I was pointed back to a meeting in ——. Brother P felt the burden of the cause, but R had a spirit of opposition. His testimony was not in union with the work of God, and he brought grief and burden upon those who were laboring for its advancement. But it would have been better for the cause had he been suffered a time longer, and the brethren borne the confusion he caused. I saw that Brother P moved unwisely in his case. It gave R and the enemies of our faith the advantage. Brother P should have waited until R's religious character was more fully developed. He would soon either have united with the remnant people of God or been left one side. But R obtained sympathy on account of his age. He had partaken of the spirit of the Messenger party, and his whole course was darkened by it. His wife has an excitable, bitter spirit, and has been zealous to spread false reports. She acts the part to her husband that Jezebel did to Ahab, and stirs him up to fight against the servants of God, who b…
"But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them."
Both passages address the issue of dealing with problematic individuals within a community. Matthew 13:29 advises against prematurely removing tares to avoid harming the wheat. EGW's passage describes a situation where a brother was prematurely dealt with, suggesting it would have been better to wait and let his character develop, echoing the principle of not uprooting the wheat with the tares.