Daryl never asks these kinds of questions for no reason.
The need may be strong, so the answer is more complete. It is 14 pages long, be warned up front. I will break it up later, I am quickly running out of time to post, so I will post it entirely here & adjust it later.
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The highest created angel, Gabriel classes himself with prophets as their fellow servant. When people will not listen to prophets, they are directed to something of sufficient authority to command respect, if respect can be enlisted in the heart of the person or persons who would not listen to the present message of the prophet. If people will refuse the SOP, they must return to loyalty to the Bible. If they do that their blindness can be healed in time, but if not. The Bible is the only Testimony left that testifies of Jesus. It is the only work of the Holy Ghost written down to save humanity. If that is heeded there is hope, but if that too is given insubordinance, the last tools are exhausted for their staying either Christian or Adventist Christian. If Sr White did not want insubordinant people quoting her, it is because their demeanor & example would "tar & feather" present truth and create a false impression of SOP & Seventh-day Adventism in general . Let them go to the Bible which Non Seventh-day Adventist people accept as God's Authoritative Word and stand on that if their position could be defended from it. Let everyone see how r=they stood from comparing the insubordinate with the Bible. The insubordinate speak of EGW & SOP in a way that shows they do not see her & SOP as fellow servants with Gabriel, in a standing of rank before God that will shock them in the judgement. They are of this group :
2 Peter 2:10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
2 Peter 2:12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
Jude 1:8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Jude 1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
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Revelation 19:
10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
It was Gabriel, the angel next in rank to the Son of God, who came with the divine message to Daniel. It was Gabriel, "His angel," whom Christ sent to open the future to the beloved John; and a blessing is pronounced on those who read and hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written therein. Rev. 1:3. {DA 234.2}
"The Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants and prophets." While "the secret things belong unto the Lord our God," "those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever." Amos 3:7; Deut. 29:29. God has given these things to us, and His blessing will attend the reverent, prayerful study of the prophetic scriptures. {DA 234.3}
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Of Gabriel the Saviour speaks in the Revelation, saying that "He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John." Rev. 1:1. And to John the angel declared, "I am a fellow servant with thee and with thy brethren the prophets." Rev. 22:9, R. V. Wonderful thought--that the angel who stands next in honor to the Son of God is the one chosen to open the purposes of God to sinful men.--DA 99. {TA 241.3}
God had a special work for him to accomplish. Satan was determined to hinder this work, and he led on his servants to destroy John. But God sent His angel and wonderfully preserved him. All who witnessed the great power of God manifested in the deliverance of John, were astonished, and many were convinced that God was with him, and that the testimony which he bore concerning Jesus was correct. Those who sought
to destroy him were afraid to again attempt to take his life, and he was permitted to suffer on for Jesus. {TA 241.4}
He was falsely accused by his enemies, and was shortly banished to a lonely island, where the Lord sent His angel to reveal to him things which were to take place upon the earth, and the state of the church down through to the end; her backslidings, and the position the church should occupy if she would please God, and finally overcome. {TA 242.1}
The angel from heaven came to John in majesty. His countenance beamed with the excellent glory of heaven. He revealed to John scenes of deep and thrilling interest concerning the church of God, and brought before him the perilous conflicts they were to endure. John saw them pass through fiery trials, and made white and tried, and, finally, victorious overcomers, gloriously saved in the kingdom of God. The countenance of the angel grew radiant with joy, and was exceeding glorious, as he showed to John the final triumph of the church of God. {TA 242.2}
John was enraptured as he beheld the final deliverance of the church, and as he was carried away with the glory of the scene, with deep reverence and awe he fell at the feet of the angel to worship him. The angel instantly raised him up, and gently reproved him, saying, See thou do it not; I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; worship God; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. {TA 242.3}
The angel then showed John the heavenly city with all its splendor and dazzling glory. John was enraptured and overwhelmed with the glory of the city. He did not bear in mind his former reproof from the angel, but again fell to worship before the feet of the angel, who again gave the gentle reproof, See thou do it not; for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them that keep the sayings of this book; worship God.--1SG 130, 131. {TA 242.4}
