A Life Sketch of Mrs. White

A Life Sketch of Mrs. White

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Section Titles

Were Mrs. White's Visions Due To Nervous Disorders? Part I

Her Life an Open Book

Her First Deeply Spiritual Experience

Her First Vision

Her Public Ministry Begins

Could Expect Only Skeptical Hearing

Her Encounters With Fanatics

Deep Discouragement Overwhelms Her

The Setting of Her Visions

The Dominating Motive in Her Life

Letters Reveal Her Personality

Extracts From Her Diary

Her View of Parent-Child Relationship

Her Resourcefulness Revealed

Her Pioneering in Medical Work

Public Visions and Night Visions

How She Accepted Death in Her Home

She Travels to Europe

She Pioneers in Australia

Side Lights on Her Closing Years

Her Mood as Death Approaches

Were Mrs. White's Visions Due To Nervous Disorders? Part I

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Charge: Mrs. White's so-called visions were simply the result of nervous

disorders. She suffered a blow on the head from a stone thrown at her at the

age of nine that affected her nervous system. Medical works in the sections

entitled "Hysteria," "Epilepsy," and "Schizophrenia" describe her case

exactly. Physicians who knew her well also thus described her.

It is through visions that God communicates with His prophets. If certain

singular manifestations in the experience of an individual, which he claims

are visions, are explainable on purely natural grounds, his claim to be the

possessor of the prophetic gift collapses.

The favorite method by which critics of all things heavenly, including the

Bible, have tried to prove their case is by attempting to show that the

supernatural incidents described in Holy Writ can be explained on a physical

or material basis; for example, that Paul's experience on the road to

Damascus was simply an epileptic fit.

This charge against Mrs. White was first formulated in 1887 by D. M.

Canright shortly after he left the Adventist ministry. Through the years he

amplified the charge, and from him almost all other critics of Mrs. White

have drawn. He charged that she was afflicted with "a complication of

hysteria, epilepsy, catalepsy and ecstasy." He focused almost exclusively on

the first two, however, for the last two have a dubious status in medical

literature as distinct disease entities.

Attention should be called, at the outset, to two primary weaknesses in this

charge as it has been made through the years:

[27]

1. The medical authorities quoted as proofs are almost invariably works

current at the opening of the twentieth century, or earlier. But most of

what is certainly known today in the field of mental maladies has been

acquired since that date, and has greatly revised our ideas of mental

maladies.

2. A diagnosis has been reached simply by examining a few isolated incidents

in Mrs. White's life, so-called symptoms of mental disorder, without

considering her whole case history, or her life history, as the layman would

say. The first step that a reputable psychiatrist takes when confronted with

a person who seems to display symptoms of abnormality is to secure a case

history. If the case is at all unusual, he would not even attempt a

diagnosis without this history. Hysteria, for example, is not simply a group

of symptoms; it is a group of interrelated symptoms in a particular

individual, who because of this malady is a distinctive kind of personality.

The different symptoms are like so many brush strokes; together they serve

to produce a certain picture, with a certain hue. Different color

combinations produce different pictures, even though the ultimately

different pictures may seem to the untrained eye to contain many

similarities in the colors applied by the brush strokes. Who of us has not

seen an artist on the public platform making stroke after stroke on a

sketch, and constantly causing us to change our idea of what he was

painting, as he added a color here or a line there? We were able to draw a

correct conclusion as to the picture he was creating only when all the lines

and all the tints had been applied. Thus with the diagnosis of a case in the

field of psychiatry.

In our examination of this charge we shall:

1. Give a case history-a life sketch-of Mrs. White.

2. Set forth the facts concerning her condition in vision, and compare this

condition with that of Bible prophets.

3. Present certain currently known facts about epilepsy, hysteria, and

schizophrenia.

4. Examine certain evidence and medical testimony that are alleged to prove

that Mrs. White was abnormal.

[28]

Her Life an Open Book

[Top of Document]

The description of Mrs. White's life that we shall briefly give is drawn

mostly from Seventh-day Adventist publications, largely her autobiographical

sketches, which are available to the public. No one, so far as we have been

able to discover, has challenged the published description of her life.

If Mrs. White was an epileptic, a hysteric, or a schizophrenic, with the

personality and characteristics that belong to such people, there would

surely be many incidents in her life, if the facts concerning them were

known, that would prove embarrassing. Yet Adventists have never sought to

hide any facts concerning her. We hardly could have done so if we had tried.

For seventy years she was before the public, and thus her life, like that of

most other public personages, was an open book. From that open book both

friend and foe alike can draw. But how meager indeed is the evidence on

which to build even the appearance of a case against her! That fact is

significant. We wish now to show that when the fuller picture of her life is

presented the bits of so-called evidence lose whatever apparent weight they

had.

Mrs. E. G. White, born Ellen Gould Harmon, began life at Gorham, Maine,

November 26, 1827. While she was a small child her parents moved to

Portland, Maine. At the age of nine she was struck in the face by a stone

thrown at her by another school girl. She bled profusely, lay in coma for

three weeks, and seemed about to die. But she slowly recovered a measure of

health. In her autobiography she thus comments on this experience:

"For two years I could not breathe through my nose. My health was so poor

that I could attend school but little. It was almost impossible for me to

study, and retain what I learned..

"I had a bad cough, which prevented me from attending school steadily. My

teacher thought it would be too much for me to study, unless my health

should be better, and advised me to leave school."-Ellen G. White, Spiritual

Gifts (1860), vol. 2, pp. 11, 12.

Her own account of her childhood years, immediately following the accident,

reveals her as exceedingly frail; in fact her health was so poor that she

did not attend school after she was twelve

[29]

years old. She complained of a bad cough. She was deeply religious, and

refers to the effect produced on her by the preaching of the doctrine of

hell fire: "The horrors of an eternally burning hell were ever before

me."-Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, p. 32. She tells of praying for long

hours in great anguish.

