In response to the instruction given to Ellen White that the Seventh-day Adventist Church should own and operate a medical institution, the Western Health Reform Institute was brought into being, but rather precipitously. It would have been well if the health of James White had been such that he could exercise his cautious managerial experience, and Ellen could have been in a position to give closer attention to the project. In the absence of this, men in all sincerity but with limited experience moved ahead, sometimes inadvisably. This led to many unforeseen problems.
Ellen White did not have time to write out fully the instruction given to her in the vision of December 25, 1865, before she presented it publicly at the General Conference session in May, 1866. When the financial support initially called for, so essential to the development of the enterprise, lagged, the leading workers pleaded with her to write out the instruction that led to the institution's launching, hoping it would strengthen financial support. Yielding her better judgment, she sent for publication that portion of the instruction that called for such an institution before she could write out in full all that had been shown her regarding the enterprise. Her incomplete presentation appeared in Testimony No. 11.
The enthusiastic response from the general public led to premature plans for the rapid enlargement of the institution to accommodate all who applied for admission as patients.
"What shall be done?" queried Dr. Lay, medical superintendent, in an article in the Review in early 1867. The article opened:
Patients are coming to the Health Institute so rapidly that we are already being crowded for room. We do not dare to advertise the institution to any great extent, for fear we shall not have place for those that may wish to come. In addition to the three buildings which are wholly devoted to the wants of the institution, every room of which is occupied, we are fitting up a cottage for lodging rooms, which, according to present prospects, will be filled with patients in a few weeks. And the question arises, What shall be done?--The Review and Herald, January 8, 1867.
Dr. Lay called for $25,000 to erect a new building. He wrote, "We can take care of at least one hundred more patients than we now have, just as well as not," and added:
There is need of another building being commenced as soon as early in the spring.... What shall be done?--Ibid.
He asked the question:
Shall we continue to do business on as limited a scale as at present, and in a few months from now not be able to receive at the Health Institute but a very small portion of those that may wish to come?--Ibid.
James and Ellen White, in northern Michigan, watched the rapid developments with growing concern. It was clear to them that plans for expansion of the Health Institute were premature, and the way in which materials from Ellen White's pen were being used brought particular distress, for the testimonies written to bring the institution into being were now being used to support the plans for immediate enlargement.
Plans were drawn, an excavation was made, a stone foundation was laid, and materials were purchased for proceeding with the proposed enlargement. James and Ellen White watched at long range through the letters, the Review, and reports that reached them, and were greatly distressed. They were convinced that the denomination was quite destitute of what would be needed in skill, experience, and finance.
Then, by vision, God gave direction. Of this Ellen later wrote:
I was shown a large building going up on the site on which the Battle Creek Sanitarium was afterward erected. The brethren were in great perplexity as to who should take charge of the work. I wept sorely. One of authority stood up among us, and said, "Not yet. You are not ready to invest means in that building, or to plan for its future management." At this time the foundation of the Sanitarium had been laid. But we needed to learn the lesson of waiting.--Letter 135, 1903.
In distress she wrote: "The disposition manifested to crowd the matter of the institute so fast has been one of the heaviest trials I have ever borne."--Testimonies for the Church, 1:563.
In the August 27, 1867, Review, there appeared an appeal for $15,000. This was needed immediately to push forward with the enlargement of the Health Institute, to complete the work already begun on the new building. The author of the article, in an endeavor to loosen the purse strings of the believers, quoted at length from Ellen White's initial appeal for a health institution as published in Testimony No. 11.
Invited to a Four-Day September Convocation in Wisconsin
The church leaders in Wisconsin called for a convocation in September of several days' duration, which they invited James and Ellen White to attend (The Review and Herald, August 13, 1867). The Whites responded in the affirmative and planned a stop at Battle Creek en route. They would travel by carriage to Battle Creek and then go to Wisconsin by train. They dreaded what they saw before them in Battle Creek in dealing with the situation of the Health Institute; they knew they were already under considerable criticism there, although they did not know just why.
