The Unread Testimony

In the autumn of 1851, the Sabbath-keeping community in Washington, New Hampshire, was in much turmoil, so James and Ellen White went there for a weekend conference. On Sabbath, November 1, Mrs. White received a vision about the various problems of that congregation, including the extremely critical and aggressive spirit of Stephen Smith (1806–1889). Several members repented and confessed their sins, but not Smith. So, that Sunday afternoon, the church voted to withdraw his membership.

On November 12, 1851, Ellen White described in a letter the challenges they faced at those meetings and how on Monday, November 3, they “held another meeting and it was the best meeting of the whole; sweet union and love prevailed in the meeting.” From then on, the life of Stephen Smith was full of ups and downs.

At times he even supported offshoot movements. “At some point in the 1850s..., Ellen White wrote him a testimony [describing] what his life would be if he persisted in the course he was following.” But Smith kept the letter “in a trunk,... unopened and unread.” In 1885, while revival meetings were being held in the little Washington church, Stephen Smith publicly confessed, I received a testimony myself twenty-eight years ago. I took it home and locked it up in my trunk, and I never read it till last Thursday... Brethren, every word of the testimony for me is true, and I accept it.

And I have come to that place where I finally believe they [the testimonies] all are of God, and if I had heeded the one God sent to me as well as the rest, it would have changed the whole course of my life, and I should have been a very different man.

May the Lord help us read and apply His counsels and warnings to our daily lives. The promise for us today is, “Believe His prophets, and you shall prosper” (2 Chronicles 20:20).