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The Voice in Speech and Song
Lord was upon me. Everyone is not an exception. Now, how can I tell
when I am going too far? I have been brought up to that point again
and again....
“Now, how far shall I go? I have taken the position that if the Lord
gives me a burden for the Battle Creek church, I will tell it to them;
but unless I have a burden, I have nothing more to say. I spoke 21
times in as many days there at Battle Creek. I did not speak every day,
but some days spoke twice. This was before I left; and I never got
rested until it resulted in this terrible sickness. I knew, and told them
at Fresno, that I was fighting my last round. And then in those private
meetings the labor was worse than speaking in public, and having to
tell them such straight things as I had to tell them.
“Now I do not know whether your question is answered or not;
perhaps it is like a long sermon: it is so long that you have lost the
main point.”
Elder White: “Now I have questioned somewhat whether one
person had the right to shape his action on another’s experience. I
have questioned if it was not our duty to shape our action on our own
experience.”
Ellen White: “Well, now, it has been like this. I have been sick and
in pain; and I want to tell you that there is never a time when I make an
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appointment but that before that appointment comes I have wrestled
with the most terrible difficulty of the heart, or some infirmity, that
makes it seem like an impossibility for me to go before the public.
And yet just as soon as I stand on my feet before the people I feel just
as sure that the angels of God are right by my side as if I opened my
eyes and looked upon them as I did at Christ at the time He restored
me. I am taken right out of and above myself. I feel just as though, as
it were, the judgment is right before me; just as though the universe
of heaven is looking upon me, and as though I have these things to do
and I must say them if I drop dead in the desk. Now, I do not believe
it is the duty of others to do that. And every day I feel that way. It is
because the terrible realities of eternity are opened before me, and as
soon as I get up on my feet the terrible realities seem to enshroud me
like a garment.”—
Manuscript 19b, 1890
.
Voice, Volume, and Speed—Elder Farnsworth: “Don’t you think,
sister White, a great many of our ministers have received great injury
from their manner of speaking?”