This was her experience when she was not more than fourteen or fifteen years

old. About this time she talked with a kindly minister who spoke to her of

the love of God, and her fears were greatly relieved.

Her First Deeply Spiritual Experience

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She then joined with others in a prayer meeting conducted at the home of a

relative:

"As I prayed, the burden and agony of soul that I had so long endured, left

me, and the blessing of the Lord descended upon me like the gentle dew. I

praised God from the depths of my heart. Everything seemed shut out from me

but Jesus and His glory, and I lost consciousness of what was passing around

me.

"The Spirit of God rested upon me with such power that I was unable to go

home that night. When I awakened to realization, I found myself cared for in

the house of my uncle, where we had assembled for the prayer meeting.

Neither my uncle nor my aunt enjoyed religion, although the former had once

made a profession, but had since backslidden. I was told that he had been

greatly disturbed while the power of God rested upon me in so special a

manner, and had walked the floor, sorely troubled and distressed in his

mind.

"When I was first struck down, some of those present were greatly alarmed,

and were about to run for a physician, thinking that some sudden and

dangerous indisposition had attacked me; but my mother bade them let me

alone, for it was plain to her, and to the other experienced Christians,

that it was the wondrous power of God that had prostrated me. When I did

return home, on the following day, a great change had taken place in my

mind. It seemed to me that I could hardly be the same person that left my

father's house the previous evening..

"Faith now took possession of my heart. I felt an inexpressible love for

God, and had the witness of His Spirit that my sins were pardoned. My views

of the Father were changed. I now looked upon Him as a kind and tender

parent, rather than a stern tyrant compelling men to a blind obedience. My

heart went out toward Him in a deep and fervent love. Obedience to His will

seemed a joy; it was a pleasure to be in His service..

"My peace and happiness were in such marked contrast with my former

[30]

gloom and anguish that it seemed to me as if I had been rescued from hell

and transported to heaven. I could even praise God for the misfortune that

had been the trial of my life, for it had been the means of fixing my

thoughts upon eternity. Naturally proud and ambitious, I might not have

been inclined to give my heart to Jesus had it not been for the sore

affliction that had cut me off, in a manner, from the triumphs and vanities

of the world."-Ibid., pp. 38, 39.?

She, with other members of her family, accepted William Miller's preaching

on the Second Advent of Christ. Of the year preceding the expected Advent,

she wrote: "This was the happiest year of my life."-Ibid., p. 59.

Her First Vision

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About two months after the disappointment of October 22, 1844, she had her

first vision.? She introduces her account of what she saw, with this brief

statement:

"I was visiting Mrs. Haines at Portland, a dear sister in Christ, whose

heart was knit with mine; five of us, all women, were kneeling quietly at

the family altar. While we were praying, the power of God came upon me as I

had never felt it before."-Ibid., p. 64.

About a week later she had a second vision:

"The Lord gave me a view of the trials through which I must pass, and told

me that I must go and relate to others what He had revealed to me..

"After I came out of this vision I was exceedingly troubled, for it pointed

out my duty to go out among the people and present the truth. My health was

so poor that I was in constant bodily suffering, and to all appearance had

but a short time to live. I was only seventeen years of age, small and

frail, unused to society, and naturally so timid and retiring that it was

painful for me to meet strangers."-Ibid., p. 69.

She struggled against this call to go out and tell others what she had seen

in vision:

"I coveted death as a release from the responsibilities that were crowding

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The "misfortune" was the accident of being struck with a stone that broke

her nose and thus somewhat disfigured her.

? For persons to be prostrated in connection with deeply religious services

was not uncommon in the early nineteenth century. Prominent evangelists

often noted the fact and referred to those thus laid low as "the slain of

the Lord."

? This date is established by Mrs. White's statement in a letter to Joseph

Bates, written from Gorham, Maine, July 13, 1847.

[31]

upon me. At length the sweet peace I had so long enjoyed left me, and

despair again pressed upon my soul."-Ibid., p. 70.

She seems to have found some release from this distress of soul in

connection with an earnest prayer service, in which a number of persons

engaged.

Though exceedingly young, she revealed an amazing understanding of the

temptations that trouble the human heart. Said she:

"One great fear that had oppressed me was that if I obeyed the call of duty,

and went out declaring myself to be one favored of the Most High with

visions and revelations for the people, I might yield to sinful exaltation,

and be lifted above the station that was right for me to occupy, bring upon

myself the displeasure of God, and lose my own soul. I had known of such

cases, and my heart shrank from the trying ordeal.

"I now entreated that if I must go and relate what the Lord had shown me, I

should be preserved from undue exaltation. Said the angel: 'Your prayers are

heard, and shall be answered. If this evil that you dread threatens you, the

hand of God will be stretched out to save you; by affliction He will draw

you to Himself, and preserve your humility.'"-Ibid., pp. 71, 72.

Her Public Ministry Begins

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Then began, almost immediately, a public ministry of preaching, counseling,

and writing, that was to continue for seventy years in rather steadily

increasing volume, or until almost the time of her death, in 1915. Her first

speaking appointment away from Portland, was in Poland, Maine, thirty miles

from her home. Of this she wrote:

"For three months my throat and lungs had been so diseased that I could talk

but little, and that in a low and husky tone. On this occasion I stood up in

meeting and commenced to speak in a whisper. I continued thus for about five

minutes, when the soreness and obstruction left me, my voice became clear

and strong, and I spoke with perfect ease and freedom for nearly two hours.

When my message Was ended, my voice was gone until I again stood before the

people, when the same singular restoration was repeated. I felt a constant

assurance that I was doing the will of God, and saw marked results attending

my efforts."-Ibid., pp. 72, 73.

