Manuscript Releases, vol. 4 [Nos. 210-259]

The Genesis of Movements Toward Consolidation, Confederacies, Trade Unions and Secret Societies

[Six weeks after the General Conference session at which Ellen White called for the moving of our institutions away from Battle Creek, she again made reference to the destruction of the institutions at Battle Creek and makes mention of trade unions, as she traces back to its source the development of confederacies.] 4MR 83.3

Dear Brethren,

I have a message for you. The Lord is in earnest with His people. I expected that great humiliation of heart would follow the manifestation of the Lord's displeasure in the destruction of the principal buildings of our two largest institutions. But how little influence this has had to bring humiliation and repentance. God's people have dishonored Him, and their hearts have become so unimpressible that even when He speaks in judgment, they make no decided change. 4MR 84.1

Evil entered in the heavenly courts through the angel who, next to Christ, occupied the most exalted position. Lucifer was the first of the covering cherubs, holy and undefiled. Of him it is said, “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering.... Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” 4MR 84.2

But though honored above all the heavenly host, Lucifer was not content with his position. He ventured to covet the homage due alone to the Creator. He cherished feelings of envy, and these feelings he communicated to the other angels. It was his endeavor to secure to himself their service and loyalty. In so deceptive a way did he work that the sentiments that he inculcated could not be dealt with until they had developed in the minds of those who received them.... 4MR 84.3

The influence of mind on mind, so strong a power for good when sanctified, is equally strong for evil in the hands of those opposed to God. This power Satan used in his work of instilling evil into the minds of the angels, and he made it appear that he was seeking the good of the universe. As the anointed cherub, Lucifer had been highly exalted; he was greatly loved by the heavenly beings, and his influence over them was strong. Many of them listened to his suggestions and believed his words. “And there was war in heaven; Michael and His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.” 4MR 85.1

Cast out of heaven, Satan set up his kingdom in this world, and ever since, he has been untiringly striving to seduce human beings from their allegiance to God. He uses the same power that he used in heaven—the influence of mind on mind. Men become tempters of their fellow men. The strong, corrupting sentiments of Satan are cherished, and they exert a masterly, compelling power. Under the influence of these sentiments, men bind up with one another in confederacies, in trades unions, and in secret societies. There are at work in the world agencies that God will not much longer tolerate. 4MR 85.2

In a milder form the same evil and the same spirit has been introduced into our institutions. The Lord opened the matter to me, showing me that the wrong was of the same character as that introduced into heaven. It was Satan who was working to bring in certain influences to bind different interests under one control. This was not in harmony with God's will, and He declared that He would not sanction anything of the kind. 4MR 85.3

This work was first started in the Review and Herald office. Things were swayed first in one way and then in another. It was the enemy of our work who prompted the call for the consolidation of the publishing work under one controlling power in Battle Creek. 4MR 86.1

Then the idea gained favor that the medical missionary work would be greatly advanced if all our medical institutions and other medical missionary interests were bound up under the control of the medical association at Battle Creek. I was told that I must lift my voice in warning against this. We were not to be under the control of men who could not control themselves, and who were not willing to be amenable to God. We were not to be guided by men who want their word to be the controlling power. The development of the desire to control has been very marked, and God sent warning after warning, forbidding confederacies and consolidation. He warned us against binding ourselves to fulfill certain agreements that would be presented by men laboring to control the movements of their brethren.... 4MR 86.2

We are church members, believers in the Bible, and we are not to make the Lord Jesus ashamed to call us brethren, because we have no confidence in one another. We are to be afraid of those who have little confidence in their fellow-workers, and who demand that they should be bound about by agreements and restrictions, which can be misinterpreted and used to do harm. Should they in the future be turned from their integrity, they would take advantage of some wording that those who signed the documents did not at the time comprehend.—Letter 114, 1903, pp. 1-4. (To the leaders in our work, May 23, 1903.) 4MR 86.3

[On Thursday, June 18, 1903, the California Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association was meeting in the chapel at the St. Helena Sanitarium, Elder A. T. Jones was in the chair. Ellen G. White had been asked to address the group at the morning meeting. First she spoke of unity among workers, then of the work to be done by medical missionaries in association with gospel workers. Then she turned to the distinctive nature of our work. We present this phase of her presentation given in the report of the meeting under the subheading “Called Out from the World:” This is followed by counsel on the responsibilities of medical missionary workers, a review of the times in which we live, and an appeal for high standards among Seventh-day Adventist church members.] 4MR 87.1

The wicked are being bound up in bundles, bound up in trusts, in unions, in confederacies. Let us have nothing to do with these organizations. God is our ruler, our governor, and He calls us to come out from the world and be separate. “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.” If we refuse to do this, if we continue to link up with the world, and to look at every matter from a worldly standpoint, we shall become like the world. When worldly policy and worldly ideas govern our transactions, we cannot stand on the high and holy platform of eternal truth. 4MR 87.2

