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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
the same results, only in a greater degree, will attend your influence, if
wrong, as attended that of Sister E.
Feelings of suspicion, jealousy, and unbelief have for years been
gaining power upon your mind. You have a hatred for reproof. You
are very sensitive, and your sympathies arise at once for anyone who
is reproved. This is not a sanctified feeling, and is not prompted by the
Spirit of God. Brother and Sister A, I was shown that when this spirit
of faultfinding and murmuring should be developed in you, when it
should be manifested and the leaven of dissatisfaction, jealousy, and
unbelief which has cursed the life of E and her husband should appear,
we would have a work to do to meet it decidedly and give that spirit no
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quarter; and that, until this should be developed, I should keep silent,
for there was a time to speak and a time to keep silent. I saw that,
should apparent prosperity attend the labors of Brother A, unless he
was a thoroughly converted man he would be in danger of losing his
soul. He does not have becoming respect for the position and labors
of others; he considers himself second to none.
I was shown that temptations will continually increase in regard to
the labors of Brother and Sister White. Our work is a peculiar work,
it is different in character from that of any others who labor in the
field. God does not call ministers who have only to labor in word and
doctrine to do our work, neither does He call us to do only their work.
We each have, in some respects, a distinct work. God has been pleased
to open to me the secrets of the inner life and the hidden sins of His
people. The unpleasant duty has been laid upon me to reprove wrongs
and to reveal hidden sins. When I have been compelled by the Spirit of
God to reprove sins that others did not know existed, it has stirred up
the natural feelings in the hearts of the unsanctified. While some have
humbled their hearts before God, and with repentance and confession
have forsaken their sins, others have felt a spirit of hatred rise in their
hearts. Their pride has been hurt when their course has been reproved.
They entertain the thought that it is Sister White who is hurting them,
instead of feeling grateful to God that He has in mercy spoken to them
through His humble instrument, to show them their dangers and their
sins, that they may put them away before it shall be too late for wrongs
to be righted.
Some are ready to inquire: Who told Sister White these things?
They have even put the question to me: Did anyone tell you these