The first years of her public ministry were, in some respects, the hardest

of all. Not only was she young and frail and unaccustomed to public life,

but she had behind her no well-knit church

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organization to give to her either financial or moral support. She began to

preach in the days immediately following the great disappointment of the

Advent believers. The once-large united company, who had been joyfully

looking for their Lord to return, had created no church organization during

the brief years of their anticipation, and in their disappointment naturally

tended to fall apart into diverse groups, perplexed, bewildered, and

sometimes contentious. When they met together in different places it was

generally in homes, though sometimes in rented halls. Nor was there any paid

ministry to care for these different companies of believers.

Under such conditions it was inevitable that discordant theological views

would develop and bring division. And, as noted, such companies were

subjected, at times, to incursions by that strange, unstable kind of person,

the fanatic, who is like a fly in the ointment. It does not take many such

persons to bring even the best religion into bad odor, to say nothing of

bringing distress and confusion to simplehearted, trusting people.

We need this sketch of the kind of world into which Ellen Harmon moved in

order to evaluate correctly her character and her work. Picture a young

woman, seventeen, frail, timid, poor, starting out under the tremendous

conviction that she must preach to these Advent companies what God had given

to her by special revelation. No wonder that she wrote: "I coveted death as

a release from the responsibilities that were crowding upon me." From the

time she started her public life in 1845, she found herself confronted with

problems that would have taxed the resourcefulness and resoluteness of a

seasoned minister.

Could Expect Only Skeptical Hearing

[Top of Document]

There was an added factor that made still more difficult her work. While the

Advent movement had existed as a well-defined group, the caution had been

repeatedly sounded by the principal leaders that the believers should be on

their guard against those who thought they had received dreams and visions

from the Lord. All this was to the credit of the leaders, who, knowing

something

[33]

of church history, were aware that the movement would be troubled by deluded

persons who hoped to find in such a spiritually awakened group an attentive

audience for their hallucinations, false visions, and dreams. It has always

been the tragedy of religion that the genuine graces and gifts of the Spirit

have been so frequently imitated that prudent Christians, to say nothing of

the skeptical world, have been slow to accept the genuine when it has

appeared.

Thus Ellen Harmon could expect, not a receptive hearing, but rather a

critical, skeptical one. The very fact that fanatics had imposed, at times,

on different companies of Adventists, only made such companies doubly

skeptical.

Even if she had had a stout heart and a strong nervous constitution, she

might have quailed at the thought of launching out on Such a mission. That

she did go forth in weakness and fear proves at least this much at the

outset, she was no self-seeking person, in search of gain or fame.

Her Encounters With Fanatics

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The autobiographical sketch of those first few years reveals that Ellen

Harmon no sooner set out on her public ministry than she met, head on, the

discordant elements and the fanatics that sought to gain control of

Adventist groups or companies. The record is clear that she spoke with vigor

and great definiteness against all such. As she traveled and met with

different companies she experienced from time to time the singular spiritual

exercises that she declares were visions from God. She refers to her visions

in simple, brief language. The actual descriptions of her in vision are

given by others, and these will be presented in the next chapter.

At one of the first places she visited, where certain men were troubling the

church with great pretensions of piety, she had this

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There were, of course, exceptions. Of her first vision, or view, she says:

"I told the view to our little band in Portland, who then fully believed it

to be of God."-A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G.

White (hereafter referred to by the short title Experience and Views), p. 5.

For Joseph Bates's own account of how he came to believe in the genuineness

of her visions, see Appendix D, p. 581.

[34]

experience: "During family prayer that night, the Spirit of the Lord rested

upon me, and I was taken off in vision."-Spiritual Gifts, vol. 2, p. 48. In

the few lines that follow she tells how God revealed to her the true

character of these impostors. A little later, in another place, she was

suffering great pain because of an injury received in falling from a wagon.

She wrote: "Sister Foss joined with me in pleading for God's blessing, and

for relief from pain. About midnight the blessing sought rested upon me.

Those in the house were awakened by hearing my voice while in vision."-Ibid.

A little later she describes a meeting in Portland, Maine, that was

appointed in order for her to relate what had been shown to her. Then she

adds immediately, "While praying for strength to discharge that painful

duty, I was taken off in vision."-Ibid., p. 49.

Deep Discouragement Overwhelms Her

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As might be expected, she met with bitter opposition from those whose lives

she had exposed, and from some who were averse to the very idea of a young

woman's standing before them to speak with authority concerning Christian

conduct and the Christian life. At one point in her earliest public years

the opposition became so great that her spirit seemed to be overwhelmed. She

wrote, "Discouragements pressed heavily; and the condition of God's people

so filled me with anguish that for two weeks my mind wandered."-Ibid., p.

51.

A little later in her narrative she refers again to this incident as "the

two weeks of my extreme sickness, when my mind wandered, as stated on page

51."-Ibid., p. 69.

To add to her distress of heart, some skeptical persons in the church

companies with which she met, declared that her visions were simply

"excitement and mesmerism," that is, hypnotism.

To offset the depression and doubt that pressed upon her own

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The word mesmerism comes from Mesmer, the name of the man who had only a

little before set forth startling ideas on hypnotism. The words hypnotism

and mesmerism are synonymous. It was quite the vogue in the mid-nineteenth

century to explain certain phenomena in the lives of people who seemed not

to be acting according to the standard, normal pattern, as the result of

mesmerism.

[35]

mind as a result of the charge that her visions were only mesmerism, she

went alone to pray at times. On some of these occasions she was given a

vision. We quote, "The sweet light of heaven shone around me, and there have

I been taken off in vision."-Ibid., p. 57.

But she was not entirely freed of the doubts that were pressed upon her by

those who charged "mesmerism." To this was added the depression of spirit

that came when some falsely charged her as being the leader of the

fanaticism that she was trying to stop. Says she:

"All these things weighed heavily upon my spirits, and in the confusion, I

was sometimes tempted to doubt my own experience. And while at family

worship one morning, the power of God began to rest upon me, and the thought

rushed into my mind that it was mesmerism, and I resisted it. Immediately I

was struck dumb, and for a few moments was lost to everything around me. I

then saw my sin in doubting the power of God, and that for so doing I was

struck dumb, and that my tongue should be loosed in less than twenty-four

hours..