Preparing for the Confrontation
As the Whites drove from Greenville to Battle Creek, stopping at Wright and Monterey, Ellen worked diligently on a statement concerning the institute that could be published in the next Testimony pamphlet, Number 12. They had speaking appointments at the Monterey church for the weekend of September 7 and 8. Arriving on Tuesday, September 3, James and Ellen were entertained at the John Day home. Here they found a "retired room," as James White described it, "for writing, and copying for Testimony No. 12" (Ibid., September 17, 1867).
Loughborough joined them in Monterey, and on Monday, September 9, they drove on to Battle Creek together, where they made headquarters at the Amadon home. Certain of the resistance they would have to meet, they were filled with trepidation. During the next week the type for Testimony No. 12 was set, and they read proof sheets, wrote letters, held interviews, and mailed books.
The Crucial Weekend at Battle Creek
They met with the Battle Creek church on Sabbath, September 14, and entered upon the work they dreaded, establishing restraints on the premature enlargement of the Health Institute. They had come to Battle Creek "with trembling" to bear their testimony, and this they did. Ellen White reviewed some of the high points in the call for, and the rapid development of, the institute. She may have read from proofs of Testimony No. 12 such statements as the following:
As to the extent of the accommodations of the Health Institute at Battle Creek, I was shown, as I have before stated, that we should have such an institution, small at its commencement, and cautiously increased, as good physicians and helpers could be procured and means raised, and as the wants of invalids should demand; and all should be conducted in strict accordance with the principles and humble spirit of the third angel's message.
And as I have seen the large calculations hastily urged by those who have taken a leading part in the work, I have felt alarmed, and in my many private conversations and in letters I have warned these brethren to move cautiously. My reasons for this are that without the special blessing of God there are several ways in which this enterprise might be hindered.--Testimonies for the Church, 1:558.
She pointed out that physicians might fail, through sickness or death or by some other cause; money might not come in as needed to put up the larger buildings; and there might be a lack of patients, resulting in a lack of means to carry on. She had confidence that with proper efforts put forth in a "judicious manner, and with the blessing of God, the institution will prove a glorious success" (Ibid., 1:559). She added:
Our people should furnish means to meet the wants of a growing Health Institute among us, as they are able to do without giving less for the other wants of the cause. Let the health reform and the Health Institute grow up among us as other worthy enterprises have grown, taking into the account our feeble strength in the past and our greater ability to do much in a short period of time now. Let the Health Institute grow, as other interests among us have grown, as fast as it can safely and not cripple other branches of the great work which are of equal or greater importance at this time.--Ibid., 1:559, 560.
The Wholesome Response
The evening after the Sabbath, September 14, James spoke in what he identified as "the first evening meeting I have attended in twenty months," addressing the brethren for nearly an hour (The Review and Herald, September 17, 1867). He spoke again Sunday morning at a well-attended meeting in the church. He reported:
Our testimony was very pointed, yet well received. Many excellent testimonies were given by those at the head of the work, and by others. The melting, weeping spirit was all through the congregation. With trembling we came to the place to bear our testimony. But we find that plain preaching has the same good results in this church as in our younger churches.--Ibid.
Ellen White had presented her message indicating God's will in the matter of the institute. James had given his counsel as a careful church administrator. The few days spent in Battle Creek were difficult, crucial, and successful. Hammers, saws, and trowels were laid aside, and the church leaders determined to follow the counsel given. The stone foundation stood untouched until the next stockholders' meeting in mid-May, 1868. The financial report showed for the twelve-month period then ending that the institution had operated at a loss. There were no dividends for the stockholders. On the advice of James and Ellen White, the stockholders who could do so relinquished all claims on further anticipated returns and left their money as an investment in the cause. The very few unable to do so were properly compensated so they would not suffer. A few days after the stockholders' meeting in 1868, James announced:
The large building is given up for the present, and the material is being sold. Still a debt of several thousands will be resting upon the institute after this is done. Efforts will be made in the future to have everything connected with the institute managed on the most economical plan, and everything that can be done by the directors to overcome the present embarrassments will be done. And at this crisis none should excuse themselves who are able to share in this good work.--Ibid., June 16, 1868
Modest Plans Announced
James was put on the board of directors, which helped to establish confidence. To hold things on an even keel, he told of plans that would make it possible for the institute to continue its activities within its resources. He assured everyone that the business was sound and urged them to manifest a gracious attitude toward those responsible for the current problems.
