xxxviii
Counsels for the Church
Another man stood to speak. He was the president of the Religious
Liberty Association. Note his words: “I was in that meeting. Last
night after the close of the conference some of us met in my room
in the Review office where we locked ourselves in and there took up
and discussed the questions and the matter that has been presented to
us this morning. We remained in that room until three o’clock this
morning. If I should begin to give a description of what took place and
the personal attitude of those in the room, I could not give it as exactly
and as correctly as it has been given by sister White. I now see that
I was in error and that the position that I took was not correct. From
the light that has been given this morning, I acknowledge that I was
wrong.”
Others spoke that day. Every man who was in the meeting the
night before stood to his feet and bore his testimony, saying that Ellen
White had accurately described the meeting and the attitude of those
in the room. Before that meeting closed that Sunday morning, the
Religious Liberty group were called together, and they rescinded the
action they had taken only a few hour before.
Had Mrs. White not been restrained and had she related the vision
on Sabbath afternoon, her message would not have served the purpose
that God had intended, for the meeting had not yet taken place.
Somehow the men did not apply the general counsel given Sabbath
afternoon. They thought they knew better. Perhaps they reasoned as
some do today, “well, perhaps sister White did not understand,” or, “we
are living in a different day now.” The thoughts that Satan whispers to
[29]
us in these days are the same with which he tempted our ministers in
1891. God, in His own time and in His own way, made it clear that it
was His work; He was guiding; He was guarding; He had His hand
upon the wheel. Ellen White tells us that God “has often permitted
matters to come to a crisis, that His interference might become marked.
Then He has made it manifest that there is a God in Israel.”
The Testimonies and the Reader
For seventy years Ellen G. White spoke and wrote of the things
God had revealed to her. Many times the counsels were given to correct
those who erred from Bible truth. Many times they pointed out the
course God would have his people follow. At times the testimonies