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Historical Foreword
xxi
General Conference President Publishers Testimonies
The influence of selfish, grasping methods and the exercise of
“kingly power,” as Ellen G. White termed it, were contagious. Elder
Olsen, president of the General Conference, in his hope that he could
stay the evil work of such influences, made available to the ministers
of the church many of the messages of counsel which came to him
and other leaders in Battle Creek during this critical period. These
messages, published in pamphlet form, were sent out as special
instruction to ministers and workers. They were often prefaced by an
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earnest statement signed by the president of the General Conference
or by the Committee. In Elder Olsen’s introduction to the second of
these numbered pamphlets, written about 1892, he states:
“We feel it our duty again to send you some selections from
recent writings from Sister E. G. White that have not as yet been in
print, and also to call attention to some very important extracts from
writings which have already been published. We do this to bring
the truths contained therein fresh to your minds. They are worthy of
most careful consideration...
.
“For three years the Spirit of God has been especially appeal-
ing to our ministry and people to cast aside their cloak of self-
righteousness and to seek the righteousness which is of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. But, oh, how slow and hesitating we have been....
The testimony and earnest entreaties of the Spirit of God have not
found a response in our hearts that God designed they should. In
some instances, we have felt free even to criticize the testimony and
warnings sent by God for our good. This is a serious matter. What
is the result?—It is a coldness of heart, a barrenness of soul, that is
truly alarming
.
“Is it not time to raise a voice of warning? Is it not time for each
individual to take these things home to himself and ask, ‘Is it I?’...
“In the following testimony, our dangers are again pointed out to
us in a way that we cannot misunderstand them. The question is, will
we take heed to the counsel of God and seek Him with all the heart,
or will we treat these warnings with the neglect and indifference that
we have many times in the past? God is in earnest with us and we
must not be slow to respond.”
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