22. E. G. White Guarded Against a Misuse

Steps she took: “I must select the most important matters for the Testimony (vol. 6) and then look over everything prepared for it, and be my own critic; for I would not be willing to have some things which are all truth to be published; because I fear that some would take advantage of them to hurt others.EGWATHW 10.6

“After the matter for the testimony is prepared, every article must be read by me. I have to read them myself; for the sound of the voice in reading or singing is almost unendurable to me.EGWATHW 10.7

“I try to bring out general principles ^{3Note: W. C. White on the point of “general principles “: “As you are well aware mother seldom answers such questions directly; but she endeavors to lay down principles and bring forward facts which have been presented to her that will aid us in giving intelligent study to the subject, and in arriving at a correct conclusion.”—W. C. White letter to A. O. Tait, Nov. 22, 1895 (In WCW Letter Book No. 8, 1895, p. 436).}, and if I see a sentence which I fear would give some one excuse to injure some one else, I feel at perfect liberty to keep back the sentence, even though it is all perfectly true.”—Letter 32, 1901.EGWATHW 10.8

Quoting half a sentence: “Why will not men see and live the truth? Many study the Scriptures for the purpose of proving their own ideas to be correct. They change the meaning of God’s word to suit their own opinions. And thus they do also with the testimonies that He sends. They quote half a sentence, leaving out the other half, which, if quoted, would show their reasoning to be false. God has a controversy with those who wrest the Scriptures, making them conform to their preconceived ideas.”—Manuscript 22, 1890.EGWATHW 11.1

Private interviews sometimes twisted: “It seems impossible for me to be understood by those who have had the light but have not walked in it. What I might say in private conversations would be so repeated as to make it mean exactly opposite to what it would have meant had the hearers been sanctified in mind and spirit. I am afraid to speak even to my friends; for afterwards I hear, Sister White said this, or, Sister White said that. My words are so wrested and misinterpreted that I am coming to the conclusion that the Lord desires me to keep out of large assemblies and refuse private interviews. What I say is reported in such a perverted light that it is new and strange to me. It is mixed with words spoken by men to sustain their own theories.”—Letter 139, 1900.EGWATHW 11.2