Mrs. White’s experience in vision was similar to that of the Bible prophets, the visions were definite experiences, not just impressions. In vision, Mrs. White saw, heard, felt, and received instruction from the angels. The visions could not be accounted for by excitement or imagination. Mrs. White was not controlled by those about her. To one man she wrote: “You think individuals have prejudiced my mind. If I am in this state I am not fitted to be entrusted with the work of God.” Her work was recognized by her contemporaries. Both those in the church who lived and worked with Mrs. White, and many outside the church recognized her as the “messenger of the Lord.” Those closest to her had the greatest confidence in her call and work. These four Bible tests and the additional evidences outlined above assure us that Ellen White’s work is of God and is worthy of unquestioned confidence. The many E. G. White books are filled with counsel and instruction of permanent value to the church. Whether these testimonies were of a more general nature or personal testimonies to families and individuals, they are of service to us today. Concerning this point, Mrs. White says: “Since the warning and instruction given in testimonies for individual cases applied with equal force to many others who had not been specially pointed out in this manner, it seemed to be my duty to publish the personal testimonies for the benefit of the church.... I know of no better way to present my views of general dangers and errors, and the duty of all who love God and keep His commandments, than by giving these testimonies.” It is a mistaken use of the testimonies to read them to find some point on which condemnation of a fellow church member can be based. The testimonies must never be used as a club to bring some brother or sister to see things just as we see them. There are matters that must be left for the individual to settle alone with God. The counsels should be studied to find the basic principles that apply in our own lives today. The human heart is much the same the world over; the problems of one are often the problems of another. “In rebuking the wrongs of one,” Mrs. White wrote, God “designs to correct many.” “He makes plain the wrongs of some that others may thus be warned.” Near the close of her life, Mrs. White gave the following counsel: “Through His Holy Spirit the voice of God has come to us continually in warning and instruction.... Time and trial have not made void the instruction given.... The instruction that was given in the early days of the message is to be held as safe instruction to follow in these its closing days.” The counsels that follow are drawn from a number of the E. G. White books—but mainly from the three volumes of Testimony Treasures, the world edition of the Testimonies for the Church—and represent
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