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Counsels for the Church
“There is this brother over near the pine tree. I can’t call your name
for I haven’t been introduced to you, but your face is familiar to me,
and your experience stands out clearly before me.” Then she spoke to
this brother of his backsliding. She encouraged him to come back and
walk with God’s people.
Then, turning to a woman in another part of the audience, she
said, “this sister seated by sister Maynard of the Greenville church—I
can’t speak your name because I haven’t been told what it is—but two
years ago your case was shown to me in vision, and your experience
is familiar to me.” Then Mrs. White gave encouragement to this sister.
“Then there is this brother back there by the oak tree. I can’t call
you by name either, for I haven’t met you yet, but your case is clear to
me.” Then she spoke of this man, opening to everyone there his inmost
thoughts and telling of his experience.
From one to another she turned in that congregation, telling of
what had been shown to her two years before in vision. After Mrs.
White had finished her sermon, speaking not only words of reproof but
words of encouragement as well, she sat down. One of the company
stood up. He said, “I want to know if what sister White has told us this
afternoon is true. Elder and Mrs. White have never been here before;
they are not acquainted with us at all. Sister White does not even know
the names of most of us, and yet she comes here this afternoon and
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tells us that two years ago a vision was given to her in which our cases
were shown to her, and then one by one she proceeds to speak to us
individually, opening up to everyone here our course of living and our
inmost thoughts. Are these all true in every case? Or has sister White
made some mistake? I want to know.”
One by one the people stood up. The man over by the pine tree
stood to his feet and said that Mrs. White had described his case better
than he could have described it. He confessed his wayward course. He
expressed his resolution to come back and walk with God’s people.
The woman seated by sister Maynard from the Greenville church also
testified. She said that Mrs. White had told her experience better
than she could have told it. The man by the oak tree said that sister
White had described his case better than he could have described it.
Confessions were made. Sins were put aside. The Spirit of God came
in, and there was a revival at Bushnell.