Although there were setbacks in James White's health during the year 1866, there was a gradual improvement. In later years Ellen White occasionally looked back and recounted some of the steps in his recovery, but she did not pinpoint dates or places. As already noted, in the spring she determined to test the benefits of travel, journeying as her husband's strength would bear (2Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 354). It seems likely that what she related to a group of medical workers in 1902 was in connection with one of these short trips:
I always took my husband with me when I went out driving. And I took him with me when I went to preach at any place. I had a regular circuit of meetings. I could not persuade him to go into the desk while I preached. Finally, after many, many months, I said to him, "Now, my husband, you are going into the desk today." He did not want to go, but I would not yield. I took him up into the desk with me. That day he spoke to the people. Although the meetinghouse was filled with unbelievers, for half an hour I could not refrain from weeping. My heart was overflowing with joy and gratitude. I knew that the victory had been gained.--Manuscript 50, 1902 (see also Selected Messages 2:307, 308).
But as the winter of 1866-1867 approached, James stayed at home more. Ellen wrote:
Having become fully satisfied that my husband would not recover from his protracted sickness while remaining inactive, and that the time had fully come for me to go forth and bear my testimony to the people, I decided ...to venture a tour in northern Michigan, with my husband in his extremely feeble condition, in the severest cold of winter.--Testimonies for the Church, 1:570.
She added,
It required no small degree of moral courage and faith in God to bring my mind to the decision to risk so much, especially as I stood alone.... But I knew I had a work to do, and it seemed to me that Satan was determined to keep me from it. I had waited long for our captivity to be turned and feared that precious souls would be lost if I remained longer from the work. To remain longer from the field seemed to me worse than death, and should we move out we could but perish.--Ibid.
Although there had been temporary gains, James had remained an invalid in spite of her efforts. But remembering the assurances given her in the vision at Rochester, Ellen White could not dismiss the picture in her mind that she and her husband would work together in building up the cause. In recounting the experience some years later, she stated:
We had the assurance that God would raise him up, and we believed he would yet be able to work in the cause of God. I thought my husband should have some change, and we took our team, faithful Jack and Jim, and ventured a journey to Wright, Michigan.
In this matter I was obliged to move contrary to the judgment of my brethren and sisters in Battle Creek. They all felt that I was sacrificing my life in shouldering this burden; that for the sake of my children, for the cause of God, I should do all in my power to preserve my life.
His own father and mother remonstrated with me in tears. Physicians looked pityingly upon me and said, "You will not realize your expectations. There was never known a case where one [so seriously] afflicted with paralysis of the brain recovered." I answered them, "God will raise him up."
In answer to the appeals of Father and Mother White that I had done all that was in my power and I must not attempt impossibilities, that my life was precious, that I had children who needed my care, I answered, "As long as life is left in him and me, I will make every exertion for him. That brain, that noble, masterly mind, shall not be left in ruins. God will care for him, for me, for my children. Satan shall not exult over us. You will yet see us standing side by side in the sacred desk, speaking the words of truth unto eternal life."
I went alone [accompanied by a Brother Rogers], carrying with me the sympathies of many and losing the sympathies of many because I would follow my own judgment, not theirs.--Manuscript 1, 1867.
"So," reported Ellen White, "on the nineteenth of December, 1866, we left Battle Creek in a snowstorm for Wright, Ottawa County, Michigan. My husband stood the long and severe journey of ninety miles much better than I feared, and seemed quite as well when we reached our old home at Brother Root's as when we left Battle Creek."--Ibid., 1:570. In the first of a series of reports dictated to his wife for the Review, James White described the journey:
December 19, we left home with our team, in company with Mrs. White and Brother Rogers, for northern Michigan, designing to make Wright, Ottawa County, the first point. The morning was stormy, yet we drove forty-six miles that day, and were obliged to put up at a noisy rum-tavern.... The next morning we arose at five o'clock, and drove to Brother Hardy's, a distance of fifteen miles, against a keen north wind before taking our breakfast. Here we felt to thank God for an Advent home, and simple, healthful fare. We then drove twenty-three miles to our old home at Brother Root's, where we have remained until this date [January 2], enjoying their sympathy and hospitality.
