For some reason Ellen White's editorial staff saw fit to change the words that God had given her. Here is the result:
Human minds vary. The minds of different education and thought receive different impressions of the same words, and it is difficult for one mind to give to one of a different temperament, education, and habits of thought by language exactly the same idea as that which is clear and distinct in his own mind.
Selected Messages, vol 1, page 19
To properly understand the counsel given in Manuscript 24, we need to keep in mind the following helpful rules of interpretation:
O, that I could talk in the language of Canaan, then could I tell a little of the glory of the upper world
Word To The Little Flock
Yet now when I send you a testimony of warning and reproof, many of you declare it to be merely the opinion of Sister White. You have thereby insulted the Spirit of God. You know how the Lord has manifested Himself through the spirit of prophecy. Past, present, and future have passed before me.
Testimonies, vol 5, page 65
In these letters which I write, in the testimonies I bear, I am presenting to you that which the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision–the precious rays of light shining from the throne.
Testimonies, vol 5, page 67
It has been presented to me that, so far as possible, I am to impart instruction in the language of the Scriptures; for there are those whose spiritual discernment is confused, and when their errors are reproved, they will misinterpret and misapply what I might write, and thus make of none-effect the words of warning that the Lord sends. He desires that the messages He sends shall be recognized as the words of eternal truth.
Letter 280, 1906, p. 4. (To "My Brethren and Sisters in Denver and Boulder," August 27, 1906.) (5MR 151.1)
The Lord speaks to human beings in imperfect speech, in order that the degenerate senses, the dull, earthly perception, of earthly beings may comprehend His words.
Selected Messages, vol 1, page 22