that God had not the least to do with, that the church have lost their strength and they know not how to regain it. The love for one another has been gone; a faultfinding, accusing spirit has prevailed. It has been considered a virtue to hunt up everything about one another that looked wrong and make it appear fully as bad as it was. The bowels of compassion that yearn in love and pity towards brethren have been all dried up by faultfinding, picking at everything bearing the appearance of wrong, until the noble feelings of the soul are withered. The mind should be elevated to dwell upon eternal scenes, heaven, its treasures, its glories, and should take sweet and holy satisfaction in the truths of the Bible and searching up the precious promises that His Word affords to comfort and lift up the mind from trifles to weighty, eternal things.1EGWLM 526.5

But, oh, how different has the mind been employed! Picking at straws!⁴

Writing some months earlier, Ellen White noted that some members were “watching for every fault” in others. “A person's dress, bonnet, or apron, takes their attention. … All the religion a few poor souls have consists in watching the garments and acts of others, and finding fault with them.” Some indication of the amount of time expended on church trials is found in this comment by Amanda Westcott in an 1856 letter: “Last Friday they met at Bro. Chapel's for trial, Bro. Rhodes being chief among them. They staid [sic] there all day talking, but doing little or no good.” This passage, with its focus on trivial church trials, did not mean that there was no place for proper church discipline. See, for example, Lt 3, 1853 (June 29).

See: Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p. 145; Amanda Westcott to Mrs. Crawford, July 16, 1856.

Church meetings, as they have been held, have been a living curse to New York. These manufactured trials have given free liberty to evil surmisings. Jealousy has been fed. Hatred has existed, but they know it not. A wrong idea has been in the minds of the brethren to reprove without love, hold others to your idea of what is right, and spare not, but bear down with crushing weight.1EGWLM 526.6

I saw that many in New York have had so much care for their brethren, to keep them straight, that they have neglected their own hearts. They are so fearful that their brethren will not be zealous and repent [that] they forget that they have wrongs that must be righted,⁵

The expression “be zealous and repent” is taken from the message to the Laodiceans in Revelation 3:19: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” The implication here is that some members were misusing the Laodicean message to focus on the shortcomings of other members rather than letting it speak to their own faults. Ellen White, writing elsewhere of the situation during this period, says of “the message to the Laodiceans” that “some thought others were not as zealous in repenting as they should be, and instead of taking care of their own souls’ interest, they began … to reprove and bear down upon their brethren.” Since Sabbatarian Adventists had only begun to apply the Laodicean message to their own movement less than a year earlier, it is quite possible that the rash of church trials plaguing the movement as described in Ms 2, 1857 (July 24), was at least partly a result of those who were misusing it.

See: Ellen G. White, Lt 17, 1859 (Oct. 28). For surveys of the developing understanding of the “Laodicean message,” see P. Gerard Damsteegt, Foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission, pp. 244-248; Felix A. Lorenz, “A Study of Early Adventist Interpretations of the Laodicean Message”; EGWEnc, s.v. “Laodicean Message.”

and with their hearts unsanctified they try to right their brethren. Now the only way the church in New York can arise is to attend to their own individual cases, and each set his own heart in order. If sin is plain upon a brother, breathe it not to another, but with love for the brother's soul, with a heart full of compassion, with bowels of mercies, tell him the wrong, then leave it upon the brother and God. You have discharged your duty. You are not to pass sentence.1EGWLM 527.1

You have made it too light an affair to rein up a brother, condemn him, and hold him under condemnation. There has been a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. If all set their own hearts in order, when they meet together their testimony would be ready to come from a full soul, and the people around that believe not the truth would be moved. The witness of the Spirit would tell to their hearts that you are the children of God. Our love for each other should be visible to all. It will tell. It will have influence.1EGWLM 527.2

I saw that there is a way for the church in New York to arise. Individually take hold of the work in earnest; be zealous and repent. And after all wrongs are righted that you have knowledge of, then believe God accepts. Go not mourning, but take God at His word; seek Him diligently, and believe that He receives you. A part of the work is to believe. He is faithful that has promised. Climb up by faith.1EGWLM 527.3

I saw that in New York they can arise as well as in other places, and they can drink of the salvation of God. They can move understandingly, and each one have an experience for himself in this message of the True Witness to the Laodicean church. The church feel that they are down, but know not how to arise. The intention of some may be ever so good [and] they may confess; yet I saw they were watched with suspicion and so they were made an offender for a word, until they have no liberty, no salvation. They dare not act out the simple feelings of the heart, because they are watched. Everything is stiff and unnatural. It is God's pleasure that His people should fear Him, and have confidence before each other.1EGWLM 528.1

I saw that many had taken advantage of what God had shown about the sins and wrongs of those in New York. They had taken the extreme meaning of what had been shown in vision, and then confessed it until it has had the tendency to weaken the faith in what God has shown, and also to discourage and dishearten the church.⁶

A clearer idea of what is meant here is found in Lt 8, 1857, written five days earlier, in which Ellen White gives more details of the same vision. Some church members in New York, she recounts, knowing that traveling preacher Samuel W. Rhodes had been reproved in the visions for his severity and harshness, had taken the opportunity to scold Rhodes personally and reinforce the reproof.

I was also shown that with delicate and tender compassion should brother deal with brother. Delicately should he deal with feeling. And I saw that it is the greatest work that ever yet was done, and the nicest point to touch the wrongs of another. With the deepest humility should a brother do this, considering his own weakness, lest he should also be tempted.1EGWLM 528.2

I have seen the great sacrifice Jesus made to redeem man. He did not consider His own life too dear to sacrifice. “Love one another as I have loved you,” He said. Ask yourself the question, Do you feel, when a brother errs, you could give your life to save him from that error, and that danger? It places him in [danger] of losing his soul. If you feel thus, you can approach him and affect his heart. You are just the one to visit that brother. But it is a fearful truth that many who profess to be brethren are not willing to sacrifice their opinions or judgment to save a brother. There is but little love for one another. A selfish spirit has been manifested.1EGWLM 528.3

Discouragement has come upon the church. They have been loving the world, loving their farms, cattle, etc. Now Jesus calls them to cut loose, to lay up treasures in heaven, buy gold, white raiment, and eyesalve—precious treasures that will obtain for the possessor an inheritance in the kingdom of God.1EGWLM 528.4

The people of God must move understandingly. They must know that every known sin is confessed; then it is their privilege and duty to believe that Jesus accepts them. They must not wait for others to plow through the darkness, obtain the victory, then enjoy it. Such enjoyment will last no longer than [until] the meeting closes. There must be a serving God from principle instead of feeling. Morning and night obtain a victory for yourselves in your own family. Let not your daily labor hinder this. Take time to pray, and believe as you pray that God hears you. Have faith mixed with your prayers and it will be effectual. You may not at all times feel the immediate answer, but then it is your faith is tried. You are proved to see whether you will trust God, whether you have living, abiding faith. “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” 1 Thess. 5:24.1EGWLM 528.5

Walk the narrow plank of faith, trust all on the promises of God. Trust God in darkness; that is the time to have faith. But you often let feeling govern you. You look at yourselves when you do not feel comforted by the Spirit of God. You do not trust enough in Jesus, precious Jesus. You do not make His worthiness to be all, all, as you should. The very best you can do will not make you merit the favor of God. It is Jesus’ worthiness that will save us; His blood cleanses us. Do what you can on your part. Be zealous and repent, then believe.1EGWLM 529.1

Confound not faith and feeling together. They are distinct. Faith is ours to exercise. This faith we must exercise. Believe, believe. Let your faith take hold of the blessing and if your faith takes hold of it, it is yours by faith. Your feelings have nothing to do with this faith. When faith brings the blessing to your heart, then you rejoice in the blessing. It is no more faith but feeling. The feeling has swallowed up the faith.1EGWLM 529.2

The people must steadily arise and come out from their darkness and let their light shine. They are standing right in the way of the work of God. They must let the message of the third angel⁷

See: EGWEnc, s.v. “Three Angels’ Messages.”

do its work upon their hearts, clear the rubbish away from the door and open the door and let the Saviour in. God is dishonored by your long, faithless prayers and exhortations—confessing, but no reforming. I saw you must look away from the unworthiness of self and exalt Jesus. Talk of light, of heaven, and you will have light. Talk darkness and you will have darkness.^{8
Regrettably, despite the appeal and counsel of this testimony, problems continued in Roosevelt. Two years later, in 1859, Ellen White noted that similar problems continued to “cleave to some like the leprosy” in that church. She appealed to the members to “print on your heart and memory the testimony given at Ulysses,” i.e., the counsels found in this manuscript.
See: Ellen G. White, Lt 17, 1859 (Oct. 28).}1EGWLM 529.3

I saw that Brother Edson [Hiram Edson]⁹

Identity: The intent of this final passage concerning “Brother Edson” is clarified in Ellen White's earlier letter to S. W. Rhodes in which she reports on the same vision. She there contrasts Rhodes's severe, impatient handling of church trials with Edson's “good judgment.” The clear implication is that Edson, like S. W. Rhodes, is a church leader. This information, in addition to the New York setting of the letter, leaves little doubt that Ellen White is referring to Hiram Edson, of Martville, New York, and not to another member with the same surname.

See: Ellen G. White, Lt 8, 1857 (July 19); search term “Edson” in Words of the Pioneers.

has not taken his place in the church. He has kept back for fear of getting out of his place. I saw that Brother Edson has good judgment in matters of the church. It needs collected, patient, persevering men to judge in matters of the church. A hurried spirit must not decide. Brother Edson must take his place.1EGWLM 529.4

Lt 8, 1857

Lt 3, 1857