Favorite Ellen White Quotes
A friend emailed yesterday asking what I consider to be the most famous Ellen White quotes. So I sent her the following as the initial list. I think I ended up sending my favorite quotes from her. What are yours?
I recommend to you, dear reader, the Word of God as the rule of your faith and practice. By that Word we are to be judged. - Early Writings, p. 78
We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history. - Life Sketches, p. 196
The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall. - Education, p. 57
The strongest argument in favor of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian. - Help in Daily Living, p. 2
Prayer is the breath of the soul. It is the secret of spiritual power. No other means of grace can be substituted and the health of the soul be preserved. - Prayer, p. 12
Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, “Follow Me.” - Ministry of Healing, p. 143
Arbitrary words and actions stir up the worst passions of the human heart. - Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 134
As the sinner, drawn by the power of Christ, approaches the uplifted cross, and prostrates himself before it, there is a new creation. A new heart is given him. He becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus. Holiness finds that it has nothing more to require. - Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 163
God wants us all to have common sense, and He wants us to reason from common sense. Circumstances alter conditions. Circumstances change the relation of things. - Selected Messages, book 3, p. 217
August 6th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
You already have some of my favorites above. Also:
“The disciples of Christ had a deep sense of their own inefficiency, and with humiliation and prayer they joined their weakness to His strength, their ignorance to His wisdom, their unworthiness to His righteousness, their poverty to His exhaustless wealth. Thus strengthened and equipped, they hesitated not to press forward in the service of the Master.” - Acts of the Apostles, p. 57
“Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His.” - Desire of Ages, p. 25
And, finally, my husband’s all-time favorite:
“Lemon pie should not be forbidden.” - Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 334
August 6th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
“The closer you come to Jesus, the more faulty you will appear in your own eyes; for your vision will be clearer, and your imperfections will be seen in broad and distinct contrast to His perfect nature” (Steps to Christ, p. 44).
“When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own” (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 69).
August 7th, 2007 at 1:40 am
Some of my favourite quotes are those where Ellen’s language gets real colloquial-usually when she feels very strongly about something:
Lay Sister White right to one side: lay her to one side. Don’t you never quote my words again as long as you live, until you can obey the Bible. When you take the Bible and make that your food, and your meat, and your drink, and make that the elements of your character, when you can do that you will know better how to receive some counsel from God. But here is the Word, the precious Word, exalted before you today. And don’t you give a rap any more what “Sister White said”—“Sister White said this,” and “Sister White said that,” and “Sister White said the other thing.” But say, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,” and then you do just what the Lord God of Israel does, and what he says.
Spalding and Magan Collection, p167.
“And here is the [basis of some people’s] health reform: ‘Now I have told you Sister White did not eat meat. Now I want you not to eat meat, because Sister White does not eat it.’ Well, I would not give—I would not care a farthing for anything like that. If you have not got any better conviction—you won’t eat meat because Sister White does not eat any—if I am the authority, I would not give a farthing for your health reform. What I want is that every one of you should stand in your individual dignity before God, in your individual consecration to God, that the soul-temple shall be dedicated to God. ‘Whosoever defileth the temple of God, him will God destroy,’ Now I want you to think of these things, and do not make any human being your criterion.”
Ms 43a, 1901, p. 13.
“Let the law take care of itself. We have been at work on the law until we are as dry as the hills of Gilboa….Let us trust in the merits of Jesus….May God help us that our eyes are anointed with eyesalve, that we may see.”
Manuscript 10, 1890.
I also like:
“Recommend your religion to [your children] by its pleasantness. Let the law of kindness be on your lips.” (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p98)
August 7th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
If we look at the comments Phil left and then comments Hobbes left, we can see how completely balanced EGW was. What is it about her writings that make us so unbalanced one way or the other? Or another question, why is that we accept people’s perspective to be different than ours when it comes to the WORD of GOD based on their cultural experience. But when it comes to EGW it doesn’t matter what cultural experience you have had you have to see what she wrote “my way.” Her writings are so beautiful, too bad we make them so ugly.