God promises that if we will separate ourselves from the world, He will receive us, and will be a Father unto us, and we shall be His sons and daughters. Shall we not separate ourselves from the world, and claim this sacred relationship now, that when our Father comes He may acknowledge us as His children?—Manuscript 71, 1903, 5. (“To Every Man His Work,” E. G. White talk, June 18, 1903.) 4MR 87.3

[In a letter written September 19, 1903, to Elder George I. Butler, former president of the General Conference, and after a period of ten or twelve years in retirement as he cared for his ailing wife, now the president of the Southern Union Conference, Ellen White counseled the importance of loyalty to the Spirit of Prophecy and of following the counsels of health reform. She points out the strange situation of those “who claim to believe the truth” yet “persistently disregard light and evidence.” She urges Elder Butler to guard his strength and not be too quick to hear rumors. Then in one paragraph she makes the solemn statement we give here. The closing part of the letter deals with institutions in the Southern Union.] 4MR 87.4

Satan will do that which will close the Southern field against the truth, if the Lord does not interpose. And the trade unions will be one of the agencies that will bring upon this earth a time of trouble such as has not been since the world began.—Letter 200, 1903, p. 3. (To Elder G. I. Butler, September 10, 1903.) 4MR 88.1

[In early 1904 the question of finding sites for medical institutions in Southern California was uppermost. On January 8, 1904, Ellen White urged country locations to avoid the controlling power of labor unions. The entire document is devoted to the advantages to both patients and employees of country locations for sanitariums.] 4MR 88.2

I have read the letters that have been written to me regarding sanitarium sites in southern California, and I will now try to write some things that have been presented to me for you. 4MR 88.3

The furnished building in Pomona, offered for twenty-five thousand dollars, is in some respects favorable for sanitarium work. In other respects it does not answer to the representation given me of what our sanitariums should be. More land would be needed. The time is fast coming when the controlling power of the labor unions will be very oppressive. 4MR 88.4

Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions; for in the future the problem of buying and selling will be a very serious one. We should now begin to heed the instruction given us over and over again: Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where you will be free from the interference of enemies.—Letter 5, 1904, p. 1. (To “The Brethren and Sisters Connected With the Medical Work in Southern California,” January 8, 1904.) 4MR 88.5

[On February 21, 1904, Ellen White wrote to her son William, and in eight pages dealt with many matters. The letter closed with the two paragraphs given here.] 4MR 89.1

Last night I slept only three hours, from eight to eleven. Oh, how my soul longs to see the people of God zealous in repentance. I entreat them to prepare to meet their God. Can they not see in the rapid growth of trades unions, the fulfilling of the signs of the times? Those forming the labor unions are determined to have their own way. Violence and death mean nothing to them if their unions are opposed. The spirit is working in those who profess to believe the truth, but who, because they do not live the truth, are always in contention. 4MR 89.2

The judgments of God are in the land. The wars and rumors of wars, the destruction by fire and flood, say clearly that the time of trouble which is to increase until the end, is already in the world.—Letter 93, 1904, pp. 7, 8. (To W. C. White, February 21, 1904.) 4MR 89.3

[Two days later, February 23, 1904, in writing to her son Edson, then laboring in the South, she discussed the work and workers at Huntsville, and then turned to the work before us and coming conditions. Three paragraphs of the letter are pertinent. The key sentence was published in The Southern Missionary of 1904 on page 50.] 4MR 89.4

There is a great work before us. The enemy has succeeded in occupying the minds of those who believe the truth for this time, and hindrance after hindrance has been placed in the way of the advancement of God's work. The work in the Southern field should be fifteen years in advance of what it now is. Warning after warning has been given, saying that the time to work the Southern field was fast passing, and that soon this field would be much more difficult to work. It will be more difficult in the future than it is today. Satanic agencies are becoming more determined in their rebellion against God. The trades unions will be the cause of the most terrible violence that has ever been seen among human beings. 4MR 90.1

The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth, and unrepentant sinners are being left to the control of the enemy, to the destiny that they themselves have chosen. Those who persist in violating the holy Sabbath of the Lord, set apart by Him as a day of rest, will soon see that God will punish the transgressors of His law. Men are to reap as they have sown. 4MR 90.2

God stands at the helm. He is calling upon His people to come into harmony, to remain no longer in strife and disunion.—Letter 99, 1904, p. 3. (To Edson and Emma White, February 23, 1904.) 4MR 90.3

