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Historical Foreword
As noted in the preface to this third edition,
Testimonies to
Ministers
consists of materials drawn from several sources, primarily
Ellen G. White articles which have appeared in the
Review and
Herald
and pamphlets bearing testimonies to the Battle Creek church
and to the leading workers of the cause. The larger part of the
content of this volume was written in the years 1890-1898, with
some earlier and later materials drawn in to augment certain areas of
counsel. Section I, “The Church of Christ,” gives assurance of the
tender regard in which God holds his church, and contains clear-cut
promises of the church’s triumph. This is followed by
Warnings and
Counsels to Ministers and Administrators
.
The decade of the 1890’s was an interesting, yet in some ways
distressing, period in the experience of Seventh-day Adventists.
The church was growing, more than doubling its membership in
the ten-year period. With rapidity its workers were entering new
countries. Institutions at home and abroad were brought into being.
The original provisions for organization devised at the first general
conference session in 1863 were being rapidly outgrown. Older
established institutions were expanding and entering upon a period
of popularity with both Seventh-day Adventists and the world. This
growth was fraught with many perils, from liberalism on one hand
to consolidation and centralization on the other hand. Then, in and
through the experience of this period, there were elements reflecting
the aftermath of the 1888 General Conference session held in Min-
neapolis, Minnesota, where certain doctrinal issues were discussed
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heatedly and at length. A number of men identified themselves with
one camp or the other, with their decisions influenced not alone
by the doctrinal arguments presented, but also molded by attitudes
toward the spirit of prophecy counsels. In some cases these attitudes
were not wholesome. Through most of this period, Ellen White was
in Australia, laboring to build up the work in that newly entered land
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