"After I came out of vision, I beckoned for the slate, and wrote upon it

that I was dumb, also what I had seen.. Next morning my tongue was loosed to

shout the praises of God. After that, I dared not doubt my experience, or

for a moment resist the power of God, however others might think of

me."-Ibid., pp. 59, 60.

The Setting of Her Visions

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As we turn the pages of her earliest autobiographical work, we find

repeatedly sentences like these:

"The meeting commenced with prayer. Then as I tried to pray, the blessing of

the Lord rested upon me, and I was taken off in vision."-Ibid., p. 64.

"In the afternoon the blessing of the Lord rested upon me, and I was taken

off in vision."-Ibid., p. 76.

That is the usual picture she paints of the prelude to a vision-a religious

setting, prayer around a family circle, with her own prayer generally

offering a transition point between the world of earthly things and the

world of vision. Sometimes the transition point was a public sermon, when

she was addressing a company.

There were instances, however, when her visions were preceded by attacks of

illness that were marked by fainting. She recounts

[36]

a number of visions, such as we have already noted, before the following

incident took place:

"I was suddenly taken ill and fainted. The brethren prayed for me, and I was

restored to consciousness. The Spirit of God rested upon us in Bro. C.'s

humble dwelling, and I was wrapt in a vision of God's glory."-Ibid., p. 83.

On August 30, 1846, she married James White, a young Adventist preacher who

had been active in the Millerite movement. To this union were born four

sons.

The years of their early married life provide a record of stark poverty

coupled with poor health, for neither husband nor wife had a rugged

constitution. She wrote:

"We were poor, and saw close times. We had resolved not to be dependent, but

to support ourselves, and have something with which to help others..

"We endeavored to keep up good courage, and trust in the Lord. I did not

murmur. In the morning I felt grateful to God that He had preserved us

through another night, and at night I was thankful that He had kept us

through another day."-Life Sketches, p. 105.

As to Mrs. White's mental attitude when in bodily danger we have this that

she records of a boat trip from Portland to Boston when a great storm broke.

Among the passengers there was much weeping and praying. A woman asked her,

"Are you not terrified?" Of her reply she wrote:

"I told her I had made Christ my refuge, and if my work was done, I might as

well lie in the bottom of the ocean as in any other place; but if my work

was not done, all the waters of the ocean could not drown me. My trust was

in God, that he would bring us safe to land if it was for his

glory."-Spiritual Gifts, vol. 2, pp. 85, 86.

The Dominating Motive in Her Life

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There was one thought above all others that controlled the minds of James

and Ellen White. They firmly believed that despite William Miller's mistaken

interpretation of Daniel 8:13, 14, which led him to set a date for the day

of Christ's coming, Bible prophecy made clear that the day of the personal

Advent of our Lord was near at hand. With this they coupled the belief that

the great

[37]

Advent Awakening had come as a result of prophecy, and that the Advent

believers should go forward to complete their work of warning and making

ready a people prepared to meet their God. These beliefs led this youthful

couple to dedicate themselves to the task of quickening again the faith of

the Advent believers by correcting the prophetic error, and of stimulating

them to new zeal by presenting the prophetic evidence that a further work

lay ahead.

Mrs. White's faith and forward look was often greater than that of her

husband, and it was rather uniformly greater than that of others who were

drawn into the movement as the years went by. This is one of the most

singular facts in connection with her life. The reader is invited at this

point to turn back a moment to the opening chapter to refresh his mind on

the picture presented of the unique, primary place that she occupied through

all her years in stirring up leaders and laity alike in the movement, to

aggressive, forward action for God.

When she came out of a vision she had in November, 1848, she said to her

husband:

"I have a message for you. You must begin to print a little paper and send

it out to the people. Let it be small at first; but as the people read, they

will send you means with which to print, and it will be a success from the

first. From this small beginning it was shown to me to be like streams of

light that went clear round the world."-Life Sketches, p. 125.

When she spoke those words there was literally only a small handful of men

who were committed to the distinctive doctrines that later were to

characterize the movement now known over the world as the Seventh-day

Adventist Church. There was no money; there was no trained personnel with

which to set up a publishing work. But those most closely associated with

Mrs. White and who thus had the best opportunity to evaluate her spiritual

claims, took her words seriously. Out of that vision has grown a

world-circling publishing work.

She did not suddenly cast a hypnotic spell over all who came within the

sound of her voice. Those who heard her were in full possession of their

faculties and free will. Slowly but surely the

[38]

evidence of her work and preaching impressed itself on some who listened and

watched, and the number who took her claims soberly and seriously grew

steadily. That is a simple statement of fact, and we think it an important

fact.

Letters Reveal Her Personality

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A side light on Mrs. White's habits of life during those first years is

provided in this excerpt from a short letter that she wrote to "Dear Bro.

and Sister Collins" on February 10, 1850:

"The way is now fully open for James [her husband] to go forward in

publishing the Present Truth. We love you and love to hear from you. We

should have written you before but we have no certain abiding place, but

have traveled in rain, snow and blow with the child from place to place. I

could not get time to answer any letters and it took all James' time to

write for the paper and get out the hymn book. We do not have many idle

moments. Now we are settled, I can have more time to write."-Letter 4, 1850.

A letter that she wrote to "Dear Brother Hastings" on March 18, 1850, on the

death of his wife, contains these closing lines:

"Dear Brother Hastings, sorrow not as those who have no hope. The grave can

hold her but a little while. Hope thou in God and cheer up dear Brother, and

you will meet her in a little while. We will not cease to pray for the

blessing of God to rest upon your family and you. God will be your sun and

your shield. He will stand by you in this your deep affliction and trial.

