. Of course, in cases of this kind, where such a prophetic venture is made, their race is short.

The last year has been the most fruitful of any in the production of such documents. One of these, originating in the West, dooms the denomination to destruction because we have our communion seasons four times a year, when they ought to be but once a year, and that on the fourteenth day of the first Jewish month. Here is another from the East, sealing our doom because we do not keep, as a fast day and Sabbath, the day of atonement, on the tenth day of the seventh Jewish month. This was followed by another, from about the center of the Union, condemning our work because we do not teach that Christ took his position on the throne of glory in 1844, and that since that time we have been in the kingdom of glory.

This last document reminds me of what Elder James White used to say of those who taught that the millennium was to begin in 1844: “If what we have seen in the world since 1844 is the first instalment of the millennium,” he said, “may the Lord deliver us from the rest of it, if it is to be all like this.” If we have had the kingdom of glory since 1844, where is the glory?

Recently I received a document in which a lady described some peculiar experiences through which she had passed, and asked, with seeming sincerity, if I thought her exercises were true visions? As I could not answer her in the affirmative, I received another document informing me that I would have to die before the Lord comes. Why? Her letter seemed to indicate that it was because I did not indorse all her claims.

The writers of some of these letters seem quite anxious for Sister White’s work to end, that they may take the lead.

In concluding these articles, let me say, May the Lord guide us to an earnest seeking for his Holy Spirit, submitting to his will as to how that Spirit shall work, and that we be kept from seeking some great demonstration or some “great things” for ourselves; for such are told, “Seek them not.” Jer. 45: 5. Healdsburg, Cal.