As the year 1861 dawned, the United States was in somewhat of a turmoil. The recent Presidential election had polarized the Northern States and the Southern States, where slaves were held. Sabbathkeeping Adventists had no sympathy with slavery and were aware, of course, of the tensions and excitement that attended the Presidential campaign of 1860, which led to the election of Abraham Lincoln, but they had kept quite aloof from matters relating to the political situation. Lincoln would take office on March 4, 1861. He was known for his antislavery stance, and his election had led to considerable unrest in the Southern States.
Even before Lincoln's inauguration as President, on December 20 South Carolina passed an ordinance seceding from the United States. In the North this move was not taken seriously, and there were few who considered war probable.
Vision at Parkville, Michigan
Just at this time light concerning what was ahead was given to Ellen White in a vision at Parkville, Michigan, on Sabbath afternoon, January 12, 1861. The summer before, J. N. Loughborough and J. N. Andrews, as noted earlier, held a rather extended tent meeting in Parkville, some thirty miles south of Battle Creek, which resulted in a large number accepting the third angel's message. A church building was soon erected and was to be dedicated on Sabbath, January 12. The leading members of that congregation appointed a general meeting commencing Friday, January 11, and through the Review invited Loughborough, J. H. Waggoner, James White, J. Byington, and "as many more as can come" to be with them (The Review and Herald, December 18, 1860). James and Ellen White accepted the invitation and with Loughborough and Waggoner drove from Battle Creek by carriage to be present for the weekend meetings. Loughborough describes the service Sabbath afternoon and the vision then given to Ellen White:
A large congregation assembled. Brother Waggoner gave the sermon, and Brother White made the dedicatory prayer. Sister White followed with a very powerful exhortation. Then, as she sat down in the chair, she was taken off in vision, which lasted some twenty minutes or more.--Pacific Union Recorder, March 7, 1912.
The congregation watched every move with intense interest. Most of those present had never seen her in vision. The vision over and Ellen White breathing again, she soon stood and told briefly of what had been revealed to her. An indelible impression was made on the minds of those in the audience. Later Loughborough recounted his memory of her statement:
"Men are making light of the secession ordinance that has been passed by South Carolina. They have little idea of the trouble that is coming on our land. No one in this house has even dreamed of the trouble that is coming.
"I have just been shown in vision that a number of States are going to join South Carolina in this secession, and a terrible war will be the result. In the vision I saw large armies raised by both the North and the South. I was shown the battle raging. I heard the booming of the cannon, and saw the dead and wounded falling on every side. I was then taken to hospitals, and saw the sufferings of the sick and wounded prisoners. I was taken in the vision to the homes of those who had lost sons, brothers, or husbands in the war. There was distress and mourning all over the land."
Then, looking pensively over the congregation, Ellen White declared:
"There are men in this house who will lose sons in that war."--Ibid.
Ellen White Examined While in Vision
A physician who was also a spirit medium was in the congregation. He had heard of Mrs. White and the visions, and boasted that if ever he was present when she was in vision, he could bring her out of it in a minute. On this occasion, as on others, James White, while Ellen was in vision, told of her experience, explained her condition in vision, and gave an opportunity for those who wished to do so to come forward and examine her. Someone near the back was heard to say, "Doctor, go ahead, and do what you said you would." On overhearing this, James White invited the physician to come forward and examine Ellen White. He knew nothing of the physician's boasts.
The doctor moved forward boldly, then, turning deathly pale, stopped suddenly, shaking from head to foot. White stepped down and went to the man, and, putting his hand on his shoulder, urged him into the presence of Ellen White. The physician carefully tested her pulse, heartbeat, and what would have been her breathing, and declared in startled words:
"Elder, her heart and pulse are all right, but there is not any breath in her body."--Ibid., March 14, 1912
Pulling away rather quickly, he made a beeline for the church door. Those near the door blocked his exit and said to him, "Go back, and do as you said you would." James White, taking the whole thing in, called upon the physician to report to the whole audience the result of his examination. He exclaimed: "Her heart and pulse are all right, but there is not a particle of breath in the woman's body!" Those close to him asked, "Doctor, what is it?" He replied, "God only knows. Let me out of this house." And he fled. Remarked Judge Osborne to Loughborough:
"It was evident to all of us that the spirit that controlled the doctor as a medium and the Spirit that controlled Mrs. White in vision had no sympathy with each other.--Ibid.