Endure the trial well and you will receive a crown of glory with your

companion at the appearing of Jesus."

Of her resolute courage to go forward in her work, despite her distress of

heart in being separated from her children, we read in a letter she wrote to

a "Dear Brother and Sister Loveland," December 13, 1850:

"I had the privilege of being with my oldest boy two weeks. He is a lovely

dispositioned boy. He became So attached to his mother, it was hard to be

separated from him; but as our time is all employed in writing and folding

and wrapping papers, I am denied the privilege of having his company. My

other little one is many hundred miles from me. Sometimes Satan tempts me to

complain and think my lot is a hard one, but I will not harbor this

temptation. I should not want to live unless I could live to do some good to

others."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first paper published by the group of Sabbathkeeping Adventists.

[39]

The space limits of this chapter prevent our going into endless details

concerning the early years of Mrs. White's public ministry, nor is it

necessary to do so in order to give a clear picture. As we read the life

sketch she wrote, we find there the record, page after page, of the arduous

travel and preaching of both her and her husband, despite their poor health.

She refers to an experience in 1854 which she describes, in the language of

that day, as "a shock upon my left side.. My tongue seemed heavy and numb; I

could not speak plainly. My left arm and side were helpless."-Life Sketches,

p. 151. She describes a similar experience in 1858, and adds, "It was my

third shock of paralysis."-Ibid., p. 162. It was some time before "the

effect of the shock had entirely left me."-Ibid., p. 163.

Here is the way she describes a vision she received early in the year 1858:

"On Sunday afternoon there was a funeral service at the schoolhouse where

our meetings were being held. My husband was invited to speak. He was

blessed with freedom, and the words spoken seemed to affect the hearers.

"When he had closed his remarks, I felt urged by the Spirit of the Lord to

bear my testimony. As I was led to speak upon the coming of Christ and the

resurrection, and the cheering hope of the Christian, my soul triumphed in

God; I drank in rich draughts of salvation. Heaven, sweet heaven, was the

magnet to draw my soul upward, and I was wrapped in a vision of God's glory.

Many important matters were there revealed to me for the church."-Ibid., pp.

161, 162.

Extracts From Her Diary

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A diary that Mrs. White kept for some years throws light on her personality.

Though she had to travel much, she remained at home as often as possible. In

fact, her autobiography and other writings frequently reveal how keenly she

suffered in being separated from her children. She was not an impractical,

dreamy type of person, introspective and far removed from the workaday

world. Her diary, for example, tells of her making "a pair of pants," and

sewing "a coat for Edson [her son]," and "a mattress for the lounge." Again,

she tells of laboring "hard all day on a dress to wear through the mud."

(Diary, March 25, 28, April 26, 1859.)

[40]

One day, in the spring of 1859, was spent "making a garden for my children,"

because, as she explained, she wanted "to make home . the pleasantest place

of any to them."-Diary, April 11, 1859.

Referring, many years later, to the discipline she employed in rearing her

sons, she wrote:

"I never allowed my children to think that they could plague me in their

childhood.. Never did I allow myself to say a harsh word.. When my spirit

was stirred, or when I felt anything like being provoked, I would say,

'Children, we shall let this rest now; we shall not say anything more about

it now. Before you retire, we shall talk it over.' Having all this time to

reflect, by evening they had cooled off, and I could handle them very

nicely."-MS. 82, 1901.

Another diary entry in 1859 reads thus:

"Walked to the office. Called to see Sister Sarah [belden] and mother. Sarah

gave me a little dress and two aprons for Sister Ratel's babe.. I rode down

to the city and purchased a few things. Bought a little dress for Sister

Ratel's babe. Came to the office, assisted them a little there and then came

home to dinner. Sent the little articles to Sister Ratel. Mary Lough-borough

sends her another dress, so she will do very well now.

"Oh, that all knew the sweetness of giving to the poor, of helping do others

good and making others happy. The Lord open my heart to do all in my power

to relieve those around me-give me to feel my brother's woe!"-Diary, March

1, 1859.

An entry on April 21 includes a reference to another poor family. Here are

two sentences: "We have contributed a mite for their relief, about seven

dollars. Purchased them different things to eat, and carried it to them."

Her View of Parent-Child Relationship

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In 1863 Mrs. White had a vision in which she saw certain principles that

should control the lives of parents in relation to their children. We quote

a few lines from what she wrote, because they so definitely throw light on

her character and her conception of social and family relations.

"I have been shown that while parents who have the fear of God before them

restrain their children, they should study their dispositions and

temperaments,

[41]

peraments, and seek to meet their wants. Some parents attend carefully to

the temporal wants of their children; they kindly and faithfully nurse them

in sickness, and then think their duty done. Here they mistake. Their work

has but just begun. The wants of the mind should be cared for. It requires

skill to apply the proper remedies to cure a wounded mind. Children have

trials just as hard to bear, just as grievous in character, as those of

older persons..

"Parents, when you feel fretful, you should not commit so great a sin as to

poison the whole family with this dangerous irritability. At such times set

a double watch over yourselves, and resolve in your heart not to offend with

your lips, that you will utter only pleasant, cheerful words. Say to

yourselves, 'I will not mar the happiness of my children by a fretful word.'

By thus controlling yourselves, you will grow stronger. Your nervous system

will not be so sensitive. You will be strengthened by the principles of

right..

"The mother can and should do much toward controlling her nerves and mind

when depressed; even when she is sick, she can, if she only schools herself,

be pleasant and cheerful, and can bear more noise than she would once have

thought possible. She should not make the children feel her infirmities, and

cloud their young, sensitive minds by her depression of spirits, causing

them to feel that the house is a tomb, and the mother's room the most dismal

place in the world. The mind and nerves gain tone and strength by the

exercise of the will. The power of the will in many cases will prove a

potent soother of the nerves."-Testimonies, vol. 1, pp. 384-387.

