1. But like the stars in the vast circuit of their appointed path, God's purposes know no haste and no delay... So in heaven's council the hour of the coming of Christ had been determined. When the great clock of time pointed to that hour, Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
DA 32.
2. The long night of gloom is trying, but the morning is deferred in mercy, because if the Master should come, so many would be found unready. God's unwillingness to have his people perish, has been the reason of so long delay.
2T 194;[Ev. 694] [1868]
3. Had Adventists, after the great disappointment in 1844, held fast their faith, and followed on unitedly in the opening providence of God, receiving the message of the third angel and in the power of the Holy Spirit proclaiming it to the world, they would have seen the salvation of God, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts, the work would have been completed, and Christ would have come ere this to receive His people to their reward. ...Had the whole Adventist body united upon the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, how widely different would have been our history!
It was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be thus delayed. God did not design that His people, Israel, should wander forty years in the wilderness. He promised to lead them directly to the land of Canaan, and establish them there a holy, healthy, happy people. But those to whom it was first preached, went not in because of unbelief' [Heb. 3:19]. Their hearts were filled with murmuring, rebellion, and hatred, and He could not fulfill His covenant with them.
For forty years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the wordliness, unconsecration, and strife among the
Lord's professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years.
MS 4, 1883 (1SM 68, 69)
4. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith [Gal. 3:24]. In this scripture, the Holy Spirit is speaking especially of the moral law. The law reveals sin to us, and causes us to feel our need of Christ and to flee unto Him for pardon and peace by exercising repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
An unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions, and to accept this truth, lay at the foundation of a large share of the opposition manifested at Minneapolis against the Lord's message through Brethren [E.J.] Waggoner and [A.T.] Jones. By exciting that opposition Satan succeeded in shutting away from our people, in a great measure, the special power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to impart to them. The enemy prevented them from obtaining that efficiency which might have been theirs in carrying the truth to the world, as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost. The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action of our
own brethren has been in a great degree kept away from the world....
The law of ten commandments is not to be looked upon as much from the prohibitory side, as from the mercy side. Its prohibitions are the sure guarantee of happiness in obedience. As received in Christ, it works in us the purity of character that will bring joy to us through eternal ages. To the obedient it is a wall of protection. We behold in it the goodness of God, who by revealing to men the immutable principles of righteousness, seeks to shield them from the evils that result from transgression.
We are not to regard God as waiting to punish the sinner for his sin. The sinner brings the punishment upon himself. His own actions start a train of circumstances that bring the sure result. Every act of transgression reacts upon the sinner, works in him a change of character, and makes it more easy for him to transgress again. By choosing to sin, men separate themselves from God, cut themselves off from the channel of blessing, and the sure result is ruin and death.
The law is an expression of God's idea. When we receive it in Christ it becomes our idea. It lifts us above the power of natural desires and tendencies, above temptations that lead to sin. "Great peace have they that love thy law; and nothing shall offend them or cause them to stumble." [Ps. 119:165]
There is no peace in unrighteousness; the wicked are at war with God. But he who receives the righteousness of the law in Christ is in harmony with heaven.
"Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." [Ps. 85:10]
1SM 235 [Letter 96, June 6, 1896. Also designated as MS 23a, 1896. First published in The Review and Herald, March 13, 1952, p. 6.]
Letter written from:
Dear Brother:
The enclosed pages present a few points which were opened to Sister White last night, and which she wished sent to you. She has for some days been suffering from the effects of cold and overwork and is today unable to read or write. The matter was written out as she presented it. We sent some copies of articles and letters by the S.F. mail, which Sister White desired you to read; but as we were not certain that you were in Battle Creek, they were addressed to Elder Tenney, with directions that he read and forward to you.
Yours in the work,
[signed] M. Davis
[The above explanation of Gal. 3:24 [Item #4] was accompanied by the above note from Ellen White's Secretary, Marian Davis. It was addressed to Uriah Smith and G.C. Tenney, joint editors of the Review and Herald, and sent to Uriah Smith's grandson's house in Battle Creek. According to White Estate files, seven copies were made but no record is now available of where they went except that G.C. Tenney wrote back that he had received the letter and shared the materials with Uriah Smith. As far as the White Estate is aware, the material has not been copied anywhere, and was not published until it was released in 1952.]
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