Sabbath morning, the twenty-second, the house of worship was filled with attentive hearers, although there had been no appointment publicly given. We opened the meeting and spoke twenty-five minutes from the words "Will a man rob God?" ...We were then followed by Mrs. White, who spoke more than one hour with freedom upon the subject of health from a religious standpoint.--The Review and Herald, January 15, 1867.
As Ellen White later told the story, she exclaimed exultantly:
Here commenced our first effective labors since the sickness of my husband. Here he commenced to labor as in former years, though in much weakness.--Testimonies for the Church, 1:571.
At long last they were turning a corner, with the promise of better days ahead. But the battle was not fully won. It took some persuasion on her part to get James to prepare reports for the Review. But this was a significant step in his recovery. He dictated the first two reports; to the third he appended a significant note to the editor:
Brother Smith, you see how large a report I have written at this time with mine own hand. I would say to the editor, the typesetter, and proofreader, Be patient with our imperfect scribbling. And to the reader we would say, May God bless our scattered thoughts, in these reports, and make them a blessing.--The Review and Herald, January 29, 1866.
Seven reports in all--portions of some were in almost diary form--kept Review readers informed as to what James and Ellen White were doing in northern Michigan through January, February, and early March. Wright, where they began their labors in late December, was off the beaten path; ministers seldom visited the church. Wrote Ellen White:
We found this church in a very low condition. With a large portion of its members the seeds of disunion and dissatisfaction with one another were taking deep root, and a worldly spirit was taking possession of them. And notwithstanding their low state they had enjoyed the labors of our preachers so seldom that they were hungry for spiritual food.--Testimonies for the Church, 1:570, 571.
The situation was just the challenge James White needed to draw him into active spiritual labor. Their first Sabbath at the church, as already noted, he spoke twenty-five minutes, and Ellen White followed for an hour. In the afternoon she spoke again, continuing on the same subject--health reform.
On Sunday morning the meetings continued, with James leading out for twenty minutes on the topic of diet and dress. Then Ellen followed for an hour and a half. That afternoon she spoke for an hour, continuing on the same subject, particularly as it related to dress, over which there had been some contention in the church.
Ellen White stated in her report, "We were listened to with the greatest attention."-- Ibid. She spoke again Tuesday evening and then again Friday evening, establishing a cycle that would continue for several weeks. As the meetings progressed, she reported:
I saw that my husband was growing stronger, clearer, and more connected in his subjects. And when on one occasion he spoke one hour with clearness and power, with the burden of the work upon him as when he used to speak, my feelings of gratitude were beyond expression. I arose in the congregation and for nearly half an hour tried with weeping to give utterance to them. The congregation felt deeply. I felt assured that this was the dawn of better days for us.-- Ibid.
The Regular Exercise Program
The Roots, who so graciously took the Whites into their home, cared for them as tenderly "as Christian parents can care for invalid children" (Ibid.). Ellen insisted on keeping up James's exercise program. They took a long walk twice a day. Then came a snowstorm that left a heavy blanket on the ground, bringing a minor crisis. She later told of it:
I went to Brother Root and said, "Brother Root, have you a spare pair of boots?"
"Yes," he answered.
"I should be glad to borrow them this morning," I said. Putting on the boots and starting out, I tracked a quarter of a mile in the deep snow. On my return, I asked my husband to take a walk.
He said he could not go out in such weather.
"Oh, yes, you can," I replied. "Surely you can step in my tracks."
He was a man who had great respect for women; and when he saw my tracks, he thought that if a woman could walk in that snow, he could. That morning he took his usual walk.--Manuscript 50, 1902 (see also Selected Messages 2:307).
Encouraged in Mental Activity
She was concerned too that James should be drawn into using his mind. Individuals came with questions that troubled them. Ellen soon recognized that on such occasions James could be drawn out in mental activity. She wrote of this later:
Often brethren came to us for counsel. My husband wanted to see no one. He much preferred to go into another room when company came. But usually before he could realize that anyone had come, I brought the visitor before him, and would say, "Husband, here is a brother who has come to ask a question, and as you can answer it much better than I can, I have brought him to you."