Christ, the royal messenger, came to John when on his sea-bound isle, and gave him the most wonderful revelations of Himself.--ST March 3, 1890. {TA 243.1}
The mighty Angel [of Revelation 10] who instructed John was no less a personage than Jesus Christ. Setting His right foot on the sea, and His left upon the dry land, shows the part which He is acting in the closing scenes of the great controversy with Satan. This position denotes His supreme power and authority over the whole earth. The controversy has waxed stronger and more determined from age to age, and will continue to do so, to the concluding scenes when the masterly working of the powers of darkness shall reach their height. Satan, united with evil men, will deceive the whole world and the churches who receive not the love of the truth. But the mighty Angel demands attention. He cries with a loud voice. He is to show the power and authority of His voice to those who have united with Satan to oppose the truth.--7BC 971. {TA 243.2}
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IN CLEAR TERMS THE PROPHET JOHN SPEAKS OF "THE REMNANT," OR THE LAST CHURCH, AS THOSE WHO "KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, AND HAVE THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST." REVELATION 12:17. IN ANOTHER PASSAGE THE SAME WRITER GIVES A PLAIN DEFINITION OF WHAT HE MEANS BY THE "TESTIMONY OF JESUS." WHEN ON ONE OCCASION JOHN ATTEMPTED TO WORSHIP THE ANGEL WHO APPEARED TO HIM IN VISION, THE ANGEL SAID: {CET 242.3}
"SEE THOU DO IT NOT: I AM THY FELLOW SERVANT, AND OF THY BRETHREN THAT HAVE THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS: WORSHIP GOD." REVELATION 19:10. {CET 243.1}
UNDER SIMILAR CIRCUMSTANCES THE SAME ANGEL SAID, AS RECORDED IN ANOTHER PLACE: {CET 243.2}
"SEE THOU DO IT NOT: FOR I AM THY FELLOW SERVANT, AND OF THY BRETHREN THE PROPHETS." REVELATION 22:9. {CET 243.3}
THE THOUGHT EXPRESSED IS THE SAME IN BOTH THESE PASSAGES. IN ONE, HOWEVER, JOHN'S "BRETHREN" ARE SAID TO HAVE "THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS;" IN THE OTHER THESE "BRETHREN" ARE CALLED "THE PROPHETS." {CET 243.4}
THEREFORE IT IS THE PROPHETS WHO HAVE "THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS;" AND THE ANGEL WHO APPEARED TO JOHN IS EVIDENTLY THE SPECIAL MESSENGER WHO CONVEYS INSTRUCTION TO ALL THE PROPHETS,--DOUBTLESS THE ANGEL GABRIEL, WHO IS MENTIONED AS HAVING APPEARED TO DANIEL. SEE DANIEL 8:16; 9:21. THE SAME ANGEL FURTHER SAID TO JOHN, "THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS IS THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY." REVELATION 19:10. {CET 243.5}
COMPARING THE BIBLE EXPRESSION, "THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS," WITH THE STATEMENT OF REVELATION 12:17 CONCERNING THE "REMNANT . . . WHICH KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, AND HAVE THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST," WE CONCLUDE THAT PRIOR TO CHRIST'S SECOND COMING HIS TRUE CHURCH WILL BE KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS, AND THAT THEY WILL HAVE THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. {CET 243.6}
THE RAPID FULFILLMENT OF THE PREDICTIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE REGARDING THE SIGNS AND EVENTS WHICH WERE TO MARK THE CLOSING SCENES OF EARTH'S HISTORY, IS A SURE EVIDENCE THAT WE ARE NOW LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS. THEREFORE A COMPANY OF CHRISTIAN PEOPLE WHO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AND WHO HAVE THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST--THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY--SHOULD TODAY BE IN EXISTENCE. WHERE MAY THEY BE FOUND? {CET 243.7}
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And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Rev. 19:10. {FLB 295.1}
Above all other books, the Word of God must be our study, the great textbook, the basis of all education. {FLB 295.2}
The Testimonies are not to belittle the Word of God, but to exalt it and attract minds to it, that the beautiful simplicity of truth may impress all. {FLB 295.3}
I took the precious Bible and surrounded it with the several Testimonies for the Church. . . . Here, said I, the cases of nearly all are met. The sins they are to shun are pointed out. The counsel that they desire can be found here, given for other cases situated similarly to themselves. God has been pleased to give you line upon line and precept upon precept. But there are not many of you that really know what is contained in the Testimonies. You are not familiar with the Scriptures. If you had made God's Word your study, with a desire to reach the Bible standard and attain to Christian perfection, you would not have needed the Testimonies. . . . {FLB 295.4}
The Lord designs to warn you, to reprove, to counsel, through the testimonies given, and to impress your minds with the importance of the truth of His Word. The written testimonies are not to give new light, but to impress vividly upon the heart the truths of inspiration already revealed. Man's duty to God and to his fellow man has been distinctly specified in God's Word; yet but few of you are obedient to the light given. Additional truth is not brought out; but God has through the Testimonies simplified the great truths already given and in His own chosen way brought them before the people to awaken and impress the mind with them, that all may be left without excuse. {FLB 295.5}
If we disregard them [the warnings in the Testimonies], what excuse can we offer?
