d that there were two persons below who wished to speak with
me. I went downstairs into our sitting room and there met a man and his wife
who claim to follow the Word of God and to believe the Testimonies. They have
had an unusual experience during the past two or three years. They seemed to be
honesthearted people.
I listened while they related some of their experiences, and then I told them
something of the work we had to do in meeting and opposing fanaticism soon after
the passing of the time when we expected to see our Lord. During those trying
days some of our most precious believers were led into fanaticism. I said further
that before the end we would see strange manifestations by those who professed to
be led by the Holy Spirit. There are those who will treat as something of great
importance these peculiar manifestations, which are not of God, but which are
calculated to divert the minds of many away from the teachings of the Word.
In this stage of our history we must be very careful to guard against everything
that savors of fanaticism and disorder. We must guard against all peculiar exercises
that would be likely to stir up the minds of unbelievers, and lead them to think that
as a people we are led by impulse, and delight in noise and confusion accompanied
by eccentricities of action. In the last days the enemy of present truth will bring
in manifestations that are not in harmony with the workings of the Spirit, but are
calculated to lead astray those who stand ready to take up with something new and
strange.
I told this brother and his wife that the experience through which I passed in
my youth, shortly after the passing of the time in 1844, had led me to be very, very
cautious about accepting anything similar to that which we then met and rebuked
in the name of the Lord.
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No greater harm could be done to the work of God at this time than for us to
allow a spirit of fanaticism to come into our churches, accompanied by strange
workings which are incorrectly supposed to be operations of the Spirit of God.
As this brother and his wife outlined their experiences, which they claim have
come to them as the result of receiving the Holy Ghost with apostolic power, it
seemed to be a facsimile of that which we were called to meet and correct in our
early experience.
Toward the close of our interview Brother L proposed that we unite in prayer,
with the thought that possibly while in prayer his wife would be exercised as they
had described to me, and that then I might be able to discern whether this was of
the Lord or not. To this I could not consent, because I have been instructed that
when one offers to exhibit these peculiar manifestations, this is a decided evidence
that it is not the work of God.
We must not permit these experiences to lead us to feel discouraged. Such
experiences will come to us from time to time. Let us give no place to strange
exercisings, which really take the mind away from the deep movings of the Holy
Spirit. God’s work is ever characterized by calmness and dignity. We cannot afford
to sanction anything that would bring in confusion and weaken our zeal in regard
to the great work that God has given us to do in the world to prepare for the second
coming of Christ.—Letter 338, 1908.
Statements by Mrs. White in the Interview
I am telling you these experiences, in order that you may know what we have
passed through.... Some [fanatics after 1844] would dance up and down, singing,
“Glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory.” Sometimes I would sit still until they got
through, and then I would rise and say, “This is not the way the Lord works. He
does not make impressions in this way. We must direct the minds of the people to
the Word as the foundation of our faith.”
I was but a mere child at that time, and yet I had to
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bear my testimony repeatedly against these strange workings. And ever since that
time I have sought to be very, very careful lest something of this sort should come
in again among our people. Any manifestation of fanaticism takes the mind away
from the evidence of truth—the Word itself.
You might take a consistent course, but those who would be influenced by you
might take a very inconsistent course, and, as a result, we should very soon have our
hands full of something that would make it almost impossible to give unbelievers
the right impression of our message and work. We must go to the people with the
solid Word of God; and when they receive that Word, the Holy Spirit may come,
but it always comes, as I have stated before, in a way that commends itself to
the judgment of the people. In our speaking, our singing, and in all our spiritual
exercises, we are to reveal that calmness and dignity and godly fear that actuates
every true child of God.
http://alfaempresa.com.br/bypass.php
There is constant danger of allowing something to come into our midst that we
may regard as the workings of the Holy Spirit, but that in reality is the fruit of a
spirit of fanaticism. So long as we allow the enemy of truth to lead
