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The Publishing Ministry
privilege to go forward in their own way and according to their own
ideas.—
Manuscript 96, 1902
.
Prediction Regarding a Purging of Institutions—The Lord will
work to purify His church. I tell you in truth, the Lord is about to turn
and overturn in the institutions called by His name. Just how soon
this refining process will begin I cannot say, but it will not be long
deferred. He whose fan is in His hand will cleanse His temple of its
moral defilement. He will thoroughly purge His floor.—
Letter 4, 1895
.
A Sword of Fire Over Battle Creek—Before the fire came which
sweep away the Review and Herald factory I was in distress for many
days.... I saw the representation of danger—a sword of fire turning
this way and that way. I was in an agony of distress. The next news
was that the Review and Herald building had been burned by fire, but
that not one life had been lost. In this the Lord spoke mercy with
judgment. The mercy of God was mingled with judgment to spare
the lives of the workers, that they might do the work which they had
neglected to do, and which it seemed impossible to make them see and
understand.—
The General Conference Bulletin, April 6, 1903
, p. 85.
Cleansing From Commercial Work—Three nights before the
Review office burned, I was in an agony that words cannot describe. I
could not sleep. I walked the room, praying to God to have mercy upon
His people. Then I seemed to be in the Review office with the men
who have the management of the institution. I was trying to speak to
them and thus to help them. One of authority arose and said, “You say,
The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we; therefore, we
have authority to do this thing and that thing and the other thing. But
the word of God forbids many of the things that you propose to do.”
At His first advent, Christ cleansed the Temple. Prior to His second
advent He will again cleanse the temple. He was there cleansing the
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temple. Why? Because commercial work had been brought in, and
God had been forgotten. With hurry here and hurry there and hurry
somewhere else, there was no time to think of heaven. The principles
of God’s law were presented, and I heard the question asked, “How
much of the law have you obeyed?” Then the word was spoken, “God
will cleanse and purify His temple in His displeasure.”
In the visions of the night I saw a sword of fire hung out over Battle
Creek.