Of course he could not help himself then. He had to remain in the room to answer the question. In this way, and in many other ways, I made him exercise his mind. If he had not been made to use his mind, in a little while it would have completely failed.--Ibid.
With James on the gain, she could turn her attention to writing. The vision given to her a year before on Christmas evening in Rochester was very comprehensive, covering many subjects. At the General Conference session in May, she had presented orally the appeal for greater faithfulness in health reform and called for Seventh-day Adventists to operate a medical institution. But while caring for James, she had had neither time nor strength to put the appeal in writing. This had to be done. There were also many personal testimonies to write and certain lines of general counsel to put into the written record. Now she could give attention to this.
Testimonies for the Wright Church
Visions were given to her in Wright presenting lines of instruction, counsel, and reproof for a number of the members of that church. She had to communicate the light given her, to the members. She did this orally in some cases and wrote in others, with some of these writings to be read to the church later, when the circumstances were quite widely known. At times the fact that Ellen White had knowledge of life experiences of certain individuals was quite disturbing to some in this relatively new church.
A meeting was called for Monday afternoon, January 6, just for the members of the church. They assembled to listen to the fifty-one-page message she had written. It was the report of this meeting, sent to the editor in James White's own hand, that filled the four columns of the Review. Of this experience, new to many of the church in Wright, he wrote:
Those reproved were of course surprised to hear their condition described, and were thrown into great trial. Mrs. White spoke to the brethren Tuesday and Friday evenings following with much freedom.--The Review and Herald, January 29, 1867.
It was a critical time for a number in the church. They hardly knew how to relate to personal testimonies. It is not easy to receive and accept reproof. In the Sabbath morning service, January 12, James White saw an opportunity to help the church in a special way. He spoke on the testimony to the Laodiceans, drawing parallels and giving counsel. He pointed to the Saviour standing at the door, knocking, waiting, entreating. He reminded the audience:
It is those He loves that He rebukes and chastens, whether by the cutting testimony of the Word of God or by a corresponding testimony, pointing out their errors and spiritual blindness. Let those, then, thus reproved, rejoice, instead of being discouraged. It is the best of evidence that their salvation is possible.--Ibid.
White mentioned what it meant to receive and acknowledge the truthfulness of a personal testimony. The members had acknowledged that the testimonies were of God. Then he made several points:
First. Because the prophet of God declared that in the last days there should be visions.
Second. They are scriptural and true, because true prophets reprove and point out the sins of the people, while false prophets have ever cried peace.
Third. They are true, because they reprove sin and teach holiness. They exalt God and lead people to keep His commandments.
Fourth. While they correct the erring, and are a matter of trouble to sinners in Zion, they are a comfort to the desponding....
Fifth. They are the work of God, because of their harmony. For more than twenty years has the humble instrument stood the fiercest opposition from almost every quarter, yet has borne an unchanging testimony regardless of friend or foe.
The sixth point was on weighing the vision in the light of private judgment. James referred to the experience of two men in the Battle Creek church:
Some years since, these good brethren were reproved. They could not at first receive the testimony, and the result was that the majority of the church sympathized with them, because they were men of good judgment and piety. That was the darkest hour we ever saw in that church....
These brethren at Battle Creek were acquainted with Mrs. White, had seen her in vision, had heard her talk with power, had been baptized with the same Spirit, and had said that the evidence was enough. We appealed to them to put it in one scale, and their private judgment in the other, and they would find one a ponderous weight, and the other but a feather. Overwhelming evidence of the voice of God in one, and the blinded judgment of a mortal in the other. Taking this view of the subject, the humble Christian soon sees his way clearing before him.--Ibid.
In reporting the experience of the church at Wright, James White observed, "The result of the foregoing positions in this church is most cheering. The work seems to be moving well. The testimony is fully received by every member."--Ibid. In support of this optimistic report, White quoted a resolution the church voted that Sabbath morning:
Resolved, That we, the church in Wright, believe that the testimony Sister White has read to us is a faithful description of our true condition, and that we receive every part of it to us, as from the Lord; and, by His grace assisting, we will obey all that it requires of us.--Ibid.
