A spirit of self-confidence is in keeping with your experience. Had you a more thorough experience in the things of God you would realize that the fruits you bear are bad. They contain no nourishment, but fill all who partake of them with bitterness. You must overcome your overbearing, dictatorial spirit. I have strong hope, my dear brother, that you, who have shown that you have moral courage to face an enemy in yourself, and fortitude to battle with the foe of appetite and strong evil habits which girded you about as with iron bands, will go to work right here and gain the victory. You have possessed a reckless spirit, have felt that no one cared specially for you, that almost everybody was your enemy, and that it was of no consequence what became of you. 2T 164.1 The truth found you miserable. You saw in it a power that would exalt you and impart to you the force and strength that you had not. You grasped the rays of light that shone upon you; and if you will now yield yourself full…
"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?"
The EGW passage directly applies the principle of judging by fruits, as stated in Matthew 7:16, to the individual being addressed. The 'bad fruits' are explicitly mentioned, making the connection clear and meaningful.