James and Ellen White had delayed their return to California for the winter months until after the Biblical institute and the dedication of Battle Creek College. The institute would close on Sunday night, January 3, and the college dedication was scheduled for Monday, January 4. But as they approached the time, a cloud hung over their cherished plans. Ellen White was very ill with influenza. W. C. White tells the story:
After three or four days of the usual run of the disease, we expected her to recover, but she did not improve. Rather she grew worse, and the sanitarium physicians feared that she was in danger of pneumonia. They urged that she be brought without delay to the sanitarium for treatment.... Father was distressed at the thought of her not being able to bear her testimony before the members of the Bible institute, the Battle Creek church, and the many visiting brethren who had gathered to witness the dedication of the college....
I shall never forget the solemnity of the occasion. Mother had been brought down from her sickroom into the parlor. She was seated in a large armchair, warmly wrapped in blankets. Uriah Smith and J. H. Waggoner had come up from the Review office with Father, to unite with him in prayer, and four members of our family were also permitted to be present.
Elder Waggoner prayed. Elder Smith followed in prayer, and then Father prayed. It seemed that heaven was very near to us. Then Mother undertook to pray, and in a hoarse, labored voice, she uttered two or three sentences of petition.
Suddenly her voice broke clear and musical, and we heard the ringing shout, "Glory to God!" We all looked up, and saw that she was in vision. Her hands were folded across her breast. Her eyes were directed intently upward, and her lips were closed. There was no breathing, although the heart continued its action.
As she looked intently upward, an expression of anxiety came into her face. She threw aside her blankets, and, stepping forward, walked back and forth in the room. Wringing her hands, she moaned, "Dark! Dark! All dark! So dark!" Then after a few moments' silence, she exclaimed with emphasis, and a brightening of her countenance, "A light! A little light! More light! Much light!"--Ibid., February 10, 1938
In his narration W. C. White explained concerning this exclamation:
This we understood afterward, when she told us that the world was presented to her as enshrouded in the mists and fog of error, of superstition, of false tradition, and of worldliness. Then as she looked intently and with distress upon this scene, she saw little lights glimmering through the darkness. These lights increased in power. They burned brighter, and they were lifted higher and higher. Each one lighted other lights, which also burned brightly, until the whole world was lighted.
Following her exclamatory remarks regarding the lights, she sat down in her chair. After a few minutes, she drew three long, deep breaths, and then resumed her natural breathing. Her eyes rested upon the company that had been assembled for prayer. Father, knowing that after a vision everything looked strange to her, knelt by her side, and spoke in her ear, saying, "Ellen, you have been in vision."
"Yes," she said, her voice sounding far away, as though she were speaking to someone in another room.
"Were you shown many things?" Father asked.
"Yes," she replied.
"Would you like to tell us about them now?" he asked.
"Not now" was her response. So the company was dismissed, and she went back to her room.--Ibid.
W. C. White continued his account of the vision:
Father then hastened down to the Review office to meet the brethren who were coming in from the East and the West to attend the dedication. About sundown he came up from the office, walking through the snow, for it had been snowing quite heavily during the afternoon. Entering the house, he threw off his overcoat in the kitchen, and hastened up to Mother's room. There, after a few words of inquiry about the experience of the afternoon, he said, "Ellen, there is to be an important meeting in the church this evening. Do you wish to attend?"
"Certainly," she answered. So she dressed for the meeting, and with Father, walked down through the snow to the church.--Ibid.
Waggoner, who had been one who prayed that afternoon for Ellen White's healing, reported in the January 8 issue of the Review:
The closing exercises on Sunday evening, January 3, were of unusual interest. A recapitulation of subjects canvassed was presented by Brother Smith. At this point Sister White entered the house. She had been very sick for several days, and all had resigned their hope of hearing her again before their departure.
But the Lord, in answer to prayer, visited her in mercy and in power, and to the great joy of all present she was enabled to give a powerful exhortation and cheering testimony. Brother White followed with a stirring appeal which went to the hearts of the large assembly.--Ibid., January 8, 1875
Whether Ellen White related the vision Sunday night or at one of the special meetings held the next few evenings at the church is not clear. W. C. White describes, as a preface to her telling of the vision, her appeal for all to take broader views of the work:
In Mrs. White's rehearsal of her vision regarding the growth of the work, which was given her on January 3, 1875, not only did she speak of seeing companies of believers who were waiting for the gospel messenger, but she also told her hearers that the time was not far distant when we should send ministers to many foreign lands, that God would bless their labors, and that there would be in many places a work of publishing the present truth.
