Testimonies for the Church Volume 1 - A New You Ministry

stirred by this message, expecting that it would lead them directly into the loud cry ofthe third angel. The earnest messages in the Testimonies relating to this movement canbetter be understood with a knowledge of this background.It was an age of discussion and debates. Many of our ministers were challenged todiscuss the Sabbath and other truths, and some were even taking the aggressive in suchdebates. This called for counsel from heaven. One of our prominent ministers, MosesHull, engaged in debates with spiritualists, at first at their challenge, later at his. As aresult of this daring move he was swept into the mazes of spiritualism. Then it was thatMrs. White published her “Communications to Elder Hull,” making public letters thathad been written to him during past years that if heeded would have saved him frommaking shipwreck of his faith.Those were the years when steps were being taken in organization. Against thismove were the fears of some who had passed through the experiences of the secondangel’s message, that church organization was a mark of “Babylon.” The issuesof organization as they were met and discussed among the brethren are manifest inmany of the communications given to the church through Mrs. White. And when in1860 the publishing work was organized, and when, after much discussion and somequestionings, the name Seventh-day Adventist was adopted, the move and the nameitself were shown to be in harmony with the divine will.Immediately following the final steps in church order marked by the organizationof the General Conference in May, 1863, came the memorable vision in Otsego inJune, when Mrs. White was given a view of the principles of what was termed “healthreform,” with a revelation of the relation between obedience to the laws of health andthe attainment of character necessary to fit the members of the church for translation.Closely associated with this was a reform in dress.7