Explanation of Early Statements
59
were the promises of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness,
unconsecration, and strife among the Lord’s professed people that
have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years.
There are two other passages said to be found in my first book, but
not given in my later writings. Concerning these I shall only say, when
I can obtain a book containing them, so that I can be assured of the
correctness of the quotations and can see for myself their connection,
I shall be prepared to speak understandingly in regard to them.
Last-Day Scoffers
From the beginning of my work, I have been pursued by hatred,
reproach, and falsehood. Base imputations and slanderous reports have
been greedily gathered up and widely circulated by the rebellious, the
formalist, and the fanatic. There are ministers of the so-called orthodox
churches traveling from place to place to war against Seventh-day
Adventists, and they make Mrs. White their textbook. The scoffers
of the last days are led on by these ministers professing to be God’s
watchmen.
The unbelieving world, the ministers of the fallen churches, and
the first-day Adventists are united in the work of assailing Mrs. White.
This warfare has been kept up for nearly forty years, but I have not
felt at liberty even to notice their vile speeches, reproaches, and insin-
uations. And I would not now depart from this custom, were it not
that some honest souls may be misled by the enemies of the truth who
are so exultantly declaring me a deceiver. In the hope of helping the
minds of the honest, I make the statements that I do.
I do not expect to reach those who, having seen the light of truth,
refuse to heed it, those who have given themselves up to prejudice,
and entrenched their souls in unbelief.
Jesus, the Majesty of heaven, He who was equal with God, was in
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the world thirty-three years, and yet there were but few who acknowl-
edged His divine character. And can I, who am so weak, so unworthy,
a frail creature of humanity, expect greater success than was enjoyed
by the Saviour of the world?
When I first gave myself to this work, to go when God should bid
me, to speak the words which He should give me for the people, I
knew that I should receive opposition, reproach, persecution. I have