This was a landmark week in the history of the Wright church, bringing strength and stability. It also was a milestone in James White's finding his way back to active service. Ellen White was jubilant.
An Encouraging James White Dream
In his next report to the Review James White related a dream that he had at Wright. Four years earlier, while at Monterey, just before a special outreach for the youth (see Ellen G. White: The Early Years, chapter 32), he had dreamed of catching many small, plump fish. In the weeks that followed, many young persons were converted, first at Monterey, then at Wright, Greenville, Orleans, and finally at Battle Creek. He recounted that "for twenty-four years, we have probably dreamed of catching fish a hundred times, just before an ingathering of souls. The size of the persons, and their moral worth, is generally represented by the size and value of the fish."--Ibid., February 5, 1867. Of the dream at Wright, he wrote:
Mrs. White and self were fishing, and with much effort caught large fish. But four of the fish caused us much trouble. They were restless, and would get out of the boat into the water, when we would with difficulty pull them into the boat again. This was repeated several times, and we caught no more large fish. We saw no small fish, as they were kept away by the large ones. But when the large ones were all caught out of the way, the water was immediately alive with small fish, plump and beautiful, which we readily caught. I awoke, and behold, it was a dream.--Ibid.
Before leaving Wright, they witnessed the literal fulfillment of this dream. During the six weeks they were there, Ellen spoke twenty-five times, and James, twelve. As James was recovering from his long illness, she found that she must carry the heavy part of the burden, but she was careful to see that her husband led out. As they labored especially for the members of the church, Ellen found that her husband was a great help.
His long experience in this kind of work, as he had labored with me in the past, had qualified him for it. And now that he entered upon it again he seemed to manifest all that clearness of thought, good judgment, and faithfulness in dealing with the erring, of former days. In fact, no other two of our ministers could have rendered me the assistance that he did.--Testimonies for the Church, 1:571.
Just at this point a wealthy church member from the State of New York who had spent a few days in Battle Creek came up to Wright. He was full of criticisms he had picked up in Battle Creek, especially from those who had considered that Ellen White was moving unwisely when she took her husband's case in her own hands and made the trip east in the fall and then the trip to Wright in a snowstorm. At Wright this man did a lot of unwise talking and gossiping, especially among some of the more affluent members. Ellen White wrote:
He chose to represent my husband, even before those for whom we had the greatest labor, as being partially insane and his testimony consequently as of no weight.--Ibid., 1:572.
Root later told her that the work of this man had set the work with the Wright church back by two weeks. She wrote:
By two weeks more of the most wearing labor, with the blessing of God, we were able to remove this wrong influence and give that dear people full proof that God had sent us to them.--Ibid.
Ultimately nine baptisms resulted from their evangelistic thrust, and the church was greatly revived. As for the Root family, which had so generously taken them in at this time of their particular needs, she wrote:
Brother and Sister Root fully sympathized with me in my trials and labors, and watched with the tenderest care to supply all our wants. Our prayers were frequent that the Lord would bless them in basket and in store, in health as well as in grace and spiritual strength. And I felt that a special blessing would follow them. Though sickness has since come into their dwelling, yet I learn by Brother Root that they now enjoy better health than before. And among the items of temporal prosperity he reports that his wheat fields have produced twenty-seven bushels to the acre, and some forty, while the average yield of his neighbors' fields has been only seven bushels per acre.--Ibid., 1:574, 575.
The Six Weeks at Greenville
"January 29, 1867," wrote Ellen White, "we left Wright, and rode to Greenville, Montcalm County, a distance of forty miles."--Ibid. She described the trip:
It was the most severely cold day of the winter, and we were glad to find a shelter from the cold and storm at Brother Maynard's. This dear family welcomed us to their hearts and to their home. We remained in this vicinity six weeks, laboring with the churches at Greenville and Orleans, and making Brother Maynard's hospitable home our headquarters.--Ibid.
The activities in the Greenville area were much the same as at Wright. Meetings were frequent, and both James and Ellen engaged in them. She noted the improvement in her husband's health:
His labors were received by the people, and he was a great help to me in the work.... The Lord sustained him in every effort which he put forth. As he ventured, trusting in God, regardless of his feebleness, he gained strength and improved with every effort.--Ibid.
