The Test of Divine Guidance in Times of Crisis

The second test of the true prophet is mentioned in Isaiah, the 58th chapter,verse 11: “The Lord shall guide thee continually.” Psalm 32, verse 8: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go:” “I will counsel you;” and in Hosea 12, verse 13: “And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.” By a prophet the Lord led and guided Israel of old, and in the same way will He guide Israel of today.DGRGC 55.1

I like to think of this as divine guidance in times of crisis. If we look through the Bible, we shall find many, many instances of how the Lord met a crisis with a word or message which came through the prophets. To me this is one of the most interesting things in the whole study. I should like to tell you a story this morning which indicates quite clearly how the Lord was ready to guide the Advent people in times of crisis.DGRGC 55.2

It was on the night of November 3, 1890, while Sister White was attending a general meeting in Salamanca, New York, that she had a vision. In this vision she saw a group of men going up the stairs to a second storey room. They entered the room and, as they did so, one of the men turned and locked the door, and said, “We will remain here until this problem is settled no matter how long it takes us!”DGRGC 55.3

Then, in this vision, she saw them sit down, she heard what each man said. She even saw one man standing up and holding a paper in his hand. He declared, “Such articles as this on the Sabbath and on the Second Advent should never be published in the religious liberty journal. They must not be in that journal!”DGRGC 55.4

She watched with great interest all that took place, and every detail was impressed upon her mind. The next day in her talk with two of our ministers she thought to tell them what she was shown in the vision that she had seen on that night of November 3. She hesitated and paused. “It does not come. I can’t remember what I saw,” she said. “Well, never mind, I shall think of it later,” and she went on with her talk, but it did not come back to her mind.DGRGC 55.5

Four months went by and they were at the General Conference Session. In her discourse Sabbath afternoon March 7, 1891, she came to the very place where she could use that message, and she began, “On November 3, at Salamanca, the Lord revealed to me a meeting,” and she again hesitated. She could not call it to mind. And the people were all much surprised. Three times she tried to tell it. Three times she failed. After this meeting she returned to her home and retired early.DGRGC 56.1

That Saturday night at the conclusion of the meeting of the General Conference in the Tabernacle, as our church was called, the people went to their places of abode. But not all the people went home, for at the conclusion of that evening meeting a little group of men went to the old Review and Herald building. As they went up the stairs, they were discussing a question. They entered the door of one of the rooms on the second floor, and as they entered, one man of that group turned and said, “I’ll lock this door and we will stay here until this thing is settled!”DGRGC 56.2

They sat down and entered into the discussion of that problem. Hour after hour went by—twelve o’clock, one o’clock, two o’clock. It was not until three o’clock in the morning that they finally said, “It is enough.” They unlocked the door and went to their several places. At three o’clock that morning in the house across the street from the Battle Creek Tabernacle, Mrs. White was awakened and bidden by the angel to go into the early meeting and present what was shown to her in Salamanca. She had written what had been shown to her. She arose, found the manuscript, reviewed it, and hurried to the meeting.DGRGC 56.3

She had been giving a series of studies at that conference. Each morning at 5:30 the ministers had come together to hear her message, and when it came to that Sabbath morning, she said, “Elder Olson [the president of the General Conference], I shall not be here tomorrow.” He said, “You have nothing more to tell us, Sister White?” “No,” she replied, “I have said all I have to say at this time.”DGRGC 56.4

However, that Sunday morning she appeared at the Battle Creek Tabernacle at 5:30. As she walked in the door, Elder Olson inquired, “Sister White, have you something for us?” “Indeed I have,” she said. She went directly to the platform, spread out the papers, and began to read.DGRGC 57.1

Now let me give you the experience of that morning in the words of Elder Olson, who was at that very time the president of the General Conference. “She then began to read, describing a meeting that was shown her that was held in one of the rooms in the Review office, where a number of brethren were together. She described their attitude and their earnestness, and the position which they had taken; for there was a heated discussion, as they could not agree on certain questions at issue.DGRGC 57.2

“Personally,” says O. A. Olson, “I sat there in blank bewilderment. I did not know what she referred to. I had neither heard nor had any knowledge of the things that she presented, nor of such a meeting as she described. Indeed, I was so surprised, and the things she presented as having taken place in that meeting seemed so unreasonable, that I was quite nonplused in my mind as to what this meant.”DGRGC 57.3

When she finished she sat down. Everybody looked at everybody else in astonishment. When could this have occurred? The president of the General Conference knew nothing about it. Most of the people there knew nothing about it. But a few at that meeting that morning knew all about it.DGRGC 57.4

Then Captain Eldridge arose and said, “I was in that meeting.... Last night, after the close of the conference, some of us met in my room in the Review office, where we locked ourselves in, and there took up and discussed the questions and the matter that have been presented to us this morning. We remained in that room till three o’clock this morning.”DGRGC 57.5

Then he added, “If I should have begun to give a description of what took place, and the personal attitude of those in the room, I could not have given it as exactly and as correctly as it has been given by Sister White. I now see that I was in error; that the position that I took was not correct; and from the light that has been given this morning, I acknowledge that I was wrong.”DGRGC 58.1

There was now no question in anybody’s mind as to the time of that meeting presented to Mrs. White on November 3 of the previous year which she was not permitted to speak of for those four months because the meeting had not then taken place, and did not take place until the night of March 7, 1891. You can see now why God held her back and did not permit those messages to come before the meeting took place, for had they been given before the meeting took place, the meeting never would have occurred, because the men would have known about it! And so it was withheld from her until the hour, the very moment, of the crisis. Then came the message in that remarkable way.DGRGC 58.2

A. F. Ballenger was also present at that meeting. He was then the Secretary of the Religious Liberty Association, and he arose and said that the meeting described by the servant of the Lord had been held the night before. He acknowledged that he was the one who held up the copy of The American Sentinel, and who had pointed to the articles on the “Sabbath” and on the “Second Coming of Christ,” and declared that “Such articles must never appear in this religious liberty journal.” Then, too, he confessed that he had been on the wrong side of the controversy. He acknowledged his mistakes, and was willing to be forgiven.DGRGC 58.3

I submit, dear friends, that such a thing does not come from a religious reverie. We cannot explain that experience as a figment of the imagination, for God alone knows the thoughts of men when those thoughts are afar off, before they even come to a man’s mind. And so it is that we might say not only in this, but in many instances, that God used His servant to bring His messages at the very time the messages were needed. I call this divine guidance at the time of crisis.DGRGC 58.4