PASTOR F. C. GILBERT, an old friend and the author of Divine Predictions Fulfilled, which we would do well to re print, was once visiting in China, and while there gave a series of excellent studies to the workers on the Spirit of Prophecy. In one of the sessions he bore this testimony: "I have such faith in the Spirit of Prophecy that if I found in these books a statement that did not appeal to my reason, I would accept it, because I believe God has spoken, and sometime I would understand."
At the close of the meeting and during the workers' testimony service, Pastor C. C. Crisler (Mrs. White's secretary during her last fifteen years) arose and said: "Brethren, I wish I had a faith like that of Pastor Gilbert, but while I have never had a doubt over the divine source of Mrs. White's testimonies, I am so constituted that a statement by her or any one else must appeal to my reason, or I lay it aside until the matter clears up. I have had to wait long years before some things in the Bible became clear to me." That was a good testimony.
Then he told the group this experience: "While I was still working with Mrs. White, the editor of our educational paper wrote and published over his signature a statement that when Mrs. White wrote in Testimonies, volume 3, page 62, that the diet of John the Baptist was purely vegetable she was wrong. The article caused considerable disturbance in the church. Pastor M. E. Cady was then educational secretary of the Pacific Union Conference. He and some of his teachers went to see Mrs. White. As a result of this visit she sent me to Europe to look up and find the meaning of the word translated 'locust' in our King James Bible, as found in the very oldest Greek commentaries (lexicons)."
Pastor Crisler told us that when he found a very old book, in every instance the word "locust" was meant, in the original, to be only "the fruit of the locust tree." He made many references and then took them to the editor of our educational paper. He was an honest man and, after reading the references, said to Pastor Crisler, "Clarence, you write an article, putting in all the facts you have gathered. I will acknowledge my error and print it in the next number." This was done, and since that time we know of no editor who has printed any statements in our church papers saying that Mrs. White was incorrect in any instruction or teaching given in her books or other writings. What a blessed people we are in having the gift of prophetic guidance in the remnant church! It assures us of certainty along the way and the preservation of our institutions and the ultimate triumph!
