Manuscript Releases, vol. 10 [Nos. 771-850]

MR No. 793—Ellen White Acknowledges Her Need of Divine Help

Ellen White Met Objections With a Spirit of Candor—[Petaluma] Monday, January 6, 1873. Brother and Sister Cassidy urged us to remain and have an interview with Brother Bowman, whose mind was considerably troubled about the visions. We decided to do so, and Elder Loughborough would go on with the team to Santa Rosa. We had a very profitable interview. We gave due weight to his objections, and met them with a spirit of candor. His mind was much relieved.... 10MR 65.1

Ellen White Preaches About Christ Despite Her Literary Imperfections—[San Francisco] Saturday, January 11, 1873. We rested well last night. This Sabbath morning opens cloudy. My mind is coming to strange conclusions. I am thinking I must lay aside my writing I have taken so much pleasure in, and see if I cannot become a scholar. I am not a grammarian. I will try, if the Lord will help me, at forty-five years old to become a scholar in the science. God will help me. I believe He will. 10MR 65.2

[Several hours later]: We had a well-filled house. There were several strangers out to hear. We were pleased to see Sister Roper and Billet and one of their Presbyterian sisters. Elder Loughborough spoke from Jeremiah 29:11. He was free and his subject very interesting. He applied the text with considerable force to the preparation for the coming of the Lord. 10MR 65.3

I then spoke upon Luke 21:34-36. I spoke of the sacrifice made by Christ for us and His bearing the test Adam failed to endure in Eden. He stood in Adam's place. He took humanity, and with divinity and humanity combined He could reach the race with His human arm while His divine arm grasped the Infinite. His name was the link which united man to God and God to man.—Manuscript 3, 1873, 3, 5, 6. (Entries in Ellen White's Diary.) 10MR 65.4

The Lord Jesus Our Only Dependence—We feel that a very solemn stage is now reached in the work in this country. We dare not touch the ark, we now want the Lord to lead and guide in the matter before us. He will do the work. It is His, and we do not desire to run ahead of Christ. We want the leading of our Captain. Oh, how weak we feel as we cast a glance at ourselves! I am like a broken reed. The Lord Jesus is our only dependence.... 10MR 66.1

I walk with trembling before God. I know not how to speak or trace with pen the large subject of the atoning sacrifice. I know not how to present subjects in the living power in which they stand before me. I tremble for fear lest I shall belittle the great plan of salvation by cheap words. I bow my soul in awe and reverence before God and say, “Who is sufficient for these things?” How can I talk, how can I write to my brethren so that they will catch the beams of light flashing from heaven? What shall I say? ... 10MR 66.2

Oh, that the Lord would awaken those who are in responsible positions, lest they undertake to do work relying upon their own smartness. The work that comes forth from their hands will lack the mold and superscription of Christ. Selfishness marks all that unconsecrated workers do. They have need to pray always, but they do not. They have need to watch unto prayer. They have need to feel the sacredness of the work, but they do not feel this. They handle sacred things as they do common things. 10MR 66.3

Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and until they can drink of the water of life and Christ be in them as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life, they will refresh no one, bless no one. Except they repent, their candlestick will be removed out of its place.—Letter 40, 1892, pp. 2, 4, 5. (To O. A. Olsen, June 15, 1892, from Preston, Victoria, Australia.) 10MR 67.1

God Grants Wisdom to Those Who Diligently Study His Word—“Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven” (Daniel 2:17-19). Here the interpretation was made known to Daniel. 10MR 67.2

The close application of those Hebrew students under the training of God was richly rewarded. While they made diligent effort to secure knowledge, the Lord gave them heavenly wisdom. The knowledge they gained was of great service to them when brought into strait places. The Lord God of heaven will not supply the deficiencies that result from mental and spiritual indolence. 10MR 67.3

When the human agents shall exercise their faculties to acquire knowledge, to become deep thinking [students]: when they, as the greatest witnesses for God and the truth, shall have won, in the field of investigation of vital doctrines concerning the salvation of the soul, that glory may be given to the God of heaven as supreme, then even judges and kings will be brought to acknowledge in the courts of justice, in parliaments and councils, that the God who made the heavens and the earth is the only true and living God, the Author of Christianity, the Author of all truth, who instituted the Seventh-day Sabbath when the foundations of the world were laid, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. All nature will bear testimony as designed, for the illustration of the Word of God.... 10MR 67.4

God is revealed in nature, God is revealed in His Word. The Bible is the most wonderful of all histories, for it is the production of God, not of the finite mind. It carries us back through the centuries to the beginning of all things, presenting the history of times and scenes which would otherwise never have been known. It reveals the glory of God in the working of His providence to save a fallen world. It presents in the simplest language the mighty power of the gospel, which received would cut the chains that bind men in slavery to Satan's chariot.—Letter 67, 1894, pp. 4, 5, 7. (To W. W. Prescott, January 18, 1894, from Middle Brighton Camp Ground, Australia.) 10MR 68.1

White Estate

Washington, D. C.,

June 23, 1980.