{FLB 295.6}
Prove All Things
Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thess. 5:19-21. {FLB 296.1}
"In ancient times God spoke to men by the mouth of prophets and apostles. In these days He speaks to them by the testimonies of His Spirit. There was never a time when God instructed His people more earnestly than He instructs them now concerning His will and the course that He would have them pursue." {FLB 296.2}
The instruction that was given in the early days of the message is to be held as safe instruction to follow in these its closing days. {FLB 296.3}
Let the Testimonies be judged by their fruits. What is the spirit of their teaching? What has been the result of their influence? "All who desire to do so can acquaint themselves with the fruits of these visions. . . ." {FLB 296.4}
"This work is of God, or it is not. God does nothing in partnership with Satan. My work . . . bears the stamp of God or the stamp of the enemy. There is no halfway work in the matter. The Testimonies are of the Spirit of God, or of the devil." {FLB 296.5}
The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Prov. 29:18. Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and through different agencies, to unsettle the confidence of God's remnant people in the true testimony. He will bring in spurious visions, to mislead and mingle the false with the true, and so disgust people that they will regard everything that bears the name of visions, as a species of fanaticism; but honest souls, by contrasting false and true, will be enabled to distinguish between them. {FLB 296.6}
"When the Testimonies, which were once believed, are doubted and given up, Satan knows the deceived ones will not stop at this; and he redoubles his efforts till he launches them into open rebellion, which becomes incurable and ends in destruction.
{FLB 296.7}
Kingly Power. (Ed copied the whole letter - God is disgusted with men ruling men as though men were God. It's been going on for a long time. Insubordination to SOP is on of it's prominant features.- Ed Sutton's note)
(Verbatim report of remarks by Mrs. E. G. White, at a meeting held in Battle Creek College library, April 1, at the General Conference of 1901.) {SpM 162.3}
I would prefer not to speak today, but still not because I have nothing to say, because I have; I have something to say. And the state of things as has existed in our conference and the leading responsibilities are not nearly understood in their influence by themselves or by those that are taking responsibilities in the work. The work has been increasing; it has been growing; and from the light that I have had for some time, and has been expressed, has been expressed over and over again, not to all there are here, but has been expressed to individuals, and the plans that God would have all to work from, that never should one mind or two minds or three minds nor four minds, or a few minds I should say, be considered of sufficient wisdom and power to control and mark out plans and let it rest upon the minds of one or two or three in regard to this broad, broad field that we have; that we are not coming up to reach that high standard with the great and important truths that we are handling, that God expects us to reach. There are minds which must be brought into altogether more lively action than they are at the present time. And in reference to our conference, it is repeated o'er and o'er and o'er again, that it is the voice of God, and therefore everything must be referred to the Conference and have the conference voice in regard to permission or restriction or what shall be and what shall not be done in the various fields. {SpM 162.4}
Now from the light that I have, as it was presented to me in figures: There was a narrow compass here; there within that narrow is a king-like, kingly ruling power. Here the outlets are blocked. And the work all over our field demands an entirely different course of action than we have had. We have heard enough, abundance, about that "everything must go around in the regular way." When we see the regular lines are altered and purified and refined, and the God of the heavens mold is upon the regular lines, then it is our business to establish the regular lines. But when we see message after message that God has given has been accepted, but no change, just the same as it was before, then it is evident that new blood must be brought into the regular lines. The leaders of the regular lines, they must have and entire change, an entire new organization, and to have a committee that shall take in not merely half a dozen, that is to be a ruling and controlling power, but it is to have representatives of those that are placed in responsibility in our educational interests, in our Sanitariums, that are working, and the life in them, constantly at work, constantly adding, constantly giving to the field the talent that has come from it. {SpM 163.1}
And then the comparison that has been presented to me, where the fields are that have been opened; Where are the fields that have been opened here, the new fields in America? Where is it in California? Where is it here at the great heart of the work? And here are the two great centers - where is the wrestling to get new fields, whether it costs or whether it does not cost, whatever way it shall be? God has his treasures that he had given to the work. He has his treasures in the hills; he has his treasures in every place and in every country, and in all these countries, far and near, he wants to be an arousing, broadening, enlarging power. And a management which is getting confused in itself, not that anyone is wrong or means to be wrong, but the principle is wrong, and the principles have become so mixed and so fallen from what God's principles are, and the message has been coming constantly in regard to the principles, sacred, holy elevating, ennobling, in every institution, in the publishing houses, and in all the interests of the denomination, everything that concerns the handling of the work, it requires minds that are worked by the Holy Spirit of God; and unless that evidence is given, unless there is a power that shows that they are accepted by God to impart to the responsibilities that have to be handled, then there should be a renovation without any delay. To have this conference pass on and close up as the conferences have done, with the same manipulating, with the very same tone, and the same order,--God forbid! (Voices, "Amen") God forbid, brethren. (Voices, "Amen".) He wants every living soul that has a knowledge of the truth to come to their senses. He wants every living power to arouse; and we are just about the same thing as dead men. And it is time that we should arise and shine because our light has come, and the glory of the Lord has arisen upon us, and until this shall come we might just as well close up the conference today as any other day. {SpM 163.2}
