THE EARLIEST NUMBERED TESTIMONIES WERE PUBLISHED ONLY ABOUT SEVEN YEARS AFTER THE MEMORABLE "SABBATH CONFERENCES" OF 1848, WHEN ADVENTIST BELIEVERS IN THE NEWLY REVIVED SABBATH AND SANCTUARY TRUTHS LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES HELD BY THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST DENOMINATION. DURING THESE FEW YEARS THE CAUSE HAD ADVANCED IN A MARKED MANNER. AT THE BEGINNING THERE WERE ONLY THREE OR FOUR PREACHERS, OR "MESSENGERS" AS THEY THEN STYLED THEMSELVES, ALL OF THEM DEPENDENT UPON WHAT THEY EARNED BY PHYSICAL LABOR AND THE FREEWILL OFFERINGS OF THE FEW BELIEVERS, WHO ALSO WERE POOR IN THIS WORLD'S GOODS. THESE BEGINNINGS WERE LIMITED IN AREA ALMOST ENTIRELY TO THE NEW ENGLAND STATES.
BY 1855, THE YEAR OF ISSUANCE OF THE FIRST TESTIMONY PAMPHLET, THERE WERE ABOUT A SCORE OF PREACHERS OF THE SABBATH AND ADVENT MESSAGE. THE NUMBER OF BELIEVERS HAD GROWN FROM LESS THAN ONE HUNDRED TO WELL INTO THE SECOND THOUSAND.
THE PUBLISHING WORK, BEGUN BY ELDER WHITE IN THE SUMMER OF 1849 AT MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT, HAD BEEN CONDUCTED IN VARIOUS PLACES UNDER ADVERSE CIRCUMSTANCES. NOW IN 1855 IT WAS ESTABLISHED IN ITS OWN BUILDING IN BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN.
THE TIME COVERED BY THE FIRST FOURTEEN TESTIMONIES NOW FOUND IN VOLUME 1 WAS THIRTEEN YEARS. WE NOTE A FEW OF THE EXPERIENCES AND DEVELOPMENTS COVERED BY THE MESSAGES GIVEN DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1855 TO 1868.
THE FIRST DEFECTION,
THE APOSTASY AND OPPOSITION OF SOME OF THE FORMER BRETHREN IN
THE MINISTRY, KNOWN AS THE MESSENGER PARTY BECAUSE OF THEIR PUBLICATION,
THE MESSENGER OF TRUTH, BROUGHT SORROW AND PERPLEXITY. EARLY
COUNSELS SPEAK OF THIS MOVEMENT AND PREDICT ITS SPEEDY ENDING
IN CONFUSION.
FANATICAL MOVEMENTS,
TENDING TO ATTRACT CONSCIENTIOUS SOULS BECAUSE OF UNFOUNDED HOPES
OF "SANCTIFICATION," APPEARED IN VARIOUS PLACES, NOTABLY
IN SOME OF THE EASTERN STATES AND IN WISCONSIN. IN SOME INSTANCES
THESE TEACHINGS WERE ACCOMPANIED BY MANIFESTATION OF THE SUPPOSED
"GIFT OF TONGUES." BUT CLEAR INSTRUCTION WAS GIVEN
TO THE CHURCH WHICH SAVED THE CAUSE FROM SUCH DECEPTIONS OF THE
ENEMY.
THE LAPSE OF TIME
AND THE APPARENT DELAY OF THE SECOND ADVENT, WITH THE ACCESSION
TO THE CHURCH OF MANY WHO HAD NOT BEEN IN THE 1844 MOVEMENT,
WITH ITS DEEP SPIRITUAL CONSECRATION, HAD RESULTED IN THE LOSS
OF THAT FIRST LOVE. IT WAS A TIME OF SPECULATION IN LANDS AND
HOMESTEADS AS THE WESTERN STATES WERE OPENING UP TO SETTLERS,
AMONG WHOM WERE A NUMBER OF BELIEVERS FROM THE CROWDED EASTERN
STATES. MOST EARNEST WARNINGS AND APPEALS WERE GIVEN REGARDING
THE PREVAILING DANGERS OF CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD, CALLING THE
CHURCH TO DEEPER CONSECRATION.
IN THE LATTER PART
OF 1856 ATTENTION WAS CALLED TO THE "LAODICEAN" MESSAGE
OF REVELATION 3. FORMERLY THIS COUNSEL WAS UNDERSTOOD TO APPLY
TO THE ADVENT BELIEVERS WHO HAD NOT FOLLOWED IN THE ADVANCING
LIGHT OF THE THIRD ANGEL AND WHO HAD ORGANIZED THEMSELVES INTO
ANOTHER CHURCH, BITTERLY OPPOSING THE SABBATH TRUTH. NOW THEY
SAW THEMSELVES AS "LUKEWARM" AND IN NEED OF HEEDING
THE COUNSEL OF THE TRUE WITNESS. FOR TWO YEARS OR MORE THE BELIEVERS
WERE MIGHTILY
STIRRED BY
THIS MESSAGE, EXPECTING THAT IT WOULD LEAD THEM DIRECTLY INTO
THE LOUD CRY OF THE THIRD ANGEL. THE EARNEST MESSAGES IN THE
TESTIMONIES RELATING TO THIS MOVEMENT CAN BETTER BE UNDERSTOOD
WITH A KNOWLEDGE OF THIS BACKGROUND.