At Home and Writing Personal Testimonies
James and Ellen White were in that trying period reviewed in the past chapter or two when they passed through the agonies of watching over their dying child and at the same time were in the midst of the battle for organization, when most seemed to forsake them and even many of their closest friends turned against them. Ellen made reference to this in one of the first testimonies she wrote after returning to Battle Creek from Parkville. She wrote particularly of the vision of December 23, given to her a week after the funeral of John Herbert. In lines directed to William Ingraham, she reported, "The past year has been a year of peculiar trials to me. It has been a year of discouragements and suffering.... We could not rise above the discouragements we passed through in the past summer."--Letter 17, 1861.
Then followed an earnest testimony to a minister who was failing to come up to his potential in the cause of God (Ibid.). Other messages were written on that day and the days following. One was to Victory Jones, a member in the church at Monterey, Michigan, who was battling with appetite. This testimony closed with a heartfelt appeal to the young man. Making a play on his name, Ellen White urged him to arouse himself and gain the "victory" over his problem:
I have tried to write you what has been shown me. Now, dear friend, I appeal to you, will you take hold of this encouragement which the Lord now presents to you? Will you lay hold upon the hope the Lord now gives you? We feel deeply for you. We cannot leave you to perish. We want you to go with us.
We will pray for you. Pray and watch yourself. Seek for the power of truth in the soul. A mere theory of truth will never strengthen you to overcome your strong habits. Everlasting life is before you. For the sake of gratifying a depraved appetite, do not make your family wretched, and shut out all happiness from them and be miserable yourself and in the end receive the wages of sin, which is death....
I must close. My prayer is that you may prove worthy of your name. Be an overcomer and walk with Jesus in light because you shall be found worthy, washed and made white in His blood.--Letter 1, 1861.
Another of the testimonies based on the vision of December 23 was addressed to "Dear Friends in Caledonia." It opened:
The church in Caledonia has been shown me. I saw everything in confusion--brethren pulling apart, no brotherly love and sweet union.--Letter 22, 1861.
She wrote of Satan's work, stating that he "came in another form to sow disunion among brethren." Then she added:
I saw that the manner of dress the sisters adopted [hoop skirts] was foolish and wrong. It was immodest apparel, unbecoming professors of present truth. It has brought stigma upon them and lowered them in the estimation of unbelievers around them. It had the appearance of evil and a wretched influence. Such a lack of judgment and wisdom deserved the severest censure.--Ibid.
In this letter, Ellen White addressed one family after another by name with words of counsel, reproof, and encouragement. The testimony closed:
I saw the Lord was reviving the living, pointed testimony which will help develop character and purify the church. While we are commanded to separate from the world, it is not necessary that we be coarse and rough, and descend to utter low expressions and make our remarks as rugged as possible so as to disgust people. The truth is designed to elevate the receiver, to refine his taste and sanctify his judgment.
There should be a continued aim to imitate the society that we expect soon to associate with, namely angels of God, who have never fallen into sin. Our characters should be holy, our manners comely, our words without guile, and we should follow on step by step until we are fitted for translation. There is a work to be done to attain this. We must live upon the plan of addition. Add to your faith virtue, et cetera.... May the Lord help you all to make thorough work for repentance is my prayer. Ellen G. White.--Ibid.
The Inroads of Prevailing Fashion
Five years before, in May, 1856, in a vision given at the close of a conference in Battle Creek, she was shown "the conformity of some professed Sabbathkeepers to the world.... They think they are not like the world, but they are so near like them in dress, in conversation, and actions, that there is no distinction."--Testimonies for the Church, 1:131. The message of counsel based on this vision is titled "Conformity to the World." Now in mid-1861, prevailing fashions were again making their inroads in the church. She hinted of this in the testimony to the church in Caledonia and in other letters written in succeeding weeks. Then in June she prepared a six-column article for the Review entitled "Power of Example," which was published on June 25. It is found today in Testimonies for the Church, 1:274-287. She took as her theme Titus 2:13 and 14, that Christ would "purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Early in the article she stated:
I have frequently received letters of inquiry in regard to dress, and some have not rightly understood what I have written. The very class which have been presented before me, who are imitating the fashions of the world, have been very slow, and the last to be affected or reformed.
There is another class who lacked taste and order in dress, who have taken advantage of what I have written, and taken the opposite extreme, and considered that they were free from pride, and have looked upon those who dress orderly and neat as being proud. Oddity and careless dress have been considered by some a special virtue. Such take a course which destroys their influence over unbelievers. They disgust those who might be benefited.