Those who have moved rashly, and have committed errors in the past for want of experience, feel over the matter all they should, and it is not Christian-like to murmur against them. No one will better his condition in any way by such a course. It is no time for the professed friends of the institute to settle back and cast an influence against it. The very worst time for a horse to balk is when the load draws hard.--Ibid.
The Wisconsin Convocation
James and Ellen White left Battle Creek by train for Wisconsin on Tuesday, September 17, 1867. The meeting was held at Johnstown Center. With the Whites were Uriah Smith, T. M. Steward, and Mr. and Mrs. Maynard. Reaching Johnstown Center on Wednesday, they found the large tent up, four small living tents, and believers coming in from all directions. Friday morning, September 20, Uriah Smith wrote a report for the Review giving this picture:
We are now upon the convocation campground, Johnstown Center, Wisconsin. How goodly are thy tents O Israel! The large Wisconsin tent is pitched for the purpose of the meeting. Twelve church and family tents are already on the ground around it. Elders Sanborn, Steward, Andrews, Blanchard, and Matteson, of the Wisconsin and Illinois Conference, are present. The tent is full of earnest, substantial commandment-keepers. This is estimated to be the largest gathering of the friends of the truth that have ever assembled in this State.--Ibid., September 24, 1867
Meetings had opened Thursday morning. James and Ellen White were the principal speakers of the day, but it was the evening meeting that Smith wanted to talk about. He wrote:
The meeting in the evening was one of unusual solemnity and power. Sister White bore her testimony with great freedom. Many were in tears, and the pent-up emotions of the people found audible utterance in various parts of the congregation. Not a few consider it the best meeting they ever attended.--Ibid.
Smith commented that he was pleased to hear the firm confidence expressed in the testimonies, and added:
Some full and free confessions were made, and some who had been wavering expressed their confidence restored. These referred with great feeling to the discourse of Brother White in the afternoon on the unpardonable sin, and expressed their great thankfulness that though they had gone far in their opposition to the work of the Holy Spirit, they had been kept from that great sin of attributing its operations to the agency of Satan.--Ibid.
The four-day convocation at Johnstown Center was considered a great success.
The Disclosure of Strange Criticism
In Wisconsin James and Ellen White learned of some of the reports and rumors that, unbeknown to them, had been current even at the time of the General Conference in May. This criticism, they could now see, constituted a part of the basis for the coldness with which they were treated in Battle Creek. Ellen White gives one example:
It was said that my husband was so crazy for money that he had engaged in selling old bottles. The facts are these: When we were about to move, I asked my husband what we should do with a lot of old bottles on hand. Said he: "Throw them away."
Just then our Willie [age 12] came in and offered to clean and sell them. I told him to do so, and he should have what he could get for them. And when my husband rode to the post office, he took Willie and the bottles into the carriage. He could do no less for his faithful little son. Willie sold the bottles and took the money.
On the way to the post office my husband took a brother connected with the Review office into the carriage, who conversed pleasantly with him as they rode to and from town, and because he saw Willie come out to the carriage and ask his father a question relative to the value of the bottles, and then saw the druggist in conversation with my husband relative to that which so much interested Willie, this brother, without saying one word to my husband about the matter, immediately reported that Brother White had been downtown selling old bottles and therefore must be crazy. The first we heard about the bottles was ...five months later.--Testimonies for the Church, 1:605, 606.
"These things have been kept from us," commented Ellen White, "so that we could not correct them, and have been carried, as on the wings of the wind, by our professed friends."--Ibid., 1:606.
The four-day convocation in Johnstown and the similar meeting following in Iowa were forerunners of Seventh-day Adventist camp meetings, which were to find such an important place in the history of the church. The Johnstown meeting closed Sunday evening; the Iowa convocation was to open at Pilot Grove the next Thursday, September 26.