[In April, 1906, a few days after the san francisco earthquake, Ellen White prepared a general manuscript under the title of “The Judgments of God.” she recounted the falling of God's judgments upon the antediluvian world, upon Egypt's armies as Israel was delivered, and the destruction of Jerusalem. in the setting of the retributions which must come from God, she assigns as one of the reasons the “power that man has taken unto himself,” and she mentions “man-made unions” and oppressive power.] 4MR 90.4

I am bidden to declare the message that cities full of transgression, and sinful in the extreme, will be destroyed by earthquakes, by fire, by flood. All the world will be warned that there is a God who will display His authority as God. His unseen agencies will cause destruction, devastation, and death. All the accumulated riches will be as nothingness. 4MR 90.5

Notwithstanding the scientific care with which men safeguard buildings from destruction, one touch of the great and rightful Ruler will bring to nothingness the idolatrous possessions that have been laid up in a sightly and magnificent display. The devices of men will come to naught. 4MR 91.1

The injustice in our world, the masterly power man has taken unto himself, the oppressive, man-made unions that bring confusion and violence and strife, and the manipulation of a power to rule men and to acquire means through underhand deceptions—these conditions God cannot pass by with silence. Those who are under the influence and teaching of the great deceiver will find that, although God has borne long with their deceptive acuteness, He has not been deceived, and He will reward every transgressor according to his works. He keeps a strict account of every lie framed, and when He takes matters in His hand, He will deal in accordance with every man's secret and hidden devising. 4MR 91.2

Bible history is to be repeated. Calamities will come—calamities most awful, most unexpected; and these destructions will follow one after another. If there will be a heeding of the warnings that God has given, and if churches will repent, returning to their allegiance, then other cities may be spared for a time. But if men who have been deceived continue in the same way in which they have been walking, disregarding the law of God, and presenting falsehoods before the people, God allows them to suffer calamity, that their senses may be awakened.—Manuscript 35, 1906. (“Adopting Infant Children,” General manuscript bearing date of April 27, 1906.) 4MR 91.3

Cause will always be followed by effect. God's laws, obeyed, would bring men into harmony with the principles of heaven. The light of the world would shine forth amidst the moral darkness. Truth would triumph; the glory of God would be revealed. 4MR 92.1

A disregard of God's law brings discord, violence, crime, war, and bloodshed. It has led men to defy God, to take leave of reason, to try to control the minds of their fellowmen. 4MR 92.2

The unions that are being formed all over the world will never qualify men for the rule of the Prince of peace; for in them every one is striving for the mastery, seeking for the highest place. History is being repeated. Men have a burning desire to rule men. But they are not willing to be ruled by the Governor of the universe. They have never laid aside their quarrelsome traits of character, their desire to be first. The enemy takes possession of their minds, and works out through them his own purposes.—Manuscript 51, 1906, 4. (General manuscript entitled “Conversion,” without date.) 4MR 92.3

The wickedness that is being revealed in the cities of San Francisco and Oakland show that the world is fast becoming as it was before the Flood. The union men who have struck for higher wages, by their destruction of property, and their attempts to destroy life, are plainly showing to what a pass men will come who are determined to carry out their own plans regardless of others. Many of the police will not come out and act their part. They are discouraged. What the end will be, the human mind cannot determine. 4MR 92.4

The Lord is bringing the perplexities of these social problems to our notice that we may see the evil of seeking to carry out our own way and will. This is an evil that has appeared again and again in our work, and which is appearing now. The natural man needs to be converted; the Spirit of God is needed to operate upon human hearts. Many of our church members are becoming weak because, instead of depending upon God, they are self-sufficient. 4MR 93.1

I am instructed to say to our churches, Study the Testimonies. They are written for our admonition and encouragement upon whom the ends of the world are come. If God's people will not study these messages that are sent to them from time to time, they are guilty of rejecting light. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, God is sending instruction to His people. Heed the instruction; follow the light. The Lord has a controversy with His people because in the past they have not heeded His instruction and [not] followed His guidance.—Letter 292, 1907, p. 3. (To J. E. White, September 21, 1907.) 4MR 93.2

A wealth of moral influence has been brought to us in the last half century. Through His Holy Spirit the voice of God has come to us continually in warning and instruction, to confirm the faith of the believers in the Spirit of Prophecy. Repeatedly the word has come, Write the things that I have given you to confirm the faith of My people in the position they have taken. Time and trial have not made void the instruction given in the early days of the message. It is to be held as safe instruction to follow in these its closing days. Those who are indifferent to this light and instruction must not expect to escape the snares which we have been plainly told will cause the rejecters of light to stumble, and fall, and be snared, and be taken. If we study carefully the second chapter of Hebrews, we shall learn how important it is that we hold steadfastly to every principle of truth that has been given.—The Review and Herald, July 18, 1907, and Selected Messages 1:41. 4MR 93.3

Ellen G. White Estate

June 12, 1968