Spalding and Magan's Unpublished Manuscript Testimonies - Ellen G. White

We were made very happy by the reading of
these letters. We were fairly overjoyed about it,
and we united in praising the Lord for the good
report. Imagine our surprise when in the afternoon
of the next day Mother told me that she had been
writing to these men of whom we had received the
good report, and she then read to me the most farreaching
criticism, the most searching reproof for
our bringing in wrong plans and principles in their
work, that were ever written to that group of men.
This was a great lesson to me in the matter of
personal influence.
In recent years I have seen such experiences
often repeated. Many persons have visited Mother
at her home with the belief that personal
representation of their work and plans would
influence Mother to command them. They have
been welcome in our home; we enjoyed their
society, and were glad of their friendship; but when
Mother came to write, it was what the Lord had
taught her. Sometimes it was very encouraging,
and sometimes it was like hot iron piercing the
heart, because the spirit of wisdom discerned that
1413