IT WAS AN AGE
OF DISCUSSION AND DEBATES. MANY OF OUR MINISTERS WERE CHALLENGED
TO DISCUSS THE SABBATH AND OTHER TRUTHS, AND SOME WERE EVEN TAKING
THE AGGRESSIVE IN SUCH DEBATES. THIS CALLED FOR COUNSEL FROM
HEAVEN. ONE OF OUR PROMINENT MINISTERS, MOSES HULL, ENGAGED IN
DEBATES WITH SPIRITUALISTS, AT FIRST AT THEIR CHALLENGE, LATER
AT HIS. AS A RESULT OF THIS DARING MOVE HE WAS SWEPT INTO THE
MAZES OF SPIRITUALISM. THEN IT WAS THAT MRS. WHITE PUBLISHED
HER "COMMUNICATIONS TO ELDER HULL," MAKING PUBLIC LETTERS
THAT HAD BEEN WRITTEN TO HIM DURING PAST YEARS THAT IF HEEDED
WOULD HAVE SAVED HIM FROM MAKING SHIPWRECK OF HIS FAITH.
THOSE WERE THE YEARS
WHEN STEPS WERE BEING TAKEN IN ORGANIZATION. AGAINST THIS MOVE
WERE THE FEARS OF SOME WHO HAD PASSED THROUGH THE EXPERIENCES
OF THE SECOND ANGEL'S MESSAGE, THAT CHURCH ORGANIZATION WAS A
MARK OF "BABYLON." THE ISSUES OF ORGANIZATION AS THEY
WERE MET AND DISCUSSED AMONG THE BRETHREN ARE MANIFEST IN MANY
OF THE COMMUNICATIONS GIVEN TO THE CHURCH THROUGH MRS. WHITE.
AND WHEN IN 1860 THE PUBLISHING WORK WAS ORGANIZED, AND WHEN,
AFTER MUCH DISCUSSION AND SOME QUESTIONINGS, THE NAME SEVENTH-DAY
ADVENTIST WAS ADOPTED, THE MOVE AND THE NAME ITSELF WERE SHOWN
TO BE IN HARMONY WITH THE DIVINE WILL.
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING
THE FINAL STEPS IN CHURCH ORDER MARKED BY THE ORGANIZATION OF
THE GENERAL CONFERENCE IN MAY, 1863, CAME THE MEMORABLE VISION
IN OTSEGO IN JUNE, WHEN MRS. WHITE WAS GIVEN A VIEW OF THE PRINCIPLES
OF WHAT WAS TERMED "HEALTH REFORM," WITH A REVELATION
OF THE RELATION BETWEEN OBEDIENCE TO THE LAWS OF HEALTH AND THE
ATTAINMENT OF CHARACTER NECESSARY TO FIT THE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH
FOR TRANSLATION. CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THIS WAS A REFORM IN
DRESS. TWO YEARS LATER, COUNSEL
WAS GIVEN THAT "WE SHOULD HAVE A HEALTH HOME OF OUR OWN,"
WHICH LED TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HEALTH REFORM INSTITUTE,
TO WHICH AND REGARDING WHICH MUCH COUNSEL WAS GIVEN. AS THE LIGHT
WAS FOLLOWED, THIS INSTITUTION GREW UNTIL IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST
OF ITS KIND IN THE WORLD. DURING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME,
THE GOVERNING PRINCIPLES WHICH LED TO ITS SUCCESS WERE CLEARLY
LAID DOWN. THE PROBLEMS OF THE CIVIL WAR WERE ALSO MET IN THIS
PERIOD AS SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS FACED THE NECESSITY OF DEFINING
THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT IN TIME OF WAR.
THE IMPORTANCE OF
THE HOME IN THE BUILDING OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER, AND THE RESPONSIBILITY
OF PARENTS, WERE STRESSED, AND MANY SOLEMN MESSAGES, IMPARTED
ESPECIALLY FOR THE YOUTH, WERE ALSO GIVEN EMPHASIS IN THESE PAGES.
BESIDES THE SPECIFIC
ISSUES THAT WERE CLOSELY TIED INTO THE MOVEMENTS OF THE TIME,
THERE WAS MUCH COUNSEL AND ADMONITION OF A GENERAL NATURE ON
CHURCH DISCIPLINE AND PREPARATION FOR TRANSLATION. THIS WAS AN
IMPORTANT PERIOD IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE REMNANT CHURCH, AND
THE TESTIMONY COUNSELS EXERTED A LARGE MOLDING INFLUENCE.
THE TRUSTEES OF THE
ELLEN G. WHITE PUBLICATIONS.
