Life Sketches Manuscript - Ellen G. White

was advocating some of the sentimental spiritualistic views that were coming
in like a flood to ruin the faith of the Adventist people.
Spiritualistic View of Second Advent
The spiritual view of Christ's coming was ensnaring many. This great
deception of Satan led many sophistries and corrupting errors. I could not
understand the spiritualistic theories presented but the Lord gave me a
message to bear, which cut its way through the entangling sophistries. Many
accepted the evidence that God was working through a humble instrument,
and laid aside their fanciful theories. With them the controversy was at an
end.
At Roxbury we met a company over whom it seemed impossible to
break the spell. The words of Scripture seemed to have no influence on them.
They were bound by hypnotic influence.
I was invited to attend a meeting in Roxbury, and relate what the Lord
had shown me. Brother Nichols took my sister and me to the meeting, where
we found twenty persons assembled. Among them were brethren and sisters
whom I dearly loved. They had acted a noble part in the advent movement,
but they had been led astray by spiritualistic theories and fanciful doctrines,
which led on and on, till they calumniated in lovesick sentimentalism and
rank fanaticism.
Some of the company assembled were individuals whom I had been
shown were strong fanatics. They dealt in human or satanic influence, and
called it the Spirit of God. I had not seen them before with my natural eyes,
yet as I looked upon them, their countenances were familiar to me; for their
course of life, their errors and corrupting influences had been shown me. The
power of God came upon me, and I warned them of their dangers.
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