Her Resourcefulness Revealed

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When her husband suffered a "stroke" in 1865 she decided, after he had

received months of medical care, that any real hope for his recovery

depended on his gaining a new will to live by doing some useful, even though

simple tasks. A small farm was purchased in the country some distance from

Battle Creek. We will let her son William describe an incident that reveals

her resourcefulness:

"Soon it was haying time. The grass was cut by Brother Maynard's mowing

machine. When ready to haul in, Father thought to ask that it be hauled in

by Brother Maynard's hired man who had done the mowing. To prevent this,

Mother had urgently requested Brother Maynard to say that his own work was

pressing and that it would not be convenient to send his man to haul in the

hay. I was sent to neighbor Whitefield's with a similar message. These kind

neighbors very reluctantly consented to this request, when told what

Mother's reasons were for making it. When Father sent out requests for help

with the hay, he was shocked at the answer. Then Mother said: 'Let us show

the neighbors that we can attend to the work ourselves. Willie and I

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will rake the hay and pitch it on the wagon, if you will load it and drive

the team.' To this Father was forced to consent. As we had no barn, the hay

must be stacked near the cow shed. At Mother's suggestion, Father pitched it

off the wagon, while she built up the stack. Meanwhile I was raking up

another load.

"While we were thus hard at work, some of the townspeople passed in their

carriages, and gazed with much curiosity and surprise to see the woman who

each week preached to a houseful of people, heroically engaged in treading

down hay and building a stack. But she was not in the least embarrassed; she

was intent upon the one object of securing her husband's restoration to

health, and was overjoyed to see that her efforts were succeeding."-W. C.

White, "Sketches and Memories of James and Ellen White," MS. in White

Publications Document File, No. 626.

Her Pioneering in Medical Work

[Top of Document]

The mid 1860's found Mrs. White writing at length regarding the subject of

health and the need of founding a unique kind of medical institution that

would not only seek to restore people to health-and by rational therapies

that excluded the deadly drugs of those days-but also to teach them how to

keep well. Those writings were based, she declared, on what she saw in

vision, and are the explanation for the creation of a chain of sanitariums

around the world, beginning with the Battle Creek Sanitarium.? To the

uniqueness of these institutions, to their pioneering in the fields of diet

therapy and physical therapy and health education, multitudes can testify.

As we look at Mrs. White's correspondence in the 1860's and 70's we find the

date lines of the letters reading like a railway timetable. She was almost

constantly traveling to special church meetings, camp meetings, and like

gatherings over the country. In the summer of 1877, in the city of Battle

Creek, Michigan, the Women's Christian Temperance Union made a special

endeavor

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A variant of the story, written by W. C. White at another time, gives this

version of the request to the neighbors:

"She [Mrs. White] knew that her husband purposed asking his friendly

neighbors to help in getting it [the hay] into a stack. She forestalled this

by visiting the neighbors first.

"'You are driven with your own work are you not?' she asked.

"'Yes,' was the reply.

"'Then, when Elder White sends for you asking for help with his hay, just

tell him what you have told me.'"-W. C. White, "Sketches and Memories of My

Mother's Life," MS. in White Publications Document File, No. 573a.

? See, for example, Testimonies, vol. 1, pp. 485-495, 553-567,

[43]

in behalf of the temperance cause. By invitation, she spoke one Sunday

evening, under W.C.T.U. auspices, "to fully five thousand persons." (Life

Sketches, p. 221.) It was not uncommon for her to speak to large audiences

of non-Seventh-day Adventists on such subjects as temperance and the

Christian home. Because of her interest in the subject of temperance she was

invited from time to time to speak in the churches of other denominations.

For example, she writes:

"On Sunday, June 23 [1878], I spoke in the Methodist church of Salem, on the

subject of temperance. On the next Tuesday evening, I again spoke in this

church. Many invitations were tendered me to speak on temperance in various

cities and towns of Oregon, but the state of my health forbade my complying

with these requests."-Life Sketches, p. 231.

Public Visions and Night Visions

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All through these years Mrs. White had been having from time to time what we

may call public visions, that is, visions in the presence of others. She had

also been having night visions, when, shut out from all the world, she

received what she declared were revelations from God. She saw no distinction

between the two, so far as the essential nature and content of the visions

were concerned. Gradually the public visions became less in number.

One of the last, if not the last, of her public visions was given to her in

October, 1878, while she was attending the General Conference session, held

in Battle Creek, Michigan. She mentions it thus briefly:

"On Wednesday of the second week of the meeting, a few of us united in

prayer for a sister who was afflicted with despondency. While praying, I was

greatly blessed. The Lord seemed very near. I was taken off in a vision of

God's glory, and shown many things."-Ibid., p. 238.

Three pages farther on in her narrative she refers to a night vision thus:

"On the morning of Oct. 23, 1879, about two o'clock, the Spirit of the Lord

rested upon me, and I beheld scenes in the coming judgment."-Ibid., p. 241.

Mrs. White's increasing public labors never seemed to take her away from the

realm of matter-of-fact home duties. In a letter

[44]

she wrote to D. M. Canright and his wife, November 12, 1873, she said:

"I have arisen at half past five o'clock in the morning, helped Lucinda wash

dishes, have written until dark, then done necessary sewing, sitting up

until near midnight; yet we have not got sick. I have done the washings for

the family after my day's writing was done."-Letter 1, 1873.

Someone has well said that a healthy sense of humor is one of the best

evidences of a healthy, normal mind. At first blush it may startle some

readers to think of Mrs. White as having had a trace even of dry humor. But

if innocent little children may laugh, why may not a prophet of God at least

smile betimes. We think Mrs. White even chuckled when she wrote the

following lines in a letter to her husband from Oakland, California, where

she was staying for a time while he was in Battle Creek, Michigan:

"Dear Husband:

"We received your few words last night on a postal card:

"'Battle Creek, April 11. No letter from you for two days. James White.'

