When the church leaders assembled for the conference in Battle Creek in late November, 1855, it was with a pervading sense that things were not right. The conference address drawn up at the time seemed to hold the key to the distressing situation--the Spirit of Prophecy had not been given its proper place, either in the published word or in the hearts of the believers. During the past five years the Review and Herald had not published even one vision given by God to Ellen White, and but very, very little had been said about God communicating with His people to encourage, guard, and counsel them through the visions.
True, in 1851, Ellen White's first little sixty-four-page book, which presented many of the visions of the past seven years, had been published and circulated. But with the intent of not offending the general public, the Review had become silent on the visions, and its editor had done no more than maintain the propriety of visions in the last days. Now, with the confessions of neglect and the determination to place the gift in its proper place in the church, the whole atmosphere changed. The minutes of the conference and the conference address were published December 4 in the first issue of the Review printed in Battle Creek. This issue carried Uriah Smith's name on the masthead as resident editor, and James White as one of the corresponding editors.
Immediately a change in policy became evident. In the issue of December 18, in a two-page editorial titled "The Testimony of Jesus," James White defended the Spirit of Prophecy in the remnant church. Beginning with Revelation 12:17,he carried through the scriptural support for the continuing ministry of the gift of prophecy till earth's last days, and closed with the Biblical tests of the true prophet.
This is followed by a communication from Roswell F. Cottrell, of Mill Grove, New York, another corresponding editor, dealing with the visions in the setting of the criticisms of J. M. Stephenson, who was now rejecting the message he once advocated. Addressing Stephenson, Cottrell declared:
We cannot engage in a faction against those whom God made choice of to introduce the last message to the world.... If the visions are not of God, they will surely come to nought; and we pray God to hasten the day. But we have not been able to discover anything in them which conflicts with the commandments of God--the law and the testimony--which are the test given us by inspiration, by which to try the spirits. Therefore we see no danger from them.--The Review and Herald, December 18, 1855.
Ellen White commented on Cottrell's article: What a nice piece Brother Roswell wrote! It hit the nail on the head; it will do much good.--Letter 9, 1856.
The publication of the main features of the vision of November 20 came about like this: Ellen White wrote it out immediately and on Sabbath evening read it to the Battle Creek church. The church in turn voted unanimously that it should be published and made available to the entire body of believers. It was set in type and printed as one article in a two-page sheet, some of the topics being--as given headings in an 1885 reprinting--"Thy Brother's Keeper," "Time to Begin the Sabbath," "Opposers of the Truth," and "Prepare to Meet the Lord."
The manner in which this little document was looked upon by leading men in the developing church is revealed in a small-type note at its close:
We, the undersigned, being eyewitnesses when the above vision was given, deem it highly necessary that it should be published, for the benefit of the church, on account of the important truths and warnings which it contains.
(Signed)
M. E. Cornell Jos. Bates
J. H. Waggoner J. Hart
G. W. Amadon Uriah Smith
Shortly afterward, the material, along with a vision given May 5, 1855, was published in a sixteen-page pamphlet. Although not numbered, it turned out to be Testimony No. 1.
The Whites and the White Home
The changed atmosphere since the conference is reflected in a letter Ellen White wrote to Sister Below on New Year's Day, just six weeks after the turnaround in attitudes. The White family were living in their little rented cottage on Battle Creek's west side, rejoicing in the freedom of having a home just for their family. This was the first time they had enjoyed such an experience in the past seven years of their married life. Counting the two young women who helped with the housework and the care of the children, there were seven. James White was 34; Ellen, 28; the three boys, Henry, 8, Edson, 6, and Willie, 18 months. With the parents often away as they served the cause, and Ellen's time so taken up with her writing, the two girls, Clarissa Bonfoey and Jennie Fraser, were an important part of the family.
Since the November conference and the vision on November 20, Ellen had been very much occupied in writing the more general features of the vision for publication, and testimonies to individuals whose cases had been opened up to her. By New Year's Day she had scarcely gotten through, yet she laid this work aside and took time to write a newsy letter to Sister Below. It was a buoyant and interesting letter, with good news and some not so good. In its heart she exclaimed:
I cannot express my gratitude to God for what He has done and is still doing for us. For weeks our peace has been like a river. The heavenly dew has distilled upon us morning, noon, and night, and our souls triumph in God. It is easy believing, easy praying. We love God, and yet our souls pant for the living water.--Letter 9, 1856.
She wrote about the family:
Jennie and Clarissa are quite well; Clarissa has not been as well as she is now for eight years. Jennie is much better than she has been since she had the ague. The children are quite rugged. Edson, you know, has been generally poorly, but he is coming up; is quite tough. James enjoys better health than he has for some time back. We praise the Lord for this.--Ibid.
As for herself, she was on crutches and had been since Christmas Eve, when she slipped on the ice and injured her left leg. She told of this:
My health is quite good except a lame ankle. In coming from Sarah's to our house, I slipped and fell, wrenching my foot backward and putting my ankle out of joint. In rising it flew back again, but the bone of my left limb is injured, split, and I am a cripple for the present.... But I will not murmur or complain.... I know that the angels of God must have protected me or I should be suffering with distress from a broken limb.--Ibid.
She was on crutches for six weeks, but kept up with her usual activities and was to ride that day into the country about thirteen miles. As to their home and plans for the future, she wrote:
The brethren think we ought to have a little house put up. We pay now $1.50 per week for rent, and have scarcely any conveniences at that. Have to go a great distance for water; have no good shed for our wood. We put a few boards up at our own expense just to cover our wood. We shall make a beginning; cannot tell how we shall succeed.--Ibid.
