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The Work of Mrs. E. G. White

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 27, 1913

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 9.

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The Work of Mrs. E. G. White

By F. M. W.

A FEW weeks ago while on the Pacific Coast, it was our privilege, in company with several of our ministers, to call at the home of Sister E. G. White, and spend a short time in conversation with this aged servant of the Lord. We found her busily engaged in the preparation of manuscript for her forthcoming book, which will complete the interim between “Patriarchs and Prophets” and “The Desire of Ages.” She spoke of the great burden that the Lord had placed upon her of giving to the people the light of which she had been made the messenger. She told how signally God had assisted her in the preparation of manuscript, and the great satisfaction she felt that so much had been accomplished in the publication of her books for the public. Her faith in God was undimmed, and her courage and hope were strong and bright. She looked forward with joy to the ultimate triumph of this movement, and to the fruition of her long-cherished hope in the coming of the Lord.
The Lord has wonderfully sustained his servant for many years. The story of her life is the story of this movement. The two are identified in experience. God has wonderfully used her in the promotion of his cause of truth in the earth through the many trying years since she has been made his special messenger to this people.
As we review her experiences, the evidence of her call of God to the position which she has so long occupied in this church does not rest alone upon the logic of reasoning or the enumeration of providential happenings in her work and labors. The evidence which makes the most sensible appeal to us is the general character and influence of her work and teaching.
1. Her message has never been self-centered nor self-directed. It has always pointed to Christ as man’s personal Saviour, to the Scriptures of Truth as the source of wisdom and the rule and test of Christian experience.
2. The spirit of prophecy as manifested through Sister White has been in full harmony with the manifestation of this same spirit in ages of the past. The Testimonies proclaim no new gospel. They call the people to no lowered standard. Truth and righteousness, purity and holiness, have ever been held up as the standard of attainment of the people of God.
3. This agency has been used of God in the preservation of the integrity of this movement and in the promotion of its united and harmonious operation. How many instances might be cited where the cause of truth has been saved from serious division and perhaps utter shipwreck by the clear testimony that has been borne relative to questions affecting the church. We have no Church South nor Church North, no American Church nor European Church; but our work stands as one united whole. The influence of the spirit of prophecy has had much to do in the maintenance of this desirable condition.
4. God has used this humble instrumentality to lead his people out of themselves, out of and beyond their own natural conceptions and plans. Repeatedly in response to the instruction which has come, important movements have been inaugurated, appearing to human reasoning most unwise at the time, but the ample justification of which was found in later years. Through it the church of God has been led on by his providence to build better than it realized; and perhaps to this one instrument, above all other agencies, is due the breadth and scope which this movement has taken on during the last few decades.
5. The spirit of prophecy as manifested among us has saved the church from falling into many sophistries and delusions. Repeatedly fanaticism has been rebuked. Again and again the specious deceptions of error have been uncovered. The truth of God has been caused to shine in its brightness and clearness, and the people of God saved from making moves that would bring confusion and disaster.
These are some of the great general reasons that appeal to us and lead us to believe that God has especially wrought through his servant in connection with the work of this church.
We recognize that this gift which he has placed among us sustains the same relationship to this people and this work to-day that it has sustained through all the years of the past. We believe confidently that as light and blessing and power have come to this church by heeding the counsel of the Lord’s messenger in years gone by, so light and blessing and power will come to the church to-day if it still heeds the messages that God has been pleased to send through his aged servant. We also recognize that while God spoke through her as a young girl, in her weakness and inexperience, so he is abundantly able to speak through her in her declining years, even as he did through Simeon and Anna in the days of Christ.
We have not by any means outgrown in our experience as a people this precious gift which has been set in the church of God. We have not yet reached the place where we can dispense with the warning voice that God has been pleased to let sound these many years. We thank him to-day for all the light contained in the excellent books and publications that have been issued. We believe that these books should be found to-day in every Seventh-day Adventist home. Next to the Scriptures of Truth the “Testimonies for the Church” should have a place in our daily reading. We can testify personally, as can scores of our brethren and sisters, that their reading incites to deeper consecration, to higher ideals, to greater earnestness. The instruction and exhortation they contain appeal to our hearts. They drive us to the Scriptures of Truth for light and leading. They lead us to feel like humbling ourselves before God and putting away our sins, like throwing ourselves with renewed consecration into his work and service. Their power does not consist in the phrasing of a sentence or in the turn of a word, but in the spirit which accompanies them. This influence will be felt in the life of every one who will give to these volumes faithful study.
God is still going before his people. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night still lead us on. May God help us to be faithful to him and to all his leadings.
We have arranged to publish in the REVIEW in the near future some of the striking experiences that have particularly marked the relation of the spirit of prophecy to our denominational work. These will be furnished by some of our ministers who were actual participants in the incidents cited and know whereof they speak. F. M. W.