With the prospects of the two laboring together among the people improving, Ellen's feeling of "gratitude was unbounded." Subjects dealt with in depth were primarily Systematic Benevolence and health reform in its broad aspects. They found the word more readily received there than at Wright, prejudice breaking away as plain truth was spoken (The Review and Herald, February 19, 1867).
They were delighted with Greenville's surroundings. Of this James wrote:
One might suppose that Montcalm County was a very new, log-house country, it being seventy-five miles north of Calhoun County [and Battle Creek]. But this is the most beautiful portion of the State. The farmers are generally independent, many of them rich, with large, splendid houses, large, fertile farms, and beautiful orchards.
One traveling through this country passes a variety of scenery peculiar to Michigan, namely, rolling, oak openings, and plains covered with heavy maple and beech, and lofty pines. Then before he is aware of it, he comes upon a fine farm with buildings equal in size and style to the dwellings in our small cities.--Ibid.
"The sleighing has been excellent for the last two months," he reported, "and the weather, generally, comparatively mild and fine."--Ibid. With their team of horses, which were a great blessing, they drove from five to forty miles nearly every day. [Although edson and willie occasionally accompanied their parents, they generally stayed in battle creek or the vicinity, where they could attend school, living with relatives or close friends.] In his report written March 3, James informed the readers of the Review:
Since we left home [Battle Creek] on December 19, ...we have rode with our team one thousand miles, and have walked some each day, in all amounting to one hundred miles. This, with our preaching, writing, baths, and rest hours, has filled up our time.--Ibid., March 12, 1867
Other reports put his health at about one half recovered. He was still frail, but determined to move on by faith, looking forward to a full restoration. He closed his report of their work in the vicinity of Greenville:
We have taken our leave of this people for the present, who express a desire that we should settle among them. And we feel the strongest desire, if the Lord will, to settle with this dear people where our testimony, as is most natural, is prized more than in those places where they are blessed with much ministerial labor, and the labors also of efficient local elders and experienced brethren.
When men come from ten to fifteen miles on foot, and aged and feeble come from three to twelve miles on foot, at this season of the year, depend upon it, they come to hear.--Ibid.
Disappointing Reception in Battle Creek
With the spring thaws, the roads were getting bad, making weekly visits to the churches difficult. James was eager to see the church members in Battle Creek and to "rejoice with them in the work which God was doing for him" (Testimonies for the Church, 1:577), so they planned the trip south in such a way that they could spend a few days visiting believers en route. One night Ellen White was given a disquieting dream. It warned of a cold reception in Battle Creek (Ibid., 1:578). They had reason to expect that after an absence of three months, during which James White had definitely improved in health, they would be heartily welcomed.
But not so. False reports and criticism had done their work. Although James took services Sabbath morning and afternoon, March 16, speaking with clearness, and again Sunday morning, and Ellen White bore her testimony with freedom, they seemed to be held at a distance. Almost crushed, Ellen White opened her heart:
I came home to Battle Creek like a weary child who needed comforting words and encouragement. It is painful for me here to state that we were received with great coldness by our brethren, from whom, three months before, I had parted in perfect union, excepting on the point of our leaving home.--Ibid., 1:579.
As to James, she wrote;
My husband was terribly disappointed at the cold reception which he met.... We decided that we could not bear our testimony to this church till they gave better evidence that they wished our services.--Ibid.
They decided that until the roads leading north were open they would spend the Sabbaths at nearby smaller churches. The first night in Battle Creek Ellen White had another significant dream:
I dreamed that I had been laboring very hard and had been traveling for the purpose of attending a large meeting, and that I was very weary. Sisters were arranging my hair and adjusting my dress, and I fell asleep. When I awoke I was astonished and indignant to find that my garments had been removed, and there had been placed upon me old rags, pieces of bedquilts knotted and sewed together.
Said I: "What have you done to me? Who has done this shameful work of removing my garments and replacing them with beggars' rags?" I tore off the rags and threw them from me. I was grieved, and with anguish cried out: "Bring me back my garments which I have worn for twenty-three years and have not disgraced in a single instance. Unless you give me back my garments I shall appeal to the people, who will contribute and return me my own garments which I have worn these twenty-three years."--Ibid., 1:579, 580.