"This lengthy letter was written by yourself. Thank you for we know you are

living.

"No letter from James White previous to this since April 6.. I have been

anxiously waiting for something to answer."-Letter 5, 1876.

How She Accepted Death in Her Home

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During the early years death had twice visited her home, taking her youngest

son as an infant, and her oldest at the age of sixteen. Now death struck

once more, taking her husband on August 6, 1881. How great was the blow to

her is suggested by how great was the fellowship between them, a fellowship

of love and mutual respect. That fact is repeatedly revealed in their

private correspondence. They had been taken to the Battle Creek Sanitarium

only a few days before, both of them having come down with "a severe chill."

A remarkable insight into her character and her whole attitude toward life

is revealed in the following lines from her own narrative:

"Though I had not risen from my sick-bed after my husband's death, I

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was borne to the Tabernacle on the following Sabbath to attend his funeral.

At the close of the sermon I felt it a duty to testify to the value of the

Christian's hope in the hour of sorrow and bereavement. As I arose, strength

was given me, and I spoke about ten minutes, exalting the mercy and love of

God in the presence of that crowded assembly. At the close of the services I

followed my husband to Oak Hill Cemetery, where he was laid to rest until

the morning of the resurrection.

"My physical strength had been prostrated by the blow, yet the power of

divine grace sustained me in my great bereavement. When I saw my husband

breathe his last, I felt that Jesus was more precious to me than He ever had

been in any previous hour of my life. When I stood by my first-born, and

closed his eyes in death, I could say, 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath

taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' And I felt then that I had a

comforter in Jesus. And when my latest born was torn from my arms, and I

could no longer see its little head upon the pillow by my side, then I could

say, 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of

the Lord.' And when he upon whose large affections I had leaned, with whom I

had labored for thirty-five years, was taken away, I could lay my hands upon

his eyes, and say, 'I commit my treasure to Thee until the morning of the

resurrection.' .

"I keenly feel my loss, but dare not give myself up to useless grief. This

would not bring back the dead. And I am not so selfish as to wish, if I

could, to bring him from his peaceful slumber to engage again in the battles

of life. Like a tired warrior, he has lain down to sleep. I will look with

pleasure upon his resting place. The best way in which I and my children can

honor the memory of him who has fallen, is to take the work where he left

it, and in the strength of Jesus carry it forward to completion. We will be

thankful for the years of usefulness that were granted to him; and for his

sake, and for Christ's sake, we will learn from his death a lesson which we

shall never forget. We will let this bereavement make us more kind and

gentle, more forbearing, patient, and thoughtful toward the living.

"I take up my life work alone, in full confidence that my Redeemer will be

with me."-Life Sketches, pp. 252-254.

She Travels to Europe

[Top of Document]

And so she went forth bravely in the work that she had been carrying on

since 1845. We find her soon in California, traveling about to different

meetings. In 1883 she traveled eastward on a long sweep of public services.

In the summer of 1885 she went over to Europe to give her support and

strength to what was then a newly developing work. In one of her sermons

while in England

[46]

she made this statement that throws light upon her mood and attitude toward

life:

"I do not look to the end [of the world] for all the happiness; I get

happiness as I go along. Notwithstanding I have trials and afflictions, I

look away to Jesus. It is in the strait, hard places that He is right by our

side, and we can commune with Him, and lay all our burdens upon the Burden

Bearer."-Ibid., p. 292.

In writing to an overseas conference she said:

"There is little that any of you can do alone. Two or more are better than

one if you will each esteem the other better than yourself. If any of you

consider your plans and modes of labor perfect, you greatly deceive

yourselves. Counsel together with much prayer and humbleness of mind,

willing to be entreated and advised. This will bring you where God will be

your counselor." -Ibid., p. 303.

She Pioneers in Australia

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In August, 1887, Mrs. White returned to America to continue her work of

preaching and writing. Then in November, 1891, she sailed for Australia,

there to throw her energies for almost a decade into the newly developing

work in the Southern Hemisphere. During most of her first year in Australia

she suffered much from what was diagnosed as neuritis and rheumatism. For a

part of that year she continued her book writing, in addition to her

correspondence with leading workers, "propped up in bed." (See Life

Sketches, p. 338.) Looking back over this long period of illness, she wrote

to the brethren gathered in General Conference:

"All through my long affliction I have been most signally blessed of God. In

the most severe conflicts with intense pain, I realized the assurance, 'My

grace is sufficient for you.' At times when it seemed that I could not

endure the pain, when unable to sleep, I looked to Jesus by faith, and his

presence was with me, every shade of darkness rolled away, a hallowed light

enshrouded me, the very room was filled with the light of his divine

presence."-Letter, Dec. 23, 1892, quoted in Daily Bulletin of the General

Conference, Feb. 27, 1893, p. 407.

She was concerned in Australia, as she had been in America, to see a school

founded for the youth, where they could be trained in Christian principles,

and for the Adventist ministry as well.

[47]

She believed that the school should be out in the country, away from the

influences of the city. She also wished to see manual labor made a part of

the education. She believed that head and hand and heart ought to be

educated. She felt that young people should have an education, even though

they intended to labor with their hands. She prepared a written statement,

early in 1894, to stimulate interest in the founding of a school in

Australia. We quote from it to reveal, further, her outlook on life:

"We need schools in this country to educate children and youth that they may

be masters of labor, and not slaves of labor. Ignorance and idleness will

not elevate one member of the human family. Ignorance will not lighten the

lot of the hard toiler. Let the worker see what advantage he may gain in the

humblest occupation, by using the ability God has given him as an endowment.

