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Selected Messages Book 2
confused their own minds and the minds of others by their wonderful
suppositions. Yet these persons were our beloved brethren, and we
were longing to help them. I went into their meetings. There was much
excitement, with noise and confusion. One could not tell what was
piped or what was harped. Some appeared to be in vision, and fell to
the floor. Others were jumping, dancing, and shouting. They declared
that as their flesh was purified, they were ready for translation. This
they repeated again and again. I bore my testimony in the name of the
Lord, placing His rebuke upon these manifestations.
Some who had engaged in these movements were brought to their
right mind, and saw their delusion. Some had been excellent, honest
people, but they thought that sanctified flesh could not sin, and thus
they had been taken in Satan’s trap. They had carried their strong ideas
so far that they became a reproach to the precious cause of God. These
sorely repented, and some were afterward among our most reliable
men and women. But there were others who ever after walked in
sadness. We could not at any time make them feel that they were
worthy to work for the Master, whose precious cause they had so
greatly dishonored.
As the result of fanatical movements such as I have described,
persons in no way responsible for them have in some cases lost their
reason. They could not harmonize the scenes of excitement and tumult
with their own past precious experience; they were pressed beyond
measure to receive the message of error; it was represented to them
that unless they did this they would be lost; and as the result their
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mind was unbalanced, and some became insane. These things bring a
reproach upon the cause of truth, and hinder the proclamation of the
last message of mercy to the world.
Shouting No Evidence of Sanctification
The manner in which the meetings in Indiana have been carried
on, with noise and confusion, does not commend them to thoughtful,
intelligent minds. There is nothing in these demonstrations which will
convince the world that we have the truth. Mere noise and shouting are
no evidence of sanctification, or of the descent of the Holy Spirit. Your
wild demonstrations create only disgust in the minds of unbelievers.