The Iowa Convocation
Like the meeting in Wisconsin, Smith reported that the one in Iowa was "a good and blessed season for those assembled."
The attendance of brethren was not so large as in Wisconsin; but on First-day the attendance of those without was even greater, there being about fifteen hundred people on the ground.--The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867.
Smith told the readers of the Review that the brethren in the State considered the cause to be in a better condition than at any previous time. Apostasy had taken out a number of members not firmly grounded in the message. The outlook for Iowa was hopeful.
During this gathering, the conference president, 33-year-old George I. Butler, was ordained to the ministry. He had served well since his election to that office, taking the place of B. F. Snook, who had apostatized. While at Pilot Grove, Ellen White wrote the rather extensive article for the Review answering questions on the health reform vision, her writing on health, and what she had been shown concerning the reform dress, et cetera. This was published in the Review of October 8, 1867.
Testimony No. 12, and Battle Creek
The day James and Ellen White left Battle Creek for the Wisconsin convocation, the Review and Herald announced:
Testimony for the Church No. 12 is now ready. It contains a hundred pages of most important matter for the people of God at the present time.--Ibid., September 17, 1867
Except for No. 11, published in January, with its three articles, "Dress," "Our Ministers," and "The Health Reform," urging loyalty to health principles and presenting the call for a health institution, there had been no pamphlets of testimony counsels for three years. James White anticipated for Number 12 an immediate and wide circulation. Its sixteen articles, some long, some short, were divided between health-related topics and more general counsels. The first notice of publication listed as subjects:
Young Sabbathkeepers
Deceitfulness of Riches
Recreations for Christians
Personal [Testimony]
The Reform Dress
Life Insurance
Surmisings About Battle Creek
Advertise Publications
Shifting [Financial] Responsibilities
Knowledge [The Health Reformer]
Proper Observance of the Sabbath
The Health Reform [Institute] Political Sentiments
Extracts From Letters [to Usury Health Institute Leaders]
Significant Changes in Battle Creek
The earnest labors of James and Ellen White in Battle Creek for the few days in mid-September while on their way to Wisconsin, followed by the messages of Testimony No. 12, began to bring about changes in the attitudes of the church members toward the Whites. Even Loughborough had been tinged with the spirit of criticism and opposition in Battle Creek (see Testimonies for the Church, 1:600). He read one of the first copies of Testimony No. 12 as it came from the press, and wrote the same day, September 17. No doubt his experience typified that of not a few in Battle Creek:
About four hours since I had placed in my hands at the Review office a completed Testimony No. 12. Believing it to be light from the Lord, I at once eagerly, yet prayerfully, commenced its perusal. I have completed its reading without stopping to have the mind diverted with other matters. Often while reading, have I thought, how good is the Lord to instruct His people, giving us "line upon line," "precept upon precept."
This testimony is from the Lord. It breathes a spirit of humility and love, and such an evidence of the tenderness and care of our heavenly Father for the interests of His cause in its various departments, and for His people in particular, that I hasten to commend it to the consideration of all the brethren and sisters.
It reproves wrongs among us, both in the young and old, but what of that? If we ever expect the purifying work to be accomplished in our hearts, and ourselves got ready for the judgment, our wrongs must be brought to our knowledge, seen, confessed, and forsaken....
Brethren, immediately secure a copy of Testimony No. 12, read it carefully, pray over it, study it, and endeavor to exemplify its instructions in your lives, and may we all be enabled to reap the benefits which follow in the path of those who are "not disobedient unto the heavenly vision."--Ibid.
On returning to Battle Creek early in October, James White called a "council of brethren" that there might be an investigation and an opportunity for the Whites to meet the widely circulated false reports. A number of these reports had been kept from them but they had learned of them at the convocations in Wisconsin and Iowa. Ellen White declared:
We have been astonished to find, by investigation and by recent confessions from nearly all the members of this [Battle Creek] church, that some one or more of the false reports have been fully credited by nearly all and that those professed Christians have cherished feelings of censure, bitterness, and cruelty against us, especially against my feeble husband who is struggling for life and liberty. Some have had a wicked, crushing spirit and have represented him as wealthy yet grasping for money.--Ibid., 1:606.
