The Decision to Publish Personal Testimonies

James and Ellen White stayed on in Battle Creek for several days following the session, during which time Testimony No. 15 was published. In his notice of the ninety-six-page booklet, James stated that “it contains matter of the deepest interest to the people of God everywhere.”—Ibid., June 2, 1868. It represented a shift in the policies that up to this time had been followed in publishing the testimonies. Ellen White had explained this in her introduction to Testimony No. 14, published just two months earlier. She announced her decision to publish some testimonies addressed to individuals or families, and referred to her experience during the preceding five months, November, 1867, to March, 1868:2BIO 230.3

During this time I have written many personal testimonies, and for many persons whom I have met in our field of labor during the past five months I have testimonies still to write as I find time and have strength, but just what my duty is in relation to these personal testimonies has long been a matter of no small anxiety to me. With a few exceptions I have sent them to the ones to whom they related and have left these persons to dispose of them as they chose. The results have been various:2BIO 230.4

Some have thankfully received the testimonies and have responded to them in a good spirit and have profited by them. These have been willing that their brethren should see the testimonies and have freely and fully confessed their faults.—Testimonies for the Church, 1:630.2BIO 230.5

Others, she declared, had acknowledged the testimonies to them to be true, but then had laid them aside, making little change in the life. Of these messages she stated:2BIO 231.1

These testimonies related more or less to the churches to which these persons belonged, who could also have been benefited by them. But all this was lost in consequence of these testimonies’ being held private.—Ibid., 1:630, 631.2BIO 231.2

There was a third class who rebelled against the testimonies and had shown “bitterness, anger, and wrath.” On the other hand, there were those who, having seen some of the personal testimonies published, as was the case with Number 6 and a few elsewhere, felt she should publish all personal testimonies. “But on account of their number,” she wrote, “this would be hardly possible, and it would be improper from the fact that some of them relate to sins which need not, and should not, be made public.” Then she declared the course she intended to follow:2BIO 231.3

I have fully decided that many of these personal testimonies should be published, as they all contain more or less reproof and instruction which apply to hundreds or thousands of others in similar condition. These should have the light which God has seen fit to give which meets their cases. It is a wrong to shut it away from them by sending it to one person or to one place, where it is kept as a light under a bushel.—Ibid., 1:631, 632.2BIO 231.4

Aiding her in making this far-reaching decision was a dream that she described:2BIO 231.5

A grove of evergreens was presented before me. Several, including myself, were laboring among them. I was bidden to closely inspect the trees and see if they were in a flourishing condition. I observed that some were being bent and deformed by the wind, and needed to be supported by stakes.2BIO 231.6

I was carefully removing the dirt from the feeble and dying trees to ascertain the cause of their condition. I discovered worms at the roots of some. Others had not been watered properly and were dying from drought. The roots of others had been crowded together to their injury.2BIO 231.7

My work was to explain to the workmen the different reasons why these trees did not prosper. This was necessary from the fact that trees in other grounds were liable to be affected as these had been, and the cause of their not flourishing and how they should be cultivated and treated must be made known.—Ibid., 1:632.2BIO 232.1