Extreme Positions in Wisconsin

Some months before this, as the believers in Wisconsin were moving to organize, a view was given to Ellen White of the influences at work and the discouraging results:2BIO 25.7

Satan has used as agents individuals professing to believe a part of present truth, while they were warring against a part. Such he can use more successfully than those who are at war with all our faith. His artful manner of bringing in error through partial believers in the truth has deceived many, and distracted and scattered their faith. This is the cause of the divisions in northern Wisconsin. Some receive a part of the message, and reject another portion. Some accept the Sabbath and reject the third angel's message; yet because they have received the Sabbath they claim the fellowship of those who believe all the present truth.—Testimonies for the Church, 1:326.2BIO 25.8

As she wrote at length she referred to honest souls who would see the “straight chain of present truth” with harmonious connections, link after link uniting into a great whole. Referring again to Wisconsin, she declared:2BIO 25.9

Had professed Sabbathkeepers in Wisconsin earnestly sought and labored to be in union with the prayer of Christ, to be one as He is one with the Father, Satan's work would have been defeated. If all had sought to be in union with the body, the fanaticism which has brought so deep a strain upon the cause of present truth in northern Wisconsin would not have arisen; for it is the result of drawing off from the body, and seeking to have an original, independent faith, regardless of the faith of the body.—Ibid., 1:327.2BIO 25.10