While the visions have reproved pride and imitating the fashions of the world, they have reproved those who are careless of their apparel and lacked cleanliness of person and dress.--The Review and Herald, June 25, 1861.
In this article Ellen White came to grips with the wearing of hoop skirts, then becoming popular. She took up the subject first from the standpoint of example, and then she disclosed what she had been shown in vision in regard to the matter.
I was shown that hoops were a shame, and that we should not give the least countenance to a fashion carried to such ridiculous lengths.--Ibid.
Four of the six columns of the article were given over to scriptural counsel, introduced with the request:
Please read 1 Timothy 2:9, 10. "In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works."--Ibid.
Letters to the Wife of a Minister
During the late 1850s and early 1860s John and Mary Loughborough were very close to James and Ellen White, both in labor and in personal fellowship. Several testimonies were directed to Mary and John, and in each case they were thoughtfully and gratefully received. Each of the families had lost a child at the turn of the decade. These were buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery. The two mothers were close in spirit. Sometime in the spring of 1861 Mary had asked Ellen White about the incoming hoop skirts. As she wrote to her on June 6, 1861, Ellen White answered this question and touched on some other points of importance to the wife of a minister:
Mary, I have been thinking long and patiently upon what you said to me in regard to your wearing hoops. I am prepared to answer: Do not put on hoops by any means. I believe that God will have His people distinct from the nations around them. They are peculiar, and should we strive to abolish or put away every sign that marks us as peculiar? No, no; let us preserve the signs which distinguish us in dress, as well as articles of faith.
By putting on hoops, however small, you give not only countenance but a powerful influence to this ridiculous fashion, and you place yourself where you could not reprove those who may choose to wear the larger hoops. Stand clear from this disgusting fashion. My mouth is open. I shall speak plain upon hoops in the next Review [June 25, 1861].
Then Ellen White touched on a matter on which Mary like some others, was growing careless:
Dear Mary, let your influence tell for God. You must take a position to exert an influence over others to bring them up in spirituality. You must guard against following the influence of those around you. If others are light and trifling, be grave yourself.
And Mary, suffer me a little upon this point. I wish in all sisterly and motherly kindness to kindly warn you upon another point: I have often noticed before others a manner you have in speaking to John in rather a dictating manner, the tone of your voice sounding impatient. Mary, others notice this and have spoken of it to me. It hurts your influence.
We women must remember that God has placed us subject to the husband. He is the head, and our judgment and views and reasonings must agree with his if possible. If not, the preference in God's Word is given to the husband where it is not a matter of conscience. We must yield to the head.
I have said more perhaps upon this point than necessary. Please watch this point. I am not reproving you, remember, but merely cautioning you. Never talk to John as though he were a little boy. You reverence him, and others will take an elevated position, Mary, and you will elevate others.
Seek to be spiritually minded. We are doing work for eternity. Mary, be an example. We love you as one of our children, and I wish so much that you and John may prosper. Be of good courage. Trust in the Lord at all times. He will be your stronghold and your deliverer.... Please write me, Mary, fully. Tell me all your joys, trials, disappointments, et cetera. In much love, Ellen G. White.--Letter 5, 1861.
Eleven days later Ellen White acknowledged Mary's response to hers of June 6, quoted above. She answered a question about quilted skirts, and told Mary she would find her answer in the next issue of the Review and told her to write again if this did not convince her or settle her mind. She wrote more of the importance of setting a right example, and made a suggestion:
Mary, dear sister, let us covenant together to earnestly seek the Lord and learn wisdom of Him. Oh, for vital godliness! We must be examples to others around us, and never let us be a cause of stumbling. I am very desirous that you should continue to enjoy the free Spirit of God. Do not be content without it. It is your privilege to have it. Let us have strong confidence in God. Come to Him with living faith and let us rely wholly upon God.
Dear Mary, I went up to Oak Hill Cemetery and fixed our babes' graves and also Clara's. Fixed ours exactly alike. Put some pansies on the graves, and some myrtle, and at the foot of the stake put a bunch of tall moss. It looked very pretty. We shall go up again soon and see if the flowers are doing well....
Mary, fear not to speak to me freely and fully your feelings. Others have no business with what we write. Let us be faithful to each other. Your letter cheered and encouraged me. Love to yourself and John.--Letter 6, 1861.