But what we must have is the taking in of other minds. Where there are minds that have been at work, minds that have been at work in the same tone and in the same channel, they have become discouraged, and they have become confused. Well, now, we can not trust to such as that in such tremendous responsibilities as are going to be handled here. Why, from the light that God has given me, everything about this conference should be the most sacred. Why? Why, because it is to put ideas and plans and work upon its proper basis. And this thing has been continued and renewed for the last fifteen years of more, and God calls for a change. God wants that men of capabilities and of mind should understand there is a ladder for them to climb, round after round, and if they climb this ladder, round after round, why they will step off finally into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We want our course heavenward. And we want that all the selfishness, every thread of it, that has been woven into the pattern, that every thread of this selfishness is to be got out, and here is a work that, from the light that God has given me, it should stand, yes, a hundred per cent, higher than it stands today. {SpM 164.1}
Here are our enemies. Here are those Satanic agencies that are at work. There is a waking up on the part of every working agency. Let me tell you that the enemy is getting the victory all the time. God wants us to arouse. God wants us to take hold of this work, every human agency, and he wants us to work for time and for eternity. And treading over and over just the same ground - here are our churches, our large churches, and they ought to be turning out men, educating them and training, and disciplining, and there ought to be those that should connect with them here, bearing responsibilities that should go on into the fields to carry the message into the barren places - that have been, oh, so barren, especially the Southern field that is scarcely touched, notwithstanding the message has come from God for the last - I might say - well, I do not know how many years; it is quite a number of years. But those things have been told, and this standstill has got to come to an end. But yet every conference has woven after the same pattern. It is the very same loom that carries it, and finally, why, it will come to naught. {SpM 164.2}
Now God wants a change, and it is high time, it is high time that here was ability that should connect with the conference, with the General Conference, right here in this city; not wait until it is done, and then find, - not wait till it is all done and over with, and then gather up the forces and see what can be done. We want to know what can be done right here; we want to know what can be done right now, and what power and intellect that there is that shall be brought into this work, and that they shall unite their powers and take hold of it intelligently, and that God can work with them. {SpM 164.3}
Now this is what they want and you want, they every institution that bears a responsibility, bears a voice in the working of this cause. They have a decided interest in it, and God wants that we shall, every one, come into a position where that we shall work: that we will not lay off the burden upon two or three men, and let them carry it all. Brother Irwin will soon be where he can not work at all. He wants supporters, and he has been in this work of wrestling and discouragement until he should have a change. He should have some one come in his place, or he is going to give all out. It can not be. We must have responsible men, and we want men that shall stand just as true as the compass to the pole, and God will test these men, and unless they can show a better idea of what principle is, what sanctified and living and Christ-like principle is, then they will have to be changed and try another. {SpM 164.4}
But God is going to have a change. He wants us to know what it means to work on the principles of heaven. He wants that all of us should know what it means to stand in their lot, and stand in their place, and every soul that has had a responsibility, that they should have been workers, that they should have had these principles, that they should have had patience, just as it is reported "Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity." 2 Peter 1:5. Brethren, we all need these letters written and hung in the chambers of the mind, and to him that doeth these things,--if you live on this principle you will never fail; "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." {SpM 165.1}
Now God is in earnest with us, and he says he calls,--oh, I can not tell how it is. It is contemptible in the sight of God - contemptible. They pause for fear they are not going to get all that they ought to have, and it leaves a man where he can not - if he considers that as the principles of heaven, why, it leaves the man where he will never get to heaven. He can not get in there. The nobility, the generosity, the tenderness, the compassion, the love of Christ - why, they are as destituted of it as the hills of Gilboa, that had not dew nor rain - just as destitute of it, and we can not rouse them from it. Enough has been said, over and over and over again, but it did not make any difference. The light shone upon them, just the same, professedly accepting it, but they did not make any change. That is what frightens me. It frightens me because that I saw unless there was more tenderness, more compassion, more of the love of God - the Lord knew what he was talking about when he was talking to the church at Ephesus, "Ye have lost your first love," and tells them to repent speedily or he will remove the candlestick out of its place. What we want is to study all through John and see what is said about the love of God and the love that we should express, and that love has not been cultivated, and if it is not being cultivated the opposite attribute is being cultivated. Now it has not been cultivated in our institutions of publication, and when by every little sharpness that can be exercised by them, by which they think that they are going to gain a little something, they lose four-fold, yes, ten-fold in that little transaction, until the light will soon be moved out of its place. They don't know when it is for the interests of the institution, but God knoweth. Every one God knoweth, and should come right up to the help of the Lord, and to have a new creation of sentiment. Now God never will acquit us until that is there, until this is taught in our institutions, every one of them and God means what he says, "I want a change here." Will it be the same thing, going over and over the same ideas, the same committees--and here is the little throne: the king is in there, and these others are all secondary, those minds that are so much sharper because they have not been working on this narrow, conceited plane. {SpM 165.2}