In response to James's call, brethren from several parts of Michigan came in to Battle Creek. Ellen White wrote:
My husband fearlessly called on all to bring what they could against him that he might meet it openly and thus put an end to this private slander. The wrongs which he had before confessed in the Review he now fully confessed in a public meeting and to individuals, and also explained many matters upon which false and foolish charges were based, and convinced all of the falsity of those charges.--Ibid.
Ellen detailed their personal financial situation:
And while looking up matters relative to the real value of our property, we found to his astonishment, and that of all present, that it amounted to only $1,500, besides his horses and carriage, and remnants of editions of books and charts, the sale of which for the past year, as stated by the secretary, has not been equal to the interest on the money he owes to the Publishing Association.--Ibid.
She added:
The investigation was a thorough one and resulted in freeing us from the charges brought against us, and restoring feelings of perfect union. Hearty and heart-rending confessions of the cruel course pursued toward us here have been made, and the signal blessing of God has come upon us all.--Ibid., 1:608.
On October 22 Uriah Smith wrote of the "good work for the church in this place" during the past month:
We were gratified, as we saw the beneficial effects of the labors of Brother and Sister White here, September 14, that they proposed to hold further meetings with us on their return from the West, and we have had still more reason to be gratified as we have seen the progress of the meetings themselves.... We believe substantial progress has been made....
We rejoice in the plain and searching testimony, so necessary for these times.... That these meetings, involving an investigation of various matters over which misunderstandings and wrong feelings have existed, will result in a better understanding of the position we should occupy, and strong and impregnable union for the future, we fully believe.--The Review and Herald, October 22, 1867.
"The Lord is restoring Brother White," Smith wrote in closing his editorial, "and giving both him and Sister White a testimony for His people richer in experience and stronger in power than ever before."--Ibid.
Appointments had been made for James and Ellen White to attend meetings in Roosevelt, New York (Ibid., October 15, 1867). But the rapidly unfolding developments led Ellen White to feel that she must issue, before they left, another testimony pamphlet, reviewing the experiences through which they had passed during the year 1867. This information would help many, and now that situations had reached a favorable level she labored feverishly to fill out copy for Testimony No. 13. This was rushed through the press so that it could be finished before the Whites left Battle Creek and they could take copies with them. In fact, the October 22 issue of the Review was cut from the usual sixteen pages to eight, for part of the working force had been taken off the Review to work on Number 13, and also, so that all the Review employees could attend the important meetings being held.
The shortened issue, dated October 22, two days before the Whites were to leave for the eastern tour, carried James White's back page note that "Testimony No. 13 is now ready."
"In This I Did Wrong"
Now let us go back to September, 1867, and Testimony No. 12, with its twelve-page article titled "The Health Institute." In this testimony Ellen White explained how, under pressure from the leaders in Battle Creek, she had prematurely released for publication Testimony No. 11, which called for a medical institution as an enterprise of the church, without the balancing counsels she should have put with it. Here is her statement, in later years sometimes misapplied:
I yielded my judgment to that of others and wrote what appeared in No. 11 in regard to the Health Institute, being unable then to give all I had seen. In this I did wrong. I must be allowed to know my own duty better than others can know it for me, especially concerning matters which God has revealed to me.
I shall be blamed by some for speaking as I now speak. Others will blame me for not speaking before. The disposition manifested to crowd the matter of the institute so fast has been one of the heaviest trials I have ever borne. If all who have used my testimony to move the brethren had been equally moved by it themselves, I should be better satisfied.... For the good of those at the head of the work, for the good of the cause and the brethren, and to save myself great trials, I have freely spoken.--Testimonies for the Church, 1:563, 564.
Earlier in this statement she declared that "the relation which I sustain to this work demands of me an unfettered expression of my views. I speak freely and choose this medium [Testimony No. 12] to speak to all interested."--Ibid., 1:562, 563.