Another Intimate Glimpse of the White Home Life
Two days later, June 19, she wrote to Lucinda Hall, having slipped away from the house to the Review office to find a retired place to write. There was some remodeling being done at their home, which would give them a "good-sized kitchen," a "large bedroom," a "buttery" (pantry), and a dining room. "It is," she wrote, "pound, pound, banging and slamming, tearing down and putting up." She thought Lucinda would be delighted with the improvements. But she was needing help in the home that would free her, as she said, to "do my duty in writing and helping James in his writing." She added:
I cannot do my duty to my family and devote myself to the benefit of God's children too. My mind cannot be everlastingly planning and cutting and contriving and yet be prepared to write for the Review and Instructor and answer the numerous letters sent in to me. I want to know my place and then I will try to fill it.
Lucinda, I was thankful for your help when you were with us. I know that it was a great sacrifice for your mother to have you come so far from home. But if you could come and be with me again the coming winter and spring, I should be perfectly suited.--Letter 27, 1861.
She reported that she was writing an article for the Review on hoops, stating that "this piece has required much study and care, for it is a delicate and important matter." As she brought her letter to a close she wrote of her parents, now living with them:
I must close. My children are as well as usual. Father and Mother are living with us, and they seem so contented and happy. They take care of their room but eat with us. You don't know what a weight of care is removed from me since I can watch over these two aged children. Mother does just as I wish her to, follows every suggestion I make.
I dress her up neat as wax, comb her hair, and she looks like a nice, venerable old lady. Father also tries to please us in every way. We fix him up and he looks real nice.--Ibid.
A Second Vision of Civil War Involvement
At Roosevelt, New York, on the weekend of August 3 and 4, James White, spoke on sanctification. He wrote of the meetings as a refreshing season. It was on this occasion, as noted earlier, that a very comprehensive vision was given to Ellen White. Willie White was with his parents on this trip, and witnessed such an experience for the first time. He spoke of it in an address on visions to a group in Takoma Park in 1905.
The first one I witnessed as a little boy in the meetinghouse at Roosevelt, New York. Father had given a short talk. Mother had given a short talk. Father prayed, Mother prayed, and as she was praying, I heard that shout, "Glory." There is nothing like it--that musical, deep shout of "Glory." She fell backward. My father put his arm under her.
In a little while her strength came to her. She stood up in an attitude of one seeing wonderful things in the distance, her face illuminated, sometimes bright and joyous. She would speak with that musical voice, making short comments upon what she saw. Then as she saw darkness in the world, there were sad expressions as she spoke of what she saw.
This continued ten or fifteen minutes. Then she caught her breath, and breathed several times deeply, and then, after a little season of rest, probably five or ten minutes, during which time Father spoke to the people, she arose, and related to the congregation some of the things that had been presented to her.--DF 105b, "The Visions of Ellen White."
Of this vision she wrote:
At the conference at Roosevelt, New York, August 3, 1861 ... I was taken off in vision and shown the sin of slavery, which has so long been a curse to this nation.... The North and the South were presented before me.--Testimonies for the Church, 1:264-266.
She seemed to be taken to the very scenes of the war and witnessed the disastrous and disheartening battle of Manassas.
The war fever was to worsen until it became a serious, disruptive element distracting the work of the church in the years 1862 to the early part of 1865.
Of other features of the vision at Roosevelt, Ellen White later wrote "Different churches and families were presented before me."--Ibid., 1:326. The broad diversification of subject matter and the grave import of what was shown to her is revealed by such article titles in volume 1 of the Testimonies between pages 264 and 302 as "Perilous Times," "Organization," and "Duty to the Poor."
The eastern tour, of which the weekend at Roosevelt was a part, terminated September 17 (The Review and Herald, September 24, 1861). This was followed by the conference held in Battle Creek in early October.
The New Publishing House
During the autumn months of 1861, the new publishing house in Battle Creek had been constructed. It was a two-story brick building in the form of a Greek cross, providing ample space for the publishing operation. Along with an engraving of the new structure made by Uriah Smith, the Review of December 3 published a little write-up. In this it was noted:
The building is a good one. The material was good, and the builders have shown themselves masters of their business.... The cost of the building, including hoisting apparatus, cistern and eave troughs, new machinery and fixtures to run the engine and press, and a comfortable fitting out of tables, shelves, drawers, chairs, stoves, et cetera, will cost not far from $5,000.--Ibid., December 3, 1861 (see also Ibid., July 16, 1861).
This new structure, it was felt, would provide abundant room for present business and could well take care of foreseeable increases.