Little by little they discovered the reason for the cool reception was the evil reports that for some time had been bandied about Battle Creek and written to those at a distance. Part of the problem rested in Ellen White's refusal to take the counsel of friends and church leaders in Battle Creek that would have dissuaded her from taking her husband to Wright in December. Also, people had misunderstood the attempt of James and Ellen White to be financially independent of church members' support. This desire had led them to sell some of their furniture, and pull up their rag carpets and sell them, to gain means to go on. For a year their brethren had urged money upon them to meet their needs, but each time the Whites had replied that it was not needed, that if they were in need, they would let them know. That time finally came; when their only cow died, James suggested that if it could be replaced, it would be a great help to them. No help had been forthcoming, but the incident supported the wild story that James White had a craze for money.
Added to this was another report: Just before his stroke, in the protracted money-raising meeting at Memphis, Michigan, at a late hour when the going was hard, James offered $10 and said Ellen would join him with another $10. Now much in want, he suggested that the church in Memphis was in a position to return this amount. This fed the rumor mill.
While painful, such reports were now no great surprise to Ellen. While at Wright she had had a dream in which she seemed to be taken to a number of homes of church members in Battle Creek the Whites knew well. In her dream she had stood outside the homes and heard the conversation within--conversation in which James's and Ellen's names were often mentioned in a light and accusatory manner. At the time she could hardly believe it. Topping this off was the word that in certain of the churches in Michigan it was being reported "that the Battle Creek church had not the slightest confidence in Sister White's testimony, that is, her oral testimonies, because her life contradicted them."
Finally she called together a number of experienced church members in an attempt to meet the reports circulating about her and her husband. Of this she wrote:
I met the charges against me.... The spirit manifested in this meeting distressed me greatly.... Those present made no effort to relieve me by acknowledging that they were convinced that they had misjudged me and that their suspicions and accusations against me were unjust. They could not condemn me, neither did they make any effort to relieve me.--Ibid., 1:581, 582.
She called a second meeting a week or two later, which ended in much the same way. The coldness with which the Whites were received in Battle Creek is reflected in the fact that no word of welcome, not even a note that they had come, appeared in the columns of the Review. The only acknowledgment of their presence was written by James White himself as a back page note in the issue of March 26.
According to appointment, Brother White met with us Sabbath, the sixteenth, evidently much improved in health and strength since he left us. He spoke both forenoon and afternoon, and on Sunday morning. Sister White also gave a profitable and cheering testimony Sabbath afternoon. We ask our brethren still to remember us, as we trust they do, that the Lord will continue to work for us, and still prosper the important enterprises located here.--The Review and Herald, March 26, 1867.
In his report of their journey to Battle Creek from Greenville, which appeared in the preceding issue of the Review, his closing words were:
We acknowledge with gratitude the good hand of the Lord with us, and the care of His people [at Greenville] to us in their kind acts of sympathy and benevolence. And we look forward with no small degree of pleasure to the time when we shall be permanently settled in their midst.--Ibid., March 19, 1867
An unsigned editorial note on the back page stated:
We have received a request signed by sixty-eight brethren and sisters living in the counties of Montcalm and Ionia, in this State, for Brother and Sister White to locate in their midst. Brother White desires, as will be seen in his two last reports, to fix his residence near Greenville, Montcalm County. To this end he tenders his resignation of connection with the publishing department. The matter is deferred till conference.--Ibid.
The Move to Greenville
Under these circumstances James and Ellen White packed some of their goods, and on Thursday, April 25, left by wagon for Greenville. They arrived at the Maynard home Tuesday afternoon, April 30. "Home again," they sighed. From the Maynard yard they could see the framework of their new home, rising half a mile away, on farm acreage they had purchased before the trip to Battle Creek. "Before getting out of the carriage," wrote James White, they drove over to it "and viewed the premises." He added,"Today, May 2, we start the plow for garden. We hope, with the blessing of God, to prosper in our new home."--Ibid., May 14, 1867
The General Conference Session of 1867
But their stay in Greenville was short, for the General Conference was to open in its fifth annual session in Battle Creek on Tuesday, May 14. Other annual meetings were to follow, and they intended to be there. They were. The editorial page of the Review and Herald dated May 28 carried reports of the meetings. In half a column James White gave somewhat of a report. It opened:
The General Conference just passed has been the very best we ever attended. The large house of worship was crowded to its utmost capacity during the Sabbath and First-day.