Chad
August 7th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
“It is no part of Christ’s mission to compel men to receive Him. It is Satan, and men actuated by his spirit, that seek to compel the conscience. Under a pretense of zeal for righteousness, men who are confederate with evil angels bring suffering upon their fellow men, in order to convert them to their ideas of religion; but Christ is ever showing mercy, ever seeking to win by the revealing of His love. He can admit no rival in the soul, nor accept of partial service; but He desires only voluntary service, the willing surrender of the heart under the constraint of love. There can be no more conclusive evidence that we possess the spirit of Satan than the disposition to hurt and destroy those who do not appreciate our work, or who act contrary to our ideas. ”
Desire of Ages, page 487
August 10th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Alden Thompson shared this one with me (he has created an interesting anthology of quotes that is worth seeing–I’m sure he would share it if asked):
“[. . . ] We cannot then take a position that the unity of the church consists in viewing every text of Scripture in the very same light. The church may pass resolution upon resolution to put down all disagreement of opinions, but we cannot force the mind and will, and root out disagreement. These resolutions may conceal the discord, but they cannot quench it and establish perfect agreement. [. . .]” (MS 24, 1892; The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials 3:1092-93)
August 10th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
“The Least of These My Bretheren,” (whole chapter) from Desire of Ages. Read it and weep.
August 10th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
“All His biddings are enablings.” Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 333 (I think).
That’s always been my favourite EG White quote, although I hadn’t heard the one about lemon pie before … that’s good too.
August 10th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
The Savior is still carrying forward the same work as when He proffered the water of life to the woman of Samaria. Thos who call themselves His followers may despise and shun the outcast ones, but no circumstance of rith or nationality, no condition of life, can turn away His love from the children of men. DA 194
All the perplexities of life’s experience will then [in heaven] be made plain. Where to us have appeared ohnly confusion and disappointment, broken purposes and thwarted plans, will be seen a grand, overruling, victorious purpose, a divine harmony. Educ. 305
Come in humility, with a heart full of tenderness, and with a sense of the temptations before yourself and your children; by faith, bind them upon the altar, entreating for them the care of the Lord. Ministering angels will guard children who are thus dedicated to God. Child Guidance 519
The more we study the divine character in the light of the cross, the more we see mercy, tenderness and forgiveness blended with equity and justice, and the more clearly we discern innumerable evidences of a love that is infinite and a tender pity surpassing a mother’s yearning sympathy for her wayward child. S to C, 15
The Creator of all ideas may impress different minds with the same thought,
but each may express it in a different way, yet without contradiction. The fact that this difference exists should not perplex or confuse us. It is seldom that two persons will view and express truth in the very same way. Each dwells on particular points which his constitution and education have fitted him to appreciate. The sunlight falling upon the different objects gives those objects a different hue. Selected. Messages Vol. I, 22
No one has a right to control another’s mind, and judge for another, prescribing what is his duty. There are certain rights that belong to every individual, in doing God’s service. No man has any more right to take these rights from us than to take life itself. God has given us freedom to think, and it is our privilege and duty always to be a doer of the Word, and to follow our impressions of duty. We are only human beings, and one human being has no jurisdiction over the conscience of any other human being. Letter 92, 1895
. . .no man who has the true ideal of what constitutes a perfect character will fail to manifest the sympathy and tenderness of Christ. The influence of grace is to soften the heart, to refine and purify the feelings, giving a heaven-born delicacy and sense of propriety. . .A religion that leads men to place a low estimate upon human beings, whom Christ has esteemed of such value as to give Himself for them; a religion that would lead us to be careless of human needs, sufferings, or rights, is a spurious religion. . .It is because men take upon themselves the name of Christ, while in life they deny His character, that Christianity has so little power in the world.” Mt of Blessings, 135-7
August 12th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Here’s a collection of quotes on how White felt her writings should be used and interpreted:
Selected Messages, vol. 1, pp. 19, 20: “The stamps of minds are different. All do not understand expressions and statements alike. Some understand the statements of Scriptures to suit their own particular minds and cases. Prepossessions, prejudices, and passions have a strong influence to darken the understanding and confuse the mind even in reading the words of Holy Writ.”
Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 227, 228: “There is a class of people who are always ready to go off on some tangent, who want to catch up something strange and wonderful and new; but God would have all move calmly, considerately, choosing our words in harmony with the solid truth for this time, which requires to be presented to the mind as free from that which is emotional as possible, while still bearing the intensity and solemnity that it is proper it should bear. We should guard against creating extremes, guard against encouraging those who would either be in the fire or in the water.”
Selected Messages, vol. 3, pp. 285, 286: There are “those who select from the testimonies the strongest expressions and, without bringing in or making any account of the circumstances under which the cautions and warnings are given, make them of force in every case. Thus they produce unhealthy impressions upon the minds of the people. There are always those who are ready to grasp anything of a character which they can use to rein up people to a close, severe test, and who will work elements of their own characters into the reforms…. Picking out some things in the testimonies they drive them upon everyone, and disgust rather than win souls.”
Sected Messages, vol. 3, p. 217: “My mind has been greatly stirred in regard to the idea, ‘Why, Sister White has said so and so, and Sister White has said so and so; and there we are going right up to it.’ … God wants us all to have common sense, and He wants us to reason from common sense. Circumstances alter conditions. Circumstances change the relation of things.”
Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 43: “When it suits your purpose you treat the Testimonies as if you believed them, quoting from them to strengthen any statement you wish to have prevail. But how is it when light is given to correct your errors? Do you then accept the Light? When the Testimonies speak contrary to your ideas, you treat them very lightly.”
Manuscript 43a, 1901: “Do not pick flaws any more. O, I see enough buzzards, and I see enough vultures that are trying and watching for dead bodies; but we . . . want nothing of that. We want no picking and picking and picking of flaws in others. Attend to Number One, and you have got all that you have got to do. If you attend to Number One, and if you will purify your souls by obeying the truth, you will have something to impart, you will have a power to give to others”
Now, by James White in Review and Herald, 3/17/1868: “Mrs. White needs the help of all who can help in the cause of truth and reform. The people generally are slow to move, and hardly move at all. A few move cautiously an dwell, while others go too fast…. He who sees the duty of reform, and is full strict enough in any case, and allows of no exceptions, and drives matters, is sure to drive the reform into the ground, hurt his own soul, and injure others. Such do not help Mrs. White, but greatly burden her in her arduous work…. She works to this disadvantage, namely: she makes strong appeals to the people, which a few feel deeply, and take strong positions, and go to extremes. Then to save the cause from ruin in consequence of these extremes, she is obliged to come out with reproofs fro extremists in a public manner. This is better than to have things go to pieces… [but] Here is the difficulty: What she may say to urge the tardy, is taken by the prompt to urge them over the mark. And what she may say to caution the prompt, zealous, incautious ones, is taken by the tardy as an excuse to remain too far behind.”
June 19th, 2008 at 5:37 am
My favorite quotes are already on the list but I’d like to share this one:
“Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invicible, than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly on God.”
June 19th, 2008 at 5:41 am
Prophets and Kings, p. 175
June 19th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Regarding “Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invicible, than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly on God.” This can be misunderstood to be the degradation of the human(self-loathing low self-esteem) and the exaltation of the divine(didn’t Satan want to be worshiped?). Some teach self-exaltation as the cure for self-degradation. This is a corrupt heresy. Self degradation and self-exaltation are both self-centered. Focus on Responsibility. Forget Self. I prefer the concept of human-divine communion and cooperation. Personal responsibility and self-reliant rugged-individualism combined with a teachable, non-arrogant, total-receptiveness to the work of God, both seen and unseen. “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.”