“Only an Instrument”

Ellen White had a deep awareness of her mission. Yet she kept a perspective that John the Baptist understood even in his bleakest moments. John’s message to his contemporaries was often reflected in the experience of Ellen White: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).MOL 524.2

In December 1886, Mrs. White was in Torre Pellice, Italy, holding evangelistic meetings. Miles Grant, an influential Advent Christian minister, followed her from America, determined to “expose” her “pretensions.” On Friday evening, December 4, Grant held his meetings one floor above where Mrs. White was conducting hers—not a very good advertisement to the general public regarding Adventists from America!MOL 524.3

Grant had done his best to gather up all the slander and animosity from those who had been reproved by Mrs. White. In addition, he had assembled a list of garbled statements that misrepresented Seventh-day Adventists. Knowing that in the time limits of only a few short hours at Torre Pellice she would not be able to “undeceive” the people, Mrs. White decided to ignore Grant; she determined to “keep right on seeking to speak the truth.... I long to have the people see the truth as it is in Jesus.”MOL 524.4

In her diary for that day, she wrote: “I am to do my duty. I am only an instrument in the hands of God, to do my part of the work in His love and fear. This truth will triumph, but when, where, and how is for the Lord to decide. These thoughts bring peace and trust and confidence to my soul.” ^{53Bio., vol. 3, pp. 335, 336.} Self-vindication and public argument with her opposers was not in her character.MOL 524.5

Some non-Adventists have conjectured that without Ellen White Seventh-day Adventists would not have survived as they are known today. Kenneth L. Woodward, Newsweek’s religion editor, observed: “If it [the Seventh-day Adventist denomination] loses its founding mother, the church may find that it has also lost its distinctive visionary soul.” ^{54Newsweek, Jan. 19, 1981.}MOL 524.6