Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

The Background Of Volume OneThe nine volumes of Testimonies for the Church, aggregating 4,738pages of text, consist of articles and letters written by Ellen G. White,containing instruction to, and pertaining to the welfare of, the SeventhdayAdventist church. A sixteen-page pamphlet, issued in Decemberof 1855, marked the beginning of the series of such counsels whichfrom time to time appeared in consecutively numbered pamphlets andbooks. These messages naturally dealt with issues that were current,but in most cases we are today confronted by the same problems,perils, and opportunities which faced the church in earlier years.The earliest numbered Testimonies were published only aboutseven years after the memorable “Sabbath Conferences” of 1848, whenAdventist believers in the newly revived Sabbath and sanctuary truthslaid the foundations of the distinctive doctrines held by the SeventhdayAdventist denomination. During these few years the cause hadadvanced in a marked manner. At the beginning there were only threeor four preachers, or “messengers” As they then styled themselves,all of them dependent upon what they earned by physical labor andthe freewill offerings of the few believers, who also were poor in thisworld’s goods. These beginnings were limited in area almost entirelyto the New England States.By 1855, the year of issuance of the first Testimony Pamphlet, therewere about a score of preachers of the Sabbath and Advent message.The number of believers had grown from less than one hundred to wellinto the second thousand.The publishing work, begun by Elder White in the summer of 1849at Middletown, Connecticut, had been conducted in various placesunder adverse circumstances. Now in 1855 it was established in itsown building in Battle Creek, Michigan. [6]The time covered by the first fourteen Testimonies now found inVolume 1 was thirteen years. We note a few of the experiences anddevelopments covered by the messages given during this period of1855 to 1868.ix