I feel intensely in this matter. I do not want to talk here but I dare not hold my peace. I feel this condition. I think we should hold for the tenderness of God and break your hearts before him, and if you get where you can see these things clearly, you will see that God hates selfishness, and when we bring it into his cause, oh, it makes the crime a hundred fold greater. And when we bring that selfishness in, as though we were going to benefit the cause, we do not benefit it at all: it makes God ashamed of you. {SpM 166.1}
We are to be representatives of Jesus Christ; we are to be representatives of his character. We are so to do that we are carrying out the living principles in every line of action everywhere, in every country, everywhere, and in every place that there is anything to do with God's service. He will not accept common fire. He wants you to take sacred fire that he kindles on the divine altar, and he wants you to work, and that fire to consume all your commonness, all your intemperance, all your selfishness, all your cheap ideas, all your licentiousness, all this lust. He wants it taken away from a people that are trying to fashion a people to stand in the last great conflict, which is just before us. Self must be hid in God, and when self is hid in God, then will the Lord God appear, and not self. He will appear as the great worker, and when you think to improve upon God's plans by your narrowness, by your conceited ideas, and by your planning and grasping and thinking you are going to gain something,--and if you have not learned better than that now, you will have to learn. God wants that these committees that have been handling things for so long should be relieved of their command and have a chance for their life, and see if they can not get out of this rut that they are in,--which I have no hope of their getting out of, because the Spirit of God has been working, and working, and yet the king is there still. {SpM 166.2}
Now the Lord wants his Spirit to come in. He wants the Holy Ghost king. He wants everything of the sharpness, that it shall not be exercised toward outsiders, it shall not be exercised toward one that is trying to serve God and trying to exercise all his power to serve him, that is bringing his tithes here to sustain the ministry. He has a treasury, and that treasury is to be sustained by the tithe, and that tithe is to be a sacred tithe, and it is to be God's tithe, and that tithe is to be so liberal that it will sustain the work largely; each one to act in their capacity in such a way that the confidence of the whole people will be established in them, and that they will not be afraid, but see everything just as light as day until they are in connection with the work of God and the people. I know my husband used to work in that way. He would sit down with this man that he thought had good judgment, and with that man, and with the other man, and with another man - that was when the cause was young. He did not feel that he was capable of carrying the conference when it was very young. But he had these men, these committees, that were brought in from places all around. It was not just in Battle Creek, but it was in different places, that those that felt a responsibility for the work would go home and feel a larger responsibility for the work. To carry it on in right lines, in heaven's lines, in purity, in holiness, in uplifting, in solidity, to the glory of God, should be that which would make every one of us to be joyful and proud that God has given us the privilege to be co-workers with Jesus Christ. {SpM 166.3}
Now there is all that power that was pledged to us when we pledged ourselves to God. That power that all the provision was made in heaven, all the facilities, all the riches of the grace of God was to be imparted to every worker that was connected with the cause; and every one of these are wholly dependent upon God, and when we leave God out of the question, and leave Jesus Christ out of the question, and allow hereditary and cultivated traits of character to come, let me tell you, we are on very slippery grounds. We are making, not straight paths for our feet, but crooked paths that the lame shall be turned out of the way - and we can not afford it. It has cost too much to heaven to give us Jesus; it has cost too much to heaven for Christ to lay aside his royal robe, to lay aside his royal crown, and to step down from his high command, the Prince of Life and Glory, in order that he might make himself in humanity, and in order that he might the better combine the human with the divine, as the stepping-stone for man to step on. It was not humanity, but humanity and divinity combined, and that man could step on that stepping-stone, and that he would be on vantage ground with God, because of the perfume - because of the holy sanctified character of God imbues the life of every soul that eats of the Bread of Life and drinks of the water of salvation. And every one that eats of Christ, that takes his word and practices it, should have eternal life. It is in him, because it is in Christ, and Christ is in him. Now here is the way the matter is presented. But when there is a, "I don't care; I am going right contrary to the law that God has given in his Word, I don't ask him to take my word, I don't ask him to do it,"-- {SpM 167.1}
Lay Sister White right to one side: lay her to one side. Don't you never quote my words again as long as you live, until you can obey the Bible. When you take the Bible and make that your food, and your meat, and your drink, and make that the elements of your character, when you can do that you will know better how to receive some counsel from God. But here is the Word, the precious Word, exalted before you today. And don't you give a rap any more what "Sister White said"-- "Sister White said this," and "Sister White said that," and "Sister White said the other thing." But say, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel," and then you do just what the Lord God of Israel does, and what he says, {SpM 167.2}
Christ says, "I do the works of my Father. The works that I saw him do, I do." Now the works and the sentiments and the principles that we have seen, that God has manifest in dealing with one another, the purchase of the blood of Christ - only think of it. Here we are, the purchase of the blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You just think of it. It cost his life. He was crucified for us, and yet here is the very instrumentality that God would have stand next to heaven, that God would have stand where the light of His glory can shine upon them in unmistakable rays, and they know that the light of heaven is with them. It is no emotion, but it is a living faith that is founded on a living Word and a living God, and the Saviour, who proclaimed over the sepulcher of Joseph. "I am the resurrection and the life." {SpM 167.3}
