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xxii
Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers
To the sixth of these pamphlets, Elder Olsen wrote on November
22, 1896, these introductory words:
“During the past few months, I have received a number of com-
munications from Sister E. G. White, which contain most valuable
instruction to myself and to all our laborers; and knowing that all the
workers connected with the cause of present truth would be benefited
personally and helped in their work by having this instruction, I have
collected this matter, and had it printed in this little tract for their
benefit. It is not necessary that I ask for it a careful and prayerful
study, for I know it will receive this.”
It was not an easy task for Ellen White to pen such stirring
messages of rebuke and reproof, nor was it easy for the recipients
to accept these messages as applying in the personal experience
and then set about to make the corrections which were called for.
They were published in the 1890’s by the president of the General
Conference and by the General Conference Committee as pamphlets,
that all ministers might be warned. Then materials were republished
in the body of
Testimonies to Ministers
In 1923, to keep before every
Seventh-day Adventist minister and administrator perils which could
seriously militate against the interests of the work of God
.
Ellen White did not implicate each minister and administrator
by the message of rebuke. “How my heart goes out in rejoicing,”
she wrote, “for those who walk in humility of mind, who love and
fear God. They possess a power far more valuable than learning or
eloquence.”—Page 161. Here and there through the articles in this
volume she speaks of “some” Who have taken the wrong course,
“some” who have been unresponsive to the messages which God has
sent
.
The counsels warning against the exercise of “kingly power” and
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authority, the counsels that man should not look to his fellowmen
for guidance in every detail of the work, are carefully balanced with
counsels concerning independence of spirit and action, as recorded
on pages 314-316. It is urged that conference presidents should be
trusted and sustained, as recorded on pages 327, 328
.
These are the backgrounds of the 1890’s and of the messages in
Testimonies to Ministers
. This is the picture of the conditions which
were worsening from month to month, from year to year, as the
Seventh-day Adventist church, pushing forward in an ever-widening