Thus he can become an educator, teaching others the art of doing work

intelligently. He may understand what it means to love God with the heart,

the soul, the mind, and the strength. The physical powers are to be brought

into service for love to God. The Lord wants the physical strength, and you

can reveal your love for Him by the right use of your physical powers, doing

the very work which needs to be done. There is no respect of persons with

God..

"There is in the world a great deal of hard, taxing work to be done; and he

who labors without exercising the God-given powers of mind and heart and

soul, he who employs the physical strength alone, makes the work a wearisome

tax and burden. There are men with mind, heart, and soul who regard work as

a drudgery, and settle down to it with self-complacent ignorance, delving

without thought, without taxing the mental capabilities in order to do the

work better.

"There is science in the humblest kind of work; and if all would thus regard

it, they would see nobility in labor. Heart and soul are to be put into work

of any kind; then there is cheerfulness and efficiency..

"Manual occupation for the youth is essential. The mind is not to be

constantly taxed to the neglect of the physical powers. The ignorance of

physiology, and a neglect to observe the laws of health, have brought many

to the grave who might have lived to labor and study intelligently. The

proper exercise of mind and body will develop and strengthen all the

powers..

"Habits of industry will be found an important aid to the youth in resisting

temptation. Here is opened a field to give vent to their pent-up energies,

that, if not expended in useful employment, will be a continual source of

trial to themselves and to their teachers. Many kinds of labor

[48]

adapted to different persons may be devised. But the working of the land

will be a special blessing to the worker. There is a great want of

intelligent men to till the soil, who will be thorough. This knowledge will

not be a hindrance to the education essential for business or for usefulness

in any line. To develop the capacity of the soil requires thought and

intelligence. Not only will it develop muscle, but capability for study,

because the action of brain and muscle is equalized. We should so train the

youth that they will love to work upon the land, and delight in improving

it. The hope of advancing the cause of God in this country is in creating a

new moral taste in love of work, which will transform mind and

character."-Life Sketches, pp. 352-355. (Italics hers.)

Side Lights on Her Closing Years

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She returned to America in 1900, and in St. Helena, California, about

sixty-five miles north of San Francisco, purchased a place named Elmshaven,

which was to be her home until the time of her death in 1915. Though she was

seventy-two at the time of her return, she did not settle down to ease and

retirement. She traveled and preached and wrote much. During this period she

took a most active part in the founding of several medical institutions,

including a medical school.

The qualities of housewife and neighbor were as clearly evident in these

later years as in the former ones. Sometime during 1901 she made a visit to

the denominational college in Healdsburg. In connection with this visit she

journeyed by carriage to Santa Rosa to hold a Sabbath meeting. As she drove

back to Healdsburg, this little incident took place:

"On our return we called upon a family by the name of Lighter. They live

about half way between Santa Rosa and Healdsburg, and seem to be in limited

circumstances. Sister Lighter's father, a very old man, is quite feeble..

"We were glad to do an errand for the Master by visiting this family. Willie

[her son William] read the comforting promises of God's Word to the sick

man, and I presented the afflicted one to the Great Physician, who is able

to heal both soul and body. The family were very thankful for our visit. I

know that they were comforted."-Letter 126, 1901.

Often on her daily carriage drives through the quiet Napa

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The Glendale Sanitarium, the Paradise Valley Sanitarium, the Loma Linda

Sanitarium, and the College of Medical Evangelists.

[49]

Valley, in which her home was situated, she would alight and Visit with a

mother who might be seen by a farmhouse with her children. The children

always provided a subject of mutual interest. More often than not the farm

mother did not even know who had stopped so informally to chat with her for

a few moments.

From one of her letters in 1903 this sentence is taken: "Our carriages were

drawn up under the trees, and I picked nineteen quarts [of cherries],

sometimes sitting on the carriage seat, and sometimes standing on

it."-Letter 121, 1903. In her 1904 letters is found mention of her driving

out to a pasture "to see the black calf." It seems that she was solicitous

to know whether it "were faring well after the long rain."-Letter 91, 1904.

Her Mood as Death Approaches

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Not long before she died she said to one who was talking with her:

"My courage is grounded in my Saviour. My work is nearly ended. Looking over

the past, I do not feel the least mite of despondency or discouragement. I

feel so grateful that the Lord has withheld me from despair and

discouragement, and that I can still hold the banner. I know Him whom I

love, and in whom my soul trusteth..

"I have nothing to complain of. Let the Lord take His way and do His work

with me, so that I am refined and purified; and that is all I desire. I know

my work is done; it is of no use to say anything else. I shall rejoice, when

my time comes, that I am permitted to lie down to rest in peace. I have no

desire that my life shall be prolonged."-Life Sketches, pp. 443, 444.

In that quiet spirit of holy resignation she died on July 16, 1915, having

lived nearly eighty-eight years. Her passing was mourned by a worldwide

religious movement. What is perhaps more important in this present chapter,

which seeks to discover what manner of woman she was, Mrs. White's passing

was mourned by neighbors and friends outside as well as within the church.

For years afterward farmers' wives and their children with whom she had

visited informally referred to her as "the little old lady with white hair,

who always spoke so lovingly of Jesus."

This is a woefully inadequate picture that has been painted of a most

unusual woman, but space limits have prevented the presentation

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of any more than a sample of the evidence that might be offered to show how

unusual were her talents, how practical her Christianity, and how unselfish

and rational her attitudes toward life.

In the light of this life sketch, brief though it is, one is tempted to

dispose of the mental-malady charge here and now with one sentence in

comment: If such mental illness as Mrs. White is supposed to have suffered

from will produce a life of sacrificial service and ardor, of far mission

planning, of counsel to holy living and high standards, of selfless love for

the needy, and all the other Christian graces that radiated from her life,

then we would say solemnly, God give us more mentally maladjusted people.

With these facts in mind let us go on to examine the evidence concerning

Mrs. White's physical state while in vision.

[Top of Document]

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