For a time the War Between the States had seemed far away. To those in Battle Creek little was taking place, and James and Ellen White were involved in various interests. The third angel's message had not reached into the South, and the church was thus relieved of some concerns. Organization was taking hold rather slowly, but some churches were moving into line. Linked closely with the opposition to organization was a declining regard for the Spirit of Prophecy as manifested in the work of Ellen White. Beginning with the February 4, 1862, issue of the Review and Herald, James White set forth his views in four editorials entitled "Perpetuity of Spiritual Gifts." The next issue carried on the back page James White's appeal for the members to arise and assist B. F. Snook in securing a home for his family in Marion, Iowa. A property valued at $1,300 was available for $500. Snook described it:
"The house is large and roomy, very convenient, with a good well, cellar, et cetera. It has two beautiful lots. Is fronted with large locust trees, and surrounded by about thirteen nice bearing apple trees. It has a good fence."--Ibid., February 11, 1862
White commended the Snook family and took the lead in assisting them:
We will give $25 toward getting Brother Snook a home, provided the brethren in Iowa and elsewhere, those who wish to join them, will promptly raise the $475 to make up the required $500.--Ibid.
He described Brother and Sister Snook as loved by those who knew them. He stated: "We can recommend them both in the highest terms to any church that can appreciate faithfulness, intelligence, devotion, and that which is lovely." James White was able to make this offer of $25 from modest profits coming to him from the sale of Bibles, concordances, commentaries, et cetera, and some income from his own literary productions.
The Review of April 8 carried the word that the $500 needed for the Snook home had been raised.
The Five-Week Western Tour
In the interest of facilitating organization, and in another attempt to hold things steady in Mauston, Wisconsin, where fanaticism had done its blighting work, on February 19 James and Ellen White were off for a five-week tour in States to the west. In his first report White set forth his feelings and position:
We are enjoying usual health, and most perfect freedom of spirit. We design to go forward by faith and do our duty fully, and instead of mourning over others' errors, seek for freedom, and let others feel the weight of their own wrongs. God has given us a testimony, and He will give us freedom and strength to bear it.--Ibid., March 4, 1862
During the spring months following this trip west, the Whites were at home. Ellen White did considerable writing. Several articles were published in the Review and Herald, and another sixty-four-page testimony pamphlet was advertised for 10 cents on the back page of the Review of May 20:
Testimony for the Church No. 8--This pamphlet of sixty-four pages is now ready. Subjects--How to Confess Christ--Patent Rights--Duty of Husband and Wife--An Unfaithful Watchman--Mauston Fanaticism--Northern Wisconsin--Bogus Holiness--Bible Holiness--The Power of Satan--The Two Crowns--The Future.
These important articles may be read in Testimonies for the Church, 1:303 to 354.
The War and the Threatening Draft of Recruits
For several months the Review had been silent on the Civil War, but the issue of June 10 reprinted an item from the New Bedford, Massachusetts, Republican Standard, which drove home to Adventists that they were in troublous times. It opened:
A few weeks ago it was proclaimed with a great flourish of trumpets that the armies of the nation were full, and orders were given to stop recruiting and the enlistment of volunteers. Now it is announced that a call is made for a hundred thousand additional men, to be used "as a reserve." A sudden change seems to have come over the administration, and they appear to be convinced that the struggle in which we are engaged is not to be terminated in any thirty or sixty days, as some of the leading men at the capital have been fond of asserting.
Why is it that a call is to be made for one hundred thousand additional men, from the loyal population of America? Why is this large number to be added to the half million, more or less, who have already been called from the field and the workshop, from the hills of New England, the valleys of New York, and the prairies of the West?
It is because the large army now in the field has been terribly diminished in numbers by the bullets of the rebels on the battle field, the exposures and hardships of the march, or the still more fatal diseases of the camp.--The Review and Herald, June 10, 1862.
Now there loomed before Adventists the almost certain threat of a draft of able-bodied men, something the Sabbathkeeping Adventists had dreaded and hoped would not occur. As the summer wore on, excitement ran high in the Northern communities, and Seventh-day Adventists asked themselves what they would do in the face of such a situation. From their ranks none, or almost none, had enlisted. They had maintained a low profile, but now they were being watched. Writing of this in early 1863, Ellen White explained:
The attention of many was turned to Sabbathkeepers because they manifested no greater interest in the war and did not volunteer. In some places they were looked upon as sympathizing with the Rebellion. The time had come for our true sentiments in relation to slavery and the Rebellion to be made known. There was need of moving with wisdom to turn away the suspicions excited against Sabbathkeepers.--Testimonies for the Church, 1:356.
The story of the involvement of the church in the four years of hostilities will be told in volume 2 of this biography, Ellen G. White, The Progressive Years.