Untitled article by John Nevins Andrews

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, March 3, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXXI, No. 12

THE LABORS OF BRO. AND SR. WHITE.

By John Nevins Andrews

It has been my privilege to spend the past four months in company with Bro. and Sr. W., and to witness their untiring labors in the cause of Christ. This period has been one of the most interesting in my life, and I shall ever hold its privileges in grateful remembrance. Being now about to return home to spend a part of, or all, the time before the General Conference in writing, I desire to make a brief statement of several facts.

1. My convictions that the testimonies of sister White are from Heaven, have been greatly strengthened by the opportunity which I have had to observe the life, and experience, and labors of these servants of Christ.

2. I desire to bear testimony to their unwearied labors in the cause of Christ. The burden of labor in preaching and exhorting in the public assemblies, and in meetings for the special benefit of the church, has been very great. Probably few of our public laborers perform as much of this kind of work as Bro. and Sr. White. But this is only a portion of their toil. Many hours which they need for rest are given to wearisome writing, or to careful pains-taking effort to help those who have involved themselves in trouble.

3. The Review bears evidence to the industry of brother W. in writing for its columns. But very few of its readers have any adequate idea of the labor of sister W. in writing for the benefit of the people of God. Her messages of reproof and of instruction that she is sending to those to whom they pertain, amount, I think, in the period that I have been with them to more than 1000 pages. The task imposed on sister W., to write out all with her own hand while actively engaged in holding meetings, is very great. Every hour has to be filled up, and many are taken from needful sleep, in order to meet this ever-present and unending labor.

4. The nature of this writing is such that the manual labor required to pen the words is really the smallest part of the task. It is no pleasant thing to sister W. to utter words of sharp reproof, or stern rebuke, yet these things often enter largely into what she is called to write. I have too often witnessed the deep distress and tears of anguish which this work imposes on sister White, to entertain one thought that she engages in it to please herself.

5. The expense of postage is not small on such an amount of matter. So many pages through the mails impose no trifling burden on the writer; a fact this, which those who have its benefits should not forget.

6. Nor are the labors of Bro. White in connection with these testimonies to be lightly esteemed. God has given him a work to do which is of great importance to his cause. No man can better mingle tenderness with severity; and certainly no one is so faithful in plainness of speech, and in the correction of wrongs whenever found.

7. Our meetings have been seasons of deep interest, some of which will never pass from my mind. These however have been very fully reported in the Review. The past week has been spent at Tittabawassee where we had tangible evidence of Bro. M. E. Cornell's faithful labors in the existence of a prosperous church, and of a new and pleasant house of worship. I pray that God may still bless the labors of Bro. and Sr. W. and make them of lasting benefit to the friends of Christ.

J. N. ANDREWS.