Within the next few months they did succeed, purchasing two lots for $25 each on Wood street some five blocks from the Review office. With the help of the brethren they put up a little one-and-a-half-story cottage. Writing later she told of how "from the time we moved to Battle Creek, the Lord began to turn our captivity."--Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 317. She reminisced:
The publication of the Review, Instructor, and books was commenced under most discouraging circumstances. The friends and supporters of the cause were then very few, and generally poor; and it was by extreme labor and economy that the truth was published. For several years we suffered more or less for want of suitable food and clothing, and deprived ourselves of needed sleep, laboring from fourteen to sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, for want of means and help to push forward the work.--Ibid., 318.
She spoke of their developing concept of "present truth," stating that it was not as clear then as now, and added:
It has been opening gradually. It required much study and anxious care to bring it out, link after link. By care and incessant labor and anxiety has the work moved on, until the great truths of our message are clear.--Ibid., 319.
As the leading brethren in Battle Creek took over the Review office and the publishing of the Review and Herald, there were financial matters to settle with James White. For all practical purposes the enterprise was his, simply for the reason there was no other means of conducting the business. The only income were donations from readers of the journals and books, and these had provided just a bare sustenance for the workers and for James White--$4.08 a week. When money was borrowed for the publishing interests, he alone was responsible for it. At the time of the transfer of the business to the publishing committee in Michigan, there was an outstanding indebtedness of $1,000, offset by supplies and book stocks. He turned over the business with no personal financial benefit. At the time there was no provision for stocks of books and pamphlets, and he held these until arrangements were made for a book fund a few months later. Though ill and despairing of life itself, at the time of the transfer of interests in Battle Creek, Ellen White, on January 24, in a letter to Brother and Sister Loveland, reported:
God has wrought for us in a remarkable manner since the conference. My husband has been much afflicted. Incessant labor has nearly carried him to the grave. But our prayers have ascended to God morning, noon, and night for his restoration. All medicine has been entirely laid aside, and we have brought him in the arms of our faith to our skillful Physician. We have been heard and answered. An entire change has been wrought for him.... We believe without a doubt, if he is careful of the health God has given him, his strength will increase and he will be able to overcome the disease that has fastened upon him.--Letter 2a, 1856.
Then bubbling over with joy, she recited what the new outlook meant to her as the mother of three boys:
Dear sister, it would be impossible for me to go into a recital of the sufferings I have passed through, the anxiety, and the dread thought that I should be left a widow, my dear children without a father's care. The scene has changed. God's hand has mercifully been reached down to our rescue. My husband enjoys good health, and my children are rugged. They never enjoyed so good health before. Little Willie is healthy and very pleasant.
I never took so much comfort with my family as now. Our family has always been so large. But now... I can enjoy the company of my children; they can be more under my own watchcare, and I can better train them in the right way. All of us are united for the blessing of God, and morning, noon, and night His sweet blessing distills upon us like the dew, making our hearts glad and strengthening us to fill our place and glorify our Redeemer.--Ibid.
For several months they kept close to Battle Creek, James White giving attention to the business interests connected with the transfer of responsibilities to the church and writing editorials and articles for the Review. He took up what had come to be called the "compromise with Stephenson and Hall" in Wisconsin and declared:
We are now convinced that the Review should ever be free from all compromise with those who hold error, and should ever have been as free to speak out, when necessary, on those subjects which bear on the "age to come" as it now does.--The Review and Herald, February 14, 1856.
From time to time he spoke freely of the visions and their place in the church, and the Review was open to items from Ellen White's pen.
Ellen White Revives her Drowned Baby
As summer approached the brethren in Battle Creek felt that a general conference should be held in late May, and the call went out for it to open on Friday, May 23. The call was accompanied by a generous offer from the members of the Battle Creek church to "entertain all who come for the worship of God, according to their best ability" (Ibid., May 1, 1856). In the day or two before the conference there was a flurry of activity in the White home. Rooms were cleaned, beds were improvised, and provisions were stocked.
Late one afternoon Willie, now 20 months old, was having a delightful time playing boat with a large tub of mop water in the kitchen, pushing a stick around in the well-filled "lake." As Jennie Fraser slipped out the back door to get some chips for the fire, she asked, "Willie, what are you doing?" Returning to the kitchen, she saw one little foot sticking out of the dirty water. Pulling the apparently lifeless body out of the water, she ran to the mother, screaming, "He's drowned! He's drowned!"
Taking Willie, the mother asked, "Was the water hot or cold?" With the answer "It was cold," Ellen ordered, "Send for the doctor and call James." John Foy ran for the doctor, and Jennie for James.
Ellen reached for scissors and headed for the front door. She put Willie on the lawn, cut the wet clothes from his body, and then rolled him on the grass as the sudsy water gurgled from his nose and mouth. Occasionally she lifted the child and looked for signs of life.
James was soon by her side. "Take that dead baby out of that woman's hands," a neighbor urged James.
"No," he replied. "It is her child, and no one shall take it away from her." After about twenty minutes as Ellen held Willie up she saw a little flicker of an eyelid and a little puckering of his lips. Ordering Jennie to heat thick cloths, she took Willie into the house. Soon he was in his wicker crib, wrapped in warm cloths frequently changed to impart maximum heat to the body of the recovering child (Spiritual Gifts, 2:207, 208; The Review and Herald, January 9, 1936; The Signs of the Times, December 3, 1885).
A vivid illustration of the perseverance that characterized Ellen White's work! To this perseverance may be credited the life of one she years later was instructed had been born to be her helper, and indirectly, this biography, authored by his son.