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Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G. White
“If thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word which
the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name
of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the
thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it
presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”
Deuteronomy 18:21,
22
.
Many instances might be mentioned in which prophetic foresight
was given to Mrs. White. Often she saw in vision persons with whom
she was not acquainted. Later in her travels she would meet these
individuals, and give them messages that had been given her in vision
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for them—messages revealing a knowledge of their actions or motives
which she could not have received from any human source.
In the early years of her work, at a time when she and her hus-
band and Elder Joseph Bates were almost the only ones preaching
the Sabbath truth, there was opened before her the future growth of
the movement, then in its weakness, of which they were the pioneers.
November 1, 1848, at a meeting held at Dorchester, Massachusetts,
Mrs. White was given a vision in which she beheld the message,
symbolized by the rising sun, increasing in strength till it shone over
the whole world.
After coming out of this vision, she told her husband that the Lord
desired him to begin printing a small paper, and that the work of
publishing the truth would increase till the publications would be like
streams of light encircling the earth. From a human point of view this
was indeed a bold prediction. The believers were very few in number,
poor in this world’s goods, and their views were very unpopular. Yet
God, with whom all things are possible, has marvelously fulfilled this
word. Through the years since that time, the publication of truth-
filled literature by this denomination has steadily increased, until the
sale of this printed matter, in all parts of the world, aggregates about
$7,000,000 annually.
In relating her early visions, Mrs. White graphically portrayed
the experiences through which the Adventist people were to pass
before the Lord should come. At a time when the manifestations of
spiritualism were confined to the “mysterious rappings” In Rochester,
New York, she was shown the rapid and phenomenal growth that cult
would make in the future. She foretold the passing of laws enforcing
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Sunday observance in countries where at the time full religious liberty