He wants you to eat his principles: to live his principles; - but those that are there now never will appreciate it. They have had their test, they have had their trial, they have had their warnings, and now there must be a change. Give them an opportunity to go out and see what it means to wrestle in the grace of God as some of his workmen have. Let them see what it means to build up. Let them go into the waste places of earth; let them begin to see what it means to establish things out of nothing. When they do this, they will understand that God hath his servants, his church, established in the earth, composed of many members, but of one body; that in every part of the work one part must work as connected with another part, and that with another part, and with another part, and these are joined together by the golden links of heaven, and there is to be no kings here in their midst at all. There is to be no man that has the right to put his hand out and say, No, you can not go there; we won't support you if you go there. Why, what have you to do with supporting? Did they create the means? The means come from the people, and those who are destitute fields. The voice of God has told me to instruct them to go the people and to tell them their necessities, and to draw all the people to work just where they can find a place to work, to build up the work in every place they can. {SpM 168.1}
There is a work to be done. And we want to know if you have been doing the work, with your committees. Here are the committees: where are the monuments? As we look over the cities, where are the monuments? Where, I ask you, are the churches that are left to glorify God? There are the workers. I thank God that there is a work going on, and I thank God for the medical missionary work, and every soul that shall obtain that education in connection with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, God will call for you. God has a place for you. And those that are laboring for the youth in any line in our schools, in the sanitariums, and wherever they are at work, don't you put one stone in their way! The Lord has revealed that he will work with those who work. {SpM 168.2}
Ye are laborers together with God. Where are the churches? My heart ached when I was in California. There are young men traveling around and around in the churches, but where is the power, where is the power to open the fields for them, and to say, Here we are, not to stay with the people that know the truth, here is a field that knows nothing about it, and this field is to be converted and educated, as far as they will yield to the truth. But the seeds of the truth must be sown. Lift up your heads, for the fields are all ripe with the harvest. But he wanted them to look at it; and he wanted them to see; and he wants everyone of you to see it and to fill your hands full. But these who travel from place to place, and from place to place, to to look after the churches, God help you by giving you the spirit of the message, that your souls shall yearn after other souls, and you will not let go until they are converted. This is the work we want to see done, and until that spirit comes in and takes hold of every mind in every conference that they are conducting, that they are elevating the very light that should be elevated,--health reform - that they are elevating by their self-denial and self-sacrifice. {SpM 168.3}
Oh my soul, how it has hurt me to have the blocks thrown in the way in regard to myself. They will tell you that Sister White did this, or Sister White did that,--for instance, "Sister White ate cheese, and so we are all at liberty to eat cheese." Who told them that I ate cheese? I never have cheese on my table. There was one time when I was at Minneapolis, one or two times I tasted it, but that is a different thing from making it a diet, entirely a different thing. I have tasted of very bitter herbs on special occasions, but I would not make a diet of them. But there was a special occasion in Minneapolis where I could get nothing else, and there were some small bits of cheese on the table, and my brethren were there, and one of them had told me that if I would eat a little of that it would change my condition, and I did. I took a bit of that cheese, and I do not think I touched it again the second time. {SpM 169.1}
Another says, "Sister White drinks tea, and we can drink tea." Who of my brethren has made that statement? Who has ever heard it of me? I never have tea in my home or set it before anyone. Now I have not eaten any meat for years and years. {SpM 169.2}
Now for instance some one may tell you that Sister White don't eat meat. "Now I want you not to eat it, because Sister White doesn't eat it." Well, I wouldn't care a farthing for anything like that. If you haven't got a better conviction, that you won't eat meat just because Sister White don't eat it, I would not give one farthing for your health reform. But I want that every one of you shall stand on your individual dignity, in your individual consecration to God, that the soul temple shall be dedicated to God. Whosoever defileth the temple of God, him will God destroy. Now I want you to see these things, and not to make any human being your criterion. {SpM 169.3}
What you want is this: You have got a body here, wonderfully made, and you want that that body should be, oh, so carefully dealt with. I have seen, it has been represented to me, the finest machinery was in this body - and a good thing we can carry too far, like inhaling too much and swelling out. God did not make these precious organs to be swelled like a balloon. He never made them for that, and he wants every living soul to deal with this machinery as God's machinery, that they must keep in perfect order to keep the brain power all right. The brain must work, and every burden you put upon your stomach which should not be in your stomach will just becloud the brain. You go into a conference like this - you sit down and eat hearty meals and neglect to exercise, and then come into the conference meeting, and you are all sleepy; your ideas are not good for anything, and you really do not know what you are consenting to, {SpM 169.4}
Now God wants every soul here to sharpen up. He wants every soul here should have his converting power. You need not refer, not once, to Sister White; I don't ask you to do it. God has told me that my testimony must be borne straight to this conference, and I am not to try to make a soul believe; that my work is to leave the truth with human minds, and those having found the truth in the Word of God will appreciate it, and will appreciate every day the ray of light that God has given for poor lame souls, that they should not be turned out of the way, and I want you to make straight the paths for your feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. {SpM 170.1}
Now we want that in the Conference we shall have the ability that God has given unto Dr. Kellogg - I don't suppose he is here - I don't know that he is, at any rate-
(Voice: "Yes, he is here.")
I can't see without my congregational glasses - but I want to say the Lord wants you to make the most of the capabilities that he is using in every part of the work. He does not mean the medical missionary work separated from the gospel work, nor the gospel work separated from the medical missionary work. He wants them to blend together, and he wants that this educating power of the medical missionary work shall be considered as the pioneer work, the breaking-up plow, for the breaking down of the prejudices that have existed and that nothing will break down like it; and God wants every soul to stand shoulder to shoulder with Dr. Kellogg. He has become all but desperate, and came nearly - almost losing his life because of the positions that have been taken, and everyone throwing a stone right before the car so that it should not advance. Now God wants the health and missionary work to advance. He wants God's work to be carried on. {SpM 170.2}
Really, when I came here I did not know what to do. Courteously Dr. Kellogg had asked me to come to his house and let them give me treatment a week or two before the conference, that I should be able to attend the conference. Then came up the question, Here, what about this? They will say that Dr. Kellogg has manipulated you. Let them say it if they want to; they have said it enough when there was not a particle of ground for it. But I was going to take all the difficulty out of the way: so I sent word, "Find me a place." Dr. Kellogg has kindly opened his place to me, but to remove all occasion for talk I decided that I would not go there. Now find me a place. On Friday night I was knelt in prayer, saying, "O Lord, tell me where to go and what to do." There I had been sick, and was still sick - and, why, I didn't choose to come to Battle Creek to the conference was, that I knew it would be a terrible trial for me. This is the third winter I am passing through. I passed through one in Australia, one in California, and I am passing the third here. And now you can judge that all this tells upon my system. Then the heated houses, where there was no more need for having it heated than there was in California; but they were heated, and so brought me down into a terrible condition of malaria, and I have had it here ever since Christmas, and then the very crisis came when I was at Los Angeles, and there I knew nothing - after I had been speaking on Sunday I didn't know anything more until two o'clock the next morning, when I found them all working over me - and I didn't know anything about it, or about what had been done, or anything about it; and then it was that the fullness that I had, had in my head passed through the whole channel of the body. And that brought on the bloody flux, and I have been traveling all this time up to the time I came here, with that terrible disorder, the bloody flux. I couldn't sit up at all, only lie down all the time - and yet I have not disappointed a single place but one since leaving Los Angeles. I got up, stood on my feet, and the strength of God helped me up. At Vicksburg I spoke twice, at Nashville I spoke twice, at Memphis I spoke once, and at Chicago I spoke twice and God helped me to speak, and then I came here, and I have been speaking ever since I came here. {SpM 170.3}
Now you see I was afraid of all this, and I didn't want to sacrifice my life, and so I said that I couldn't come here. I couldn't come across the plains. I was afraid. I nearly melted the tendons during the cold weather when I was traveling, because of a heated coil running right under where I was lying on the way across from Australia. So I said I couldn't come. Then they said they would have the conference in Oakland. But in the night season I was talking to you just as I am here today. I was bearing a message night after night and night after night, and then I would get up and write it out, and I would get up at 12 o'clock, and 2 o'clock, and write out the message that I had. And it was then, while I was considering these things, that there came messages from London, that they had hoped they could see me and meet me, but now they couldn't come so far, and it cost so much and I heard it would cost from five to eight thousand dollars more, and then I said, "We have got no such money to spare, and if I sacrifice my life, I will try it, anyway." {SpM 171.1}
Well, Dr. Kellogg never persuaded me at all to come here. When I spoke of the particulars, the cold weather, "Why," he said, "would it make any difference if," - the only words he spoke to me - would it make any difference if the conference could be changed to a few weeks later?" I said, "It would". Then I began to think on that plan, after he had gone. Well, we knelt down to pray, and I was asking the Lord where I should go and what I should do. I was backing out and not going. Sarah says, "You are not fit to go anywhere, you are not fit to go anywhere. {SpM 171.2}
Well, while I was praying and was sending up my petition there was, as at other times - I saw a light circling right around in the room, and a fragrance like the fragrance of flowers, and the beautiful scent of flowers, and then the voice seemed to speak gently, and said that I was to "accept the invitation of my servant, John Kellogg, and make his house my home." Then the word was, "I have appointed him as my physician. You can be an encouragement to him." That is why I am here, and that is why I am at his home. {SpM 171.3}
Now I want in every way possible, If I can, to treat Dr. Kellogg as God appointed me his physician, and I am going to do it. And I want that my brethren, that they should unite. "They say, they say, they say." You just put the "They says" right away from you. Watch, saith the Lord, to hear what He will say. You look to the Lord, and don't you look to any human power and get their mind, for they are nothing but human, they are nothing but evil; but you just look to the Lord God of Israel, and He will give you understanding, and He will give you knowledge. But you are not to lean your helpless soul on any other human being. You have got a character to form for your own individual self, and that character God has given every encouragement should be after God's order. {SpM 171.4}
Now in addition to this that I tell you, the next night - that night I slept happy, very happy. The whole family was melted and broken down. They knew nothing of what I had in my mind at all, nothing at all that I had seen, but the Spirit of God was there. They were all weeping and broken, and the blessing of God had taken hold upon us, and Sister Druillard was praising God, and we all there had an outpouring of the Spirit of God. Such things are more precious to me than the gold of Ophir. {SpM 172.1}
Now I want to say, for Christ's sake, let's unify. Let us put away - we can not reform our selves by putting our fingers on somebody else's wrongs and think that is going to cover our own. God says we must love one another. God says, "I hate your false weights and your false measures. But he tells us that he knows us, in every testimony that he has given in other cases. It is the Lord who wants us to come into the closest connection with Him. You know He told Cornelius all about where Peter was. He knew just where to look, and he told him all about these things - how he was with one who was a tanner - and here it was all worked out. The Angel of God could have told Cornelius all about this message, but no, God's church must connect together, and the law that God imparted to Peter was to be imparted to Cornelius and all his family. Now that is what God wants, and he speaks to every one of us to come to him, and while we are as weak as we are, because we are crippling over somebody else. Now let the Lord God of Israel come into our place. Give him room. Give him place, and let us begin to exercise the love of God in our hearts instead of hatred. Just as soon as you begin to build up yourself, you begin to hate others. God help us to come into right positions and I believe he is here today. If I didn't believe he was here, I would not be saying the things I have said. But I believe you can take these things home to your hearts. {SpM 172.2}
And there must be a heart work done here. Not doing nothing, but work right out on Christ's principles, and when you work on the principles of heaven you see the salvation of God revealed, and God wants you to stand ready to strike. He wants you to open the windows heavenward and close them earthward. He wants the salvation of God to be revealed. He wants the medical missionary work and the gospel combined and bound up together just as fast together that they will be inseparable. And he wants that this work shall blend, and that there should be a united whole with this people. He wants the talent that is in Dr. Kellogg; he wants the talent that is in the school; he wants that which is in every institution to be connected with the management of his work and his churches. He does not want two or three minds to set themselves as kings and the rest of them to be managed by these two or three minds. He wants that there shall be committees that are holding a part in every part of his work. And then the medical missionary work you understand will be wrought upon a higher grade than it has ever been wrought before. God wants it wrought. I have seen people ready to. "Why," some say, "why, they have had more than their proportion, more than others have had in Australia." We have had none too much, only we ought to have had ten times what we had to begin with, that we could establish something that would be an entrance, something that would be a pioneer to the work. That will take everywhere. There is no use to shut it down, it will take everywhere. There is not a place but what medical missionary work will take, and it will open the way for the gospel. Now God has not blessed us as He would have blessed us had there been an appreciation of the work that he is carrying on. I thank God that Dr. Kellogg has not sunk into despondency and infidelity. I have been afraid of it, and I have written some very straight things to him, and it may be, Dr. Kellogg (if he is here), that I have written too strong, for I felt as though I must get hold of you and hold you by the power of all the might I had. {SpM 172.3}
But I have seen the work, I have seen the work that has been carried on, and how can anybody see it and not see that God is at work? That is the mystery to me. I can not understand it. I can not explain it. That those that shall have any knowledge of the work wrought here, should be the men that should represent it, that they should stand to give character to the work, and to the higher classes, that they may be reached. And every soul of you ought to feel honored before God that he has given you instrumentalities that the higher classes may be reached, and that the wealthy classes should be reached. You should feel to thank God for the honor that He has bestowed. And I want to say that I want to take hold to the utmost of my ability. Well, I have done the very best that I could in the medical missionary line. We have helped - But I won't tell you. I won't say anything about it more, but I want to tell you we have found poverty that we have had to relieve clear up to the last moment when we left Australia. It has been poverty, poverty, poverty all the way through that we have met with everywhere. But I thank God that His blessing has accomplished it. {SpM 173.1}
And now I think that for the present time I have said enough. But God's ministers must come into altogether a different position. They must be evangelists. They must be medical missionaries. They must take hold of the work intelligently. They must press the work into far-off places - and it is of no use to think they are doing it if God has given us a work in connection with the gospel, and they drop that work and take up the gospel, then you need not expect that you are going to be filled with intensity because you have not more than one-half of the facilities that God wants you to have. {SpM 173.2}
But the Lord loves you yet. Now let us praise God for that. Now let us take hold of the work in a new way. Let us take hold of the work with heart and mind and soul. Do not pick flaws any more. If I see a lot of buzzards, and I see a lot of vultures that are watching and waiting for dead bodies,--and we don't want anything of that. We want no picking of flaws in others. Attend to No. 1, and you got all that you
can do. If you attend to No. 1, and if you purify your souls by obeying the truth, you will have something to impart. You will have a power to give to others. God help you; I beseech of him to help you, every one of you, and to help me. I want help; I want strength. {SpM 173.3}
But don't you quote Sister White. I don't want you ever to quote Sister White until you get your vantage ground where you know where you are. Quote the Bible. Talk the Bible. It is full of meat, full of fatness. Carry it right out in your life, and you will know more Bible than you know now. You will have fresh matter - O, you will have precious matter; you won't be going over and over the same ground, and you will see a world saved. You will see souls for whom Christ has died. And I ask you to put on the armor, every piece of it, and be sure that your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel. {SpM 174.1}
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Edward F Sutton