The conference met in the new church building, which had been hastened to completion to accommodate the conference. White's report continues:
As we had become weary in journeying to the place of meeting and getting ready to move, and had a house full of brethren, and many kindly calling upon us, we felt excused from preaching before those more able. But as the way was opened we spoke at nine both Sabbath and First-day, upon the coming of the Lord, and felt much as we used to feel on such occasions.... We also enjoyed a precious season of prayer at our dwelling with Brethren Andrews, Bourdeau, and Pierce. This was the best day we had seen for twenty-one months. The room seemed filled with holy angels.--Ibid., May 28, 1867
The statistical report of the conference session listed 28 ordained ministers, 10 licensed ministers, and a total membership of 4,320. J. N. Andrews was elected president of the General Conference; Uriah Smith, secretary; and I. D. Van Horn, treasurer. As for the SDA Publishing Association, which James White had headed from its inception, J. M. Aldrich was chosen president. Aside from routine business, the outstanding item was a resolution offered by J. N. Andrews on Friday afternoon and unanimously adopted. It read:
Whereas, The season of fasting and prayer that the war might be brought to a close was followed by a signal answer to that prayer; and
Whereas, Such answer to prayer called for the deepest humiliation before God, that we might discharge the great responsibilities that devolved upon us by this opening to give the warning voice of the third angel; and
Whereas, Instead of this, a spirit of self-laudation and vanity came over us that justly displeased the Lord,
Resolved, That we publicly acknowledge the hand of God in the great humiliations that have come upon us, and that we beseech the great God of heaven to grant us such a spirit of repentance and humiliation that He can properly remove His just displeasure from us.
Resolved, That we express our solemn convictions that in some places our brethren have been more anxious to impress upon the public that they were an upright worthy people, than to call their attention to the awful importance of the truths we cherish.--Ibid.
James White referred to this action in his brief report:
The resolution relative to our exaltation as a people in consequence of God's signal answer to our prayers in relieving our country from the terrible war was an unspeakable relief to our feelings, as we felt we were the most guilty of the wrongs expressed in that resolution.
And as we bowed with the large audience to confess our sins and implore the removal of the afflicting hand of God, we all wept together, and felt that God did answer our united prayers.--Ibid.
Uriah Smith fills in the story:
The resolution in reference to the humiliation that now becomes us in view of our past self-glorying and vanity over God's gracious dealings with us was not passed merely by the General and Michigan Conferences in their business capacities; but on Sabbath morning while the house and gallery were crowded with a promiscuous assemblage of Sabbathkeepers, the resolution was read from the desk by Brother White, and after some feeling and pointed remarks by him on the subject, the whole congregation gave it a hearty adoption by a rising vote.
Then all bowed down and joined with him in a fervent prayer of penitence, confession, and supplication for God to forgive our wrongs, and remove His just displeasure from us. This was a point of most intense and thrilling interest and solemnity; and we trust the impression it produced will not soon fade from the minds of those who were present for the occasion.-- Ibid.
Another General Conference action was stated in a few words but had far-reaching implications:
Resolved, That we recognize the hand of God in the successful establishment of the Health Institute, and that we invite the continued action of our people in order that this may be enlarged to meet the wants of its patients.-- Ibid.
An appreciable beginning had already been made to bring about this enlargement, steps that James and Ellen White could see were very premature. This caused them deep concern, and in time the light that God gave called for rather radical action.
In a few days James and Ellen White would be making their way back to Greenville. The Battle Creek church had not yet truly disabused themselves of their indifferent attitudes toward the Whites, but there was an exchange of formal statements published in the Review: the Battle Creek church expressed sympathy, and James and Ellen White expressed love and confidence in the church at Battle Creek. They requested the prayers of the church and all who had faith (Ibid.). By the end of May they were back in Greenville.