She said that in the vision, she had seen printing presses running in many foreign lands, printing periodicals, tracts, and books containing truths regarding the sacredness of the Sabbath, and the soon coming of Jesus.
At this point, Father interrupted and said, "Ellen, can you tell us the names of those countries?" She hesitated a moment, and then said, "No, I do not know the names. The picture of the places and of the printing presses is very clear, and if I should ever see them, I would recognize them. But I did not hear the names of the places. Oh, yes, I remember one; the angel said, 'Australia.'"--Ibid., February 17, 1938 (see also The General Conference Bulletin, 1909, 92, 93).
A decade later, while visiting Europe, she recognized the presses in the publishing house in Switzerland as shown to her in this 1875 vision; the same can be said of the presses she saw in Australia still later.
This was the last vision given to Ellen White accompanied by physical phenomena concerning which we have detailed information and published lines of instruction attesting to it. J. N. Loughborough, who in 1884 was at the Oregon camp meeting, testified that a vision accompanied by the phenomena was given to her there, but we have no details about the circumstances. At the General Conference session of 1893 he stated:
I have seen Sister White in vision about fifty times. The first time was about forty years ago.... Her last open vision was in 1884, on the campground at Portland, Oregon.--Ibid., 1893, 19, 20.
Many Subjects Revealed in the Vision of January 3
There is good reason to believe that much of the counsel published in Testimony No. 25, which came from the press in early February, 1875, was revealed to Ellen White in the vision of January 3. The first article, on the importance of the work, opens: "January 3, 1875, I was shown many things relative to the great and important interests at Battle Creek."--Testimonies for the Church, 3:468. Other articles are keyed to this vision, as are a number of articles in Testimonies, volume 4.
Plans to Return to the Pacific Coast
The Review and Herald, January 8, 1875, carried on its back page a note from James White in which he said:
We leave for the Pacific Coast in a week or two, to avoid the remains of winter and a Michigan spring, to counsel with the brethren in California relating to publishing and other matters, to speak to our people as the way may open, and write for our periodicals.
God has raised us up to health again, and we solemnly covenant with Him not to abuse it under the cares and labors of a printing establishment in Michigan, California, or anywhere else. We hope to visit all our conferences and home missions during the present year, in company with Mrs. White. We take time for rest, reflection, prayer, and preparation to speak and to write, and design for the future to undertake less, and do better what we attempt to do.--Ibid., January 8, 1875.
During the frantic days that followed for the Whites in getting off to the West--they did not leave Battle Creek until Wednesday, January 27--they got Testimonies 24 and 25 through the press, each containing nearly two hundred pages. These testimonies fill the last one third of Testimonies, volume 3, pages 339-575. Included is the eighteen-page article titled "Leadership," written sometime in 1874 in response to the George I. Butler presentation at the General Conference session of 1873.
Differing Views on the Philosophy of Leadership
Butler's position, which was very favorably received at the time it was given (see p. 400), was later summed up by James White in this way:
A mistaken view was taken of this question, insomuch that the position was taken that one man was to be recognized as the visible leader of Seventh-day Adventists, as Moses was the visible leader of the Hebrews.--Ibid., May 23, 1878.
Of course, there was no hiding the point that he was referring to James White as that leader. An action passed at the conference session when Butler made this presentation called for it to be published in a pamphlet and circulated widely. This was done in the late spring of 1874. Beginning in June, James White chose to publish in the Signs of the Times a series of three editorials refuting Butler's position on leadership. He opened his remarks by quoting Matthew 23:8: "One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren." White pointed out:
Jesus addressed these words to the twelve, in the hearing of the multitude. And while they were a rebuke to the scribes and Pharisees, they were also designed to impress the disciples with the great truth, that should be felt in all coming time, that Christ is the only head of the church.--The Signs of the Times, June 4, 1874.
Later, back in Battle Creek, White, as editor of the Review and Herald, published a condensation of his Signs editorials in the issue of December 1, 1874. Uriah Smith, managing editor, put in an interesting note that read:
The leading editorial, on leadership, in substance, was written by Brother White, in California, immediately after the publication of the tract upon the subject, which was approved by the General Conference. Hence, it is an expression of his views relative to the teachings of the Scriptures upon the subject, unbiased by the opinions and feelings of anyone, then or now. He now designs to give his views more fully, in tract form, when he proposes to apply the subject to the brief history of our cause, with which he has been connected from the first.--The Review and Herald, December 1, 1874.
Ellen White did not agree with the Butler position, yet she dreaded seeing two church leaders in conflict. On November 11 she had written to W. H. Littlejohn, who was agitating the matter:
In regard to leadership, we do not think, Brother Littlejohn, that you have the right understanding of this matter. The sentiments you have advanced in your letters to me are in some particulars directly contrary to the light God has given me during the last thirty years. I am about to print another testimony [Nos. 25, 26], and there are many things I consider of the greatest importance in the matter to be published. Some of these very things in regard to order in the church and the wants of its members are brought out very clearly, but it is impossible to write out or to speak in so short a time upon all these matters that which would meet the difficulties in your mind. We would not, in order to cure one evil, make a more greater difficulty to manage....
I see no one who has been in any special danger through believing or accepting Brother Butler's view of the matter. I may not and you may not understand his position correctly. We have sent for Brother Butler. He will be here soon.
My husband could not see that Brother Butler's position was wholly correct, and he has written out his views which I believe to be sound.... In regard to leadership, we want no special reaction to take place upon that subject. We see dangers that you may not see. We think in a very short time there will be a correct position taken on this question.--Letter 61, 1874.
Very shortly after this--just when is not precisely known--Ellen White wrote to Butler what might be considered an essay on the whole question. She included this in Testimony No. 25 under the heading "Leadership." Its eighteen pages are found today in Testimonies, volume 3, pages 492-509. Early on she stated the crux of the matter:
Your principles in regard to leadership are right, but you do not make the right application of them. If you should let the power of the church, the voice and judgment of the General Conference, stand in the place you have given my husband, there could then be no fault found with your position. But you greatly err in giving to one man's mind and judgment that authority and influence which God has invested in His church in the judgment and voice of the General Conference.
When this power which God has placed in the church is accredited to one man, and he is invested with the authority to be judgment for other minds, then the true Bible order is changed. Satan's efforts upon such a man's mind will be most subtle and sometimes overpowering, because through this mind he thinks he can affect many others. Your position on leadership is correct, if you give to the highest organized authority in the church what you have given to one man. God never designed that His work should bear the stamp of one man's mind and one man's judgment.--Testimonies for the Church, 3:493.
The sixteen pages that follow are replete with counsels for everyone called to a position of leadership. The following four gems are found on page 497:
Man can make his circumstance, but circumstances should never make the man.
Long delays tire the angels.
It is even more excusable to make a wrong decision sometimes than to be continually in a wavering position.
I have been shown that the most signal victories and the most fearful defeats have been on the turn of minutes.
This testimony provided basic counsel that charted a safe course in denominational administration. At the close of the pamphlet by Ellen White, James White repeated a major portion of his Review article of December 1, 1874, and added:
The foregoing is taken from a discourse upon the subject of leadership which appeared in several numbers of the Signs of the Times, and later in the Advent Review. It was written only a few weeks after the essay referred to by Mrs. White was published, at a time when the writer knew not but that he was the only person who rejected the leading ideas of the essay, especially that part of it which applied the subject to himself. Let the following statements be carefully considered:
1. I have never professed to be a leader in any other sense than that which makes all of Christ's ministers leaders.
2. At the very commencement of the work, when organization was impossible, it was necessary that someone should lead out until those appointed by an organized body could act officially. I doubt not but God called me to this work.
3. In my labors with Mrs. White in correcting errors, exposing wrongs, and establishing order in the church, it was my duty to stand firm with her. And because I could not be induced to yield to the demands of error, but stood firmly for the right, I was charged with being stubborn, and having a desire to rule.--Testimony No. 25, pp. 190, 191.
He added other points, suggesting it might have been better when the church was being organized if he had refused to continue to act "a more prominent part" than those associated with him in office. He expressed his gratitude that the matter was now fully settled in his own mind, and he affirmed the concept that "the General Conference is the highest authority God has on earth."--Ibid., 192.
In an editorial in The Review and Herald, May 23, 1878, White had occasion to review the whole experience. He reiterated his basic position:
We have but one leader, which is Christ, and the entire brotherhood of the ministry, while they should counsel with each other out of due respect for the judgment of each other, should nevertheless look to our great leader as their unerring guide.
Our long experience in the general, successful management of matters pertaining to the cause gave our people confidence in us, and has had a tendency to lead them to look to us and lean upon our judgment too much. This experience we gained by anxious study and earnest prayer. Our brethren can obtain it in the same way. They should have looked to God more and gained individual experience.
For the wrong, God has in wisdom removed us [by severe illness] from them for a time, and we fear the removal will be final unless they learn to look to God for themselves. We do not object to counseling with our brethren, if it can be taken as simply the opinion of one who is frail and liable to err, but when it comes to this that brethren demand of us our opinion, and add that they shall do just what we say, we shall withhold our opinion.... A servant of the church and a counselor with the brethren. James White.--Ibid., May 23, 1878.
Finally, