Ellen G. White: The Australian Years: 1891-1900 (vol. 4)

Dealing with Differences

I have received letters from different points telling the sad, discouraging results of these things. We have opposition enough from our foes, and we shall have conflicts fierce and strong; let us not now cause Satan to glory because of the pitched battles within our own ranks. The unity for which our Saviour prayed should be brought into our practical life. 4BIO 65.3

After devoting several pages urging unity, in the words of the apostle Paul she urged: “I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing.” She admonished that “this is not a time for brother to cherish prejudice against brother. Put not into our enemies’ hands anything that bears the least suggestions of differences among us, even in opinion.” 4BIO 65.4

Then she put her finger on what appears to have been the cause behind the situation she was dealing with: 4BIO 65.5

The conference at Minneapolis was the golden opportunity for all present to humble the heart before God and to welcome Jesus as the great Instructor, but the stand taken by some at that meeting proved their ruin. They have never seen clearly since, and they never will, for they persistently cherish the spirit that prevailed there, a wicked, criticizing, denunciatory spirit. Yet since that meeting, abundant light and evidence has been graciously given, that all might understand what is truth. 4BIO 65.6

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 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. 4BIO 65.7

In this communication Ellen White addressed herself to the loss that had come to the cause of God because of the resistance on the part of some at the Minneapolis General Conference session to the presentations of truth made there, and the burden thus placed on the Lord's messengers that tended to divert them from aggressive work in the field. 4BIO 66.1

Ellen White had just written of her amazement of what God had wrought in the advancement of the cause, and that we have nothing to fear for the future unless we forget. Yet she sensed the presence of situations that gave her concern: 4BIO 66.2

The Lord designed that the messages of warning and instruction given through the Spirit to His people should go everywhere. But the influence that grew out of the resistance of light and truth at Minneapolis tended to make of no effect the light God had given to His people through the testimonies. Great Controversy ... has not had the circulation that it should have had, because some of those who occupy responsible positions were leavened with the spirit that prevailed at Minneapolis, a spirit that clouded the discernment of the people of God The dullness of some and the opposition of others have confined our strength and means largely among those who know the truth, but do not practice its principles. 4BIO 66.3

Then she penned the following startling words—words that answer in part the question as to why Christ has not yet come: 4BIO 66.4

If every soldier of Christ had done his duty, if every watchman on the walls of Zion had given the trumpet a certain sound, the world might ere this have heard the message of warning. But the work is years behind. What account will be rendered to God for thus retarding the work? 4BIO 66.5

She appealed to the church for sacrifice and dedication: Eternity is to be kept in view; troublous days are ahead. 4BIO 66.6

The appeal closed with the words “Our work is plainly laid down in the Word of God. Christian is to be united to Christian, church to church, the human instrumentality cooperating with the divine, every agency to be subordinate to the Holy Spirit, and all to be combined in giving to the world the good tidings of the grace of God.”—Manuscript 1, 1893 (see also Ibid., 1893, 419, 420). 4BIO 67.1