Manuscript Releases, vol. 2 [Nos. 97-161]

MR No. 98—Adapting EGW Material for General Use; Uriah Smith Repents; Mistakes of SDA Pioneers Not To Be Publicized

[Material requested by Arthur L. White to help meet a situation in Australia.]

You have written to me in regard to what shall be done with the article addressed to the Battle Creek Church. I answer, Do with it as you think best, using it as you judge it will best serve the cause of God. Please follow your own judgment as to the disposal of anything I may write from henceforth, unless I give special directions concerning it. After it serves the special purpose for which it was written, you may drop out the personal matter and make it general, and put it to whatever use you may think best for the interests of the cause of God. As you say, we are far separated, and two or three months must pass before communications can be answered, however important may be their character. Therefore it is best not to wait my decisions on matters of this kind, especially when your judgment is evidently in harmony with what is best, and something to which I could have no objections.—Letter 24, 1892, p. 1. (To Uriah Smith, Sept., 1892.) 2MR 5.1

Tuesday night I was in an agony of soul all night so that I could not sleep. Elder Smith's case was weighing heavily upon me. I was working with him, pleading with God, and I could not cease my crying unto God. Friday night I was asked to speak; the house was full, and I gave some account of the working of the Spirit of God with me in the meetings which I had attended. I related as well as I could the success of these meetings. 2MR 5.2

We had a special meeting of deep interest after I had spoken and many excellent testimonies were borne, especially from those who were earnestly seeking the Lord. It was a good meeting. On Sabbath I spoke from Matthew 11:16-27. I made a decided application of this lesson to those who had great light, precious opportunities, and wonderful privileges, and yet their spiritual growth and advancement was not in accordance with the blessings of the light and knowledge given of God. There was a solemn impression made upon the congregation, and fully two thousand persons were present. I had great freedom in speaking. In the afternoon the meetings were divided, and I hear there were excellent meetings in these divisions. 2MR 5.3

Monday, Elder Smith came to me and we had an earnest, faithful talk. I could see that he had a very different spirit from that he had months ago. He was not hard and unimpressible; he felt the words I spoke to him, laying before him faithfully the course he had taken and the harm he had done through this position. He said he wanted to come into harmony with the testimonies of the Spirit of God. I had written to him thirteen pages and sent it to him—very plain words. Tuesday he called again to see me and asked if I would meet with a select few, that he had something to say. I told him I would. 2MR 6.1

Yesterday, Wednesday, the meeting was held in my room in the office and Elder Smith read the letter I had sent him, read it to them all, and said he accepted it as from God. He went back to the Minneapolis meeting and made a confession of the spirit he had occupied, casting on me very heavy burdens. Brother Rupert confessed also, and we had a very profitable, excellent meeting. Brother Smith has fallen on the Rock and is broken, and the Lord Jesus will now work with him. He took my hand as he left the room and said, “If the Lord will forgive me for the sorrow and burdens I have brought upon you, I tell you this will be the last. I will stay up your hands. The testimonies of God shall hold this place in my experience.” It is seldom that Elder Smith sheds a tear, but he did weep, and his voice was choked with the tears in it. Now you see I have reason to be glad and rejoice and praise the Lord. Professor Bell was present. Elder Smith confessed to him the wrong that he had done him in the school trial in 1882. Oh, how glad I was to see and hear and know that these things that had barred the Spirit of God from coming into our meetings, were removed.—Letter 32, 1891. (To Brother and Sister J. S. Washburn, January 8, 1891.) 2MR 6.2

Anyone who shall cast disparagement upon the character of men whom Jesus Christ has made one with Himself, and who has through the grace of Christ obtained moral courage to accept unpopular truth and to suffer reproach for Christ's sake, is not working after the order of Christ. Those who have accepted the truth of God are dear to the heart of Christ. (See John 17:17-26.) 2MR 7.1

The saints have suffered for the truth's sake, and some have fallen asleep in Jesus under the third angel's message. Through the grace given them, they have witnessed a good confession before many witnesses. At every step they practiced self-denial and self-sacrifice. They would not fail nor be discouraged, and could say with the apostle Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing” [2 Timothy 4:7, 8]. 2MR 7.2

Does it seem fitting that the mistakes and errors of those who sleep in Jesus, whose names we have reason to believe are written in the Lamb's book of life, whose life of toil, of suffering and privation, is ended, should be paraded before the world, and that they should be represented as sinners? Does it seem fitting that finite men, who have the benefit of their experience in order that they might be enabled to shun the mistakes and failures they may have made, and have had the blessing of the divine illumination these chosen men of God have received, so that they were enabled to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, should present these saints of God as though they were clothed in filthy garments? God forbid. Rather, let it be said: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” The faith they possessed was more than many now comprehend. They understood, accepted, and communicated the redemption that they had fully and freely received, and distinctly experienced through Jesus Christ.—Manuscript 27, 1894, 2-4. (To “Dear Brethren in the Seventh-day Adventist Faith,” June 7, 1894.) 2MR 7.3

Released January 30, 1958.