Section 6—Comfort and Encouragement

Introduction

Ellen G. White, the messenger of the Lord, knew the meaning of suffering. Her childhood hopes were blighted by an accident, at the age of nine, which nearly cost her life. She passed through the experiences of motherhood four times. Twice she was bereaved of a son. For nearly half of her public life she was a widow. She knew the meaning of lingering illness. Her messages of encouragement to those who were in affliction, to those who faced death, and to the aged and the bereaved were tempered by her own experience.2SM 220.1

No one can explain the mysteries of providence, but those who have trusted God in times of trial and suffering know that God is working out His plan. Mrs. White knew this and revealed it in her day-by-day journal for 1892 in which she jotted down, with diary terseness, her reaction to ten months of suffering in a strange land. Her disappointment in not being healed in response to prayer and anointing, and her unfaltering trust in God in life or death are here revealed.2SM 220.2

The personal messages written by Mrs. White under varying circumstances, and presented here for the comfort of those who must suffer, will help to answer the questions, why, if God is a God of love, must His people suffer long illness? Why must they languish on beds of pain? Comfort and encouragement will come to the person who is passing through experiences of a character described in these pages. Whatever repetition occurs is merely for the purpose of bringing comfort in as many personal situations as possible.2SM 220.3

White Trustees.