The Message of 1888 Re-examined Part IV
1892 September (Advent Review and Sabbath
Herald article, “Address to the Church”)
There is less excuse in our day for stubbornness
and unbelief than there was for the Jews in the days of
Christ. They did not have before them the example of a
nation that had suffered retribution for their unbelief and
disobedience. But we have before us the history of the
chosen people of God, who separated themselves from
him, and rejected the Prince of life. Though they could
not convict him of sin, though they could not fail to see
their own hypocrisy, they hated the Prince of life
because he laid bare their evil ways. In our day greater
light and greater evidence is given. We have also their
example, the warnings and reproofs that were presented
to them, and our sin and its retribution will be the
greater, if we refuse to walk in the light. Many say, “If I
had only lived in the days of Christ, I would not have
wrested his words, or falsely interpreted his instruction.
I would not have rejected and crucified him as did the
Jews;” but that will be proved by the way in which you
deal with his message and his messengers to-day. The
Lord is testing the people of to-day as much as he tested
the Jews in their day. When he sends his messages of
mercy, the light of his truth, he is sending the spirit of
truth to you, and if you accept the message, you accept
of Jesus. Those who declare that if they had lived in the
days of Christ, they would not do as did the rejecters of
his mercy, will to-day be tested. Those who live in this
day are not accountable for the deeds of those who
crucified the Son of God; but if with all the light that
shone upon his ancient people, delineated before us, we
travel over the same ground, cherish the same spirit,
refuse to receive reproof and warning, then our guilt
will be greatly augmented, and the condemnation that
fell upon them will fall upon us, only it will be as much
greater as our light is greater in this age than was their
light in their age. (EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1057, 1058)
1892 November 5 (to Frank and Hattie Belden)
When you are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, you
will see all that wickedness at Minneapolis as it is, as
God looks upon it. If I never see you again in this world,
be assured that I forgive you sorrow and distress and
burden of soul you have brought upon me without any
cause. But for your soulʼs sake, for the sake of Him who
died for you, I want you to see and confess your errors.
You did unite with those who resisted the Spirit of God.
You had all the evidence that you needed that the Lord
was working through Brethren Jones and Waggoner;
but you did not receive the light; and after the feelings
indulged, the words spoken against the truth, you did
not feel ready to confess that you had done wrong, that
these men had a message from God, and you had made
light of both message and messengers. (EGW 1888
Materials, p. 1066)
When I purposed to leave Minneapolis, the angel of
the Lord stood by me and said: “Not so; God has a work
for you to do in this place. The people are acting over
the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. I have
placed you in your proper position, which those who are
not in the light will not acknowledge; they will not heed
your testimony; but I will be with you; My grace and
power shall sustain you. It is not you they are despising,
but the messengers and the message I send to My
people. They have shown contempt for the word of the
Lord. Satan has blinded their eyes and perverted their
judgment; and unless every soul shall repent of this their
sin, this unsanctified independence that is doing insult to
the Spirit of God, they will walk in darkness. I will
remove the candlestick out of his place except they
repent and be converted, that I should heal them. They
have obscured their spiritual eyesight. They would not
that God would manifest His Spirit and His power; for
they have a spirit of mockery and disgust at My word.
Lightness, trifling, jesting, and joking are daily
practiced. They have not set their hearts to seek Me.
They walk in the sparks of their own kindling, and
unless they repent they shall lie down in sorrow. Thus
saith the Lord: Stand at your post of duty; for I am with
thee, and will not leave thee nor forsake thee.” These
words from God I have not dared to disregard. (EGW
1888 Materials, p. 1067, 1068)
circa 1893 (to the Review and Herald Office)
The Lord has raised up Brother Jones and
Brother Waggoner to proclaim a message to the world
to prepare a people to stand in the day of God. The
world is suffering the need of additional light to come to
them upon the Scriptures,—additional proclamation of
the principles of purity, lowliness, faith, and the
righteousness of Christ. This is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth. (EGW 1888
Materials, p. 1814, 1815)
1893 January 9 (to W. Ings)
Our work is clearly aggressive. warfare is to be
directed against error and sin, not against one another.
God requires us to be a strength to one another, to heal,
not to destroy. We are to be constantly receiving light;
and we are not to spurn the message nor the
messengers by whom God hall send light to His people.
(EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1121)
We know that Brother Jones has been giving the
message for this time—meat in due season for the
starving flock of God. Those who do not allow prejudice
to bar the heart against the heaven-sent message,
cannot but feel the spirit and force of the truth. Brother
Jones has borne the message from church to church and
from State to State; and light and freedom and the
outpouring of the Spirit of God have attended the word.
(EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1122)
Those who were then deceived might since have
come to the light. They might rejoice in the truth as it is
in Jesus, were it not for the pride of their own rebellious hearts. They will be asked in the judgment, “Who required this at your hand, to rise up against the
message and the messengers I sent to My people with
light, with grace and power? Why have you lifted up
your souls against God? Why did you block the way
with your own perverse spirit? And afterward when
evidence was piled upon evidence, why did you not
humble your hearts before God, and repent of your
rejection of the message of mercy He sent you?” The
Lord has not inspired these brethren to resist the truth.
He designed that they should be baptized with the Holy
Spirit, and be living channels of light to communicate
the light to our world, in clear, bright rays. (EGW 1888
Materials, p. 1126)
The opposition in our own ranks has imposed upon
the Lordʼs messengers a laborious and soul-trying task;
for they have had to meet difficulties and obstacles
which need not have existed. While this labor had to be
performed among our own people to make them willing
that God should work in the day of His power, the light
of the glory of God has not been shining in clear,
concentrated rays to our world. Thousands who are now
in the darkness of error might have been added to our
numbers. (EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1128, 1129)
1893 January 20 (to I. D. Van Horn)
I know that Elder Smith, Elder Butler, and Elder Van
Horn have been losing the richest privileges of heavenly
enlightenment, because the spirit and impressions that
were entertained before the Minneapolis meeting and in
a large degree cherished since that time have kept them
in a position where, when good cometh, they have had
little appreciation of the same. I am so sorry for you, my
brother; you have worked hard, but the wisdom which
the Lord giveth to run like fine threads of gold through
all your ministerial labor has been wanting. No greater
light or evidence will come to any one of you except to
Elder Butler. He has not been directly in the channel
where light from the throne has come upon him. The
Lord looks with compassion upon you all, but in a
special sense upon Elder Butler. Both Elder Smith and
yourself have had opportunities of the highest order, but
neither of you has improved the privilege of opening the
chambers of your mind, and withdrawing the curtain
from the soul temple, that the train of the glory of God
might illuminate heart and mind. There is no reason that
either of you can offer before the great white throne,
when the Lord shall asked you, “Why did you not unite
your interests with the messengers I sent? Why did you
not accept the message I sent through my servants?
Why did you watch these men to find something to
question and doubt, when you should have accepted the
message that bore the imprint of the most High?”
(EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1137, 1138)
Think you, my brother, if the Lord has raised up men
to give to the world a message to the people to prepare
them to stand in the great day of God, that any one
could by their influence stop the work and close the
mouth of the messengers? No; if every human agent
should hold his peace, a voice would be put into the
stones, and they would cry out. The message would go
in greater and still greater power. And shall such men as
Elder Smith, Elder Butler, and yourself, be left behind
in the special message and work for this time to carry
the people forward and upward to a higher, holier state
of spirituality?
Is the work that has been going on since the
Minneapolis meeting of God? If not, it is of another
spirit. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” I know that
the Lord is in this work, and no one can silence the
messenger whom God sends, or repress the message.
The Lord will be heard through his human agencies.
And if any man refuses to accept the light and walk in
it, that light will not continue to shine upon him. “I have
somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first
love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,
and repent, and do the first works: or else I will come
unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out
of his place, except thou repent.” (EGW 1888 Materials,
- 1140, 1141)
1894 June 1 (to S. N. Haskell)
I have the most tender feelings toward our brethren
who have made this mistake [thinking Anna Rice
Phillips was a prophet of God], and I would say that
those who depreciate the one who have accepted
reproof, will be permitted to pass through trial which
will make manifest their own individual weakness and
defects of character. Bro. Jones and Prescott are the
Lordʼs chosen messengers, beloved of God. They have
co-operated with God in the work for this time. While I
cannot endorse their mistakes, I am in sympathy and
union with them in their general work. The Lord sees
that they need to walk in meekness and lowliness of
mind before him, and to learn lessons which will make
them more careful in every word they utter and in every
step they take. These brethren are Godʼs ambassadors.
They have been quick to catch the bright beams of the
Sun of Righteousness, and have responded by imparting
the heavenly light to others…. Let every soul who has
received the theory of the truth now take heed how they
treat Godʼs messengers. Let no one be found working
on Satanʼs side of the question, as an accuser of the
brethren. Let every bruise and wound be healed. Let
every one who has named the name of Christ, walk in
all humility of mind, and let no hard, unChristlike
feelings be cherished in the heart to develop into satanic
attributes in the character…. (EGW 1888 Materials, p.
1241, 1242)
1894 October 27 (to A. R. Henry)
…The very men whom God has entrusted with a
message for his people have not been treated with
respect; and A.R. Henry had those in harmony with him,
had the power been in their hands would have rejected,
not only the message, as they have done, but the
messengers whom God has sent. These men were
intrusted with a work to do for the Master, and had their
mouths been stopped, had their voices been silenced,
God would have raised up others to do this work. If no
human voice could be heard, He could have given a
tongue to the stones to proclaim the very message he
would have come to men.
Will Brother Henry consider what kind of spirit they
have cherished in reference to the message and the
messengers. How bitter were your feelings against
them. Do you think that God was leading you? These
feelings are waiting for a revival. If in the history of the
men who have borne this gospel message, anything
should take place which should prove them erring,
fallible as yourselves, you would not consider your own
errors and mistakes; you would manifest the most bitter
feelings against them. It is high time you were
thoroughly converted, that your sins may go
beforehand, and be blotted out now in probationary
time, lest it shall be forever too late for wrongs to be
righted. Read Isa. 30:8-13.
I have not dared to speak to you smooth things. I
have not dared to prophesy deceit. I have declared to
you the word of the Lord, but some things I have not
communicated in so plain and sharp a manner as the
case demanded. You have not accepted the testimonies
of warning and reproof which the Lord has given. You
have had a hatred of the message which his chosen
messengers have proclaimed…. (EGW 1888 Materials,
- 1299-1300)
1895 May 1 (to O. A. Olsen)
I inquire of those in responsible positions in Battle
Creek, What are you doing? You have turned your back,
and not your face, to the Lord. There needs to be a
cleansing of the heart, the feelings, the sympathies, the
words, in reference to the most momentous subjects—
the Lord God, eternity, truth. What is the message to be
given at this time? It is the third angelʼs message. But
that light which is to fill the whole world with its
glory, has been despised by some who claim to believe
the present truth. Be careful how you tread. Take off the
shoes from off your feet; for you are on holy ground.
Beware how you indulge the attributes of Satan, and
pour contempt upon the manifestations of the Holy
Spirit. I know not but some have even now gone too far
to return and to repent .(EGW 1888 Materials, p. 1334,1335)
The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious
message to His people through Elders Waggoner and
Jones. This message was to bring more prominently
before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for
the sins of the whole world. It presented justification
through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to
receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made
manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God.
Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their
eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His
changeless love for the human family. All power is
given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts
unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own
righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the
message that God commanded to be given to the world.
It is the third angelʼs message, which is to be
proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the
outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure. (EGW 1888
Materials, p. 1336, 1337)
This is the very work which the Lord designs that the
message He has given His servants shall perform in the
heart and mind of every human agent. It is the perpetual
life of the church to love God supremely, and to love
others as they love themselves. There was but little love
for God or man, and God gave His messengers just
what the people needed. Those who received the
message were greatly blessed, for they saw the bright
rays of the Sun of Righteousness, and life and hope
sprang up in their hearts. They were beholding Christ.
“Fear not,” is His everlasting assurance; “I am He that
liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive
forevermore.” “Because I live, ye shall live also.” The
blood of the spotless Lamb of God the believers apply
to their own heart. Looking upon the great antitype, we
can say, “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
maketh intercession for us.” (EGW 1888 Materials, p.
1339, 1340)
I have no smooth message to bear to those who have
been for so long as false guideposts, pointing the wrong
way. If you reject Christʼs delegated messengers, you
reject Christ. Neglect this great salvation kept before
you for years, despise this glorious offer of justification
through the blood of Christ and sanctification through
the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, and there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. I
entreat you now to humble yourselves, and cease your
stubborn resistance of light and evidence. Say unto the
Lord, Mine iniquities have separated between me and
my God. O Lord, pardon my transgressions. Blot out my
sins from the book of Thy remembrance. Praise His
holy name, there is forgiveness with Him, and you can
be converted, transformed. (EGW 1888 Materials, p.
1342)
