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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
Sanitarium. At length this “new light” became a topic of discussion
when Seventh-day Adventist workers gathered informally or for sea-
sons of counsel. While it was a matter of deep concern to the leaders
of the church, their efforts to check these pantheistic teachings seemed
almost wholly ineffective
.
Through the winter of 1902-03 the movement gained momentum.
Then the problem became acute with the publication of a book on
physiology and hygiene written in popular style, in which the leading
physician of the denomination set forth these views in a subtle way.
The book was issued for wide sale by Seventh-day Adventists to aid
in securing funds for the rebuilding of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. It
seemed to the leaders of the church that the crisis would most surely
be reached at the general conference session held in the spring of
1903, when they hoped Mrs. White would deal clearly with the matter.
But each time she spoke she seemed to be restrained and presented a
message calling for unity in the work and the need of pressing together
in interest. When the General Conference session closed, the issue
was still not met
.
A few months later, in the autumn of 1903, Mrs. White was
instructed in vision to meet promptly and squarely the pantheistic
doctrines and to point out the dangers of the accompanying specu-
lative and spiritistic teachings. Communications dispatched by her
from California reached the brethren in autumn council session in
Washington, D. C., at the peak of the crisis. All could now see that
God was guiding and guarding his work, and in the light of the spirit
of prophecy messages nearly all took their stand on the side of truth.
In the field, however, there was perplexity, uncertainty, and confusion.
[7]
Testimonies for the Church, Volume 8, bore a message on this matter
which in certain terms defined the truth and thus left the error to stand
out in bold contrast. The crisis was met, and the church was saved. No
human power alone could have preserved the church in this crisis
.
Besides this paramount doctrinal controversy, there were other
church issues in the times of volume 8. Only a few weeks after volume
7 had come from the press, with its message of counsel regarding the
work being done in our publishing houses, the factory of the Review
and Herald Publishing Association was destroyed by fire. This was
the second great disaster in Battle Creek and followed the sanitarium
fire by less than eleven months
.