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    MESSENGER PARTY

    As a further application of the above rule, we call attention to a prediction made by Mrs. White in a vision given in Oswego, New York, June 20, 1855. It related to what was then called “The Messenger Party,” which consisted of disaffected ones, who, having left the ranks, began a united opposition to the visions, claiming that, when rid of them, the third angel’s message would at once “go with a loud cry.” This party printed a paper called the Messenger of Truth. From this the party was named. They claimed to have more preachers than were left with us, and tauntingly said to Seventh-day Adventist ministers, “We will follow up and get all your converts.” One by the name of Drew put it in these words: “You go ahead and shake the bush, and we will follow up and catch all the birds.” The conflict was fierce, and the opposition bitter. As expressed of them by another, “There is nothing to which they will not stoop; and they are never likely to be out of scandal with which to assail those who have incurred their displeasure.”PGGC 82.4

    Until the Lord spoke directly concerning this party, our leading ministers considered it their duty to answer the scandalous falsehoods that were published in the Messenger of Truth. Elders White, Waggoner, Cornell, and Frisbie, and the writer, counseled together, and had arranged to write a reply to the malicious fabrications, each taking a separate line of attack. Just at this time the vision (the writer being present) was given in Oswego.PGGC 83.1

    After coming out of the vision, Mrs. White, speaking to Elder White and the writer, said: “Brethren, you are mistaken as to your duty to answer the slanderous writings of the Messenger. It is only a trick of the enemy to divert you from using your time in spreading the truth. When you answer one of their lies, they will manufacture two more. The Lord says to let them alone, and go on with your work as if there was no such people on the earth, and in less than six weeks they will be at war among themselves. The candid ones will see their error and come back. The Messenger company will go to pieces, and their paper go down, while the third angel’s message will advance more rapidly than ever. When their paper goes down, you will find that our ranks have doubled.”PGGC 84.1

    And “SO IT WAS.” We let them alone, and made no reference to them or their work in the Review. First they complained, then they growled, and dared us for battle. In less than four weeks some of their financial supporters left them, and the dissension and fight were on among themselves. The cause of present truth advanced in every phase of its work. A statement made in the Review, January 14, 1858, just after the Messenger paper “breathed its last,” having had a sickly existence of about three years, shows how accurately the prediction made in the Oswego vision was fulfilled. Speaking of the result of the Messenger work, the editor said: “At the time of the disaffection, when the effort was made to break down the Review, the church property at the office was worth only seven hundred dollars. Since it has increased to five thousand. Then there were about one thousand paying subscribers; now there are two thousand, besides quite a free list.” As the number of paying subscribers to the Review had exactly doubled, so the number of believers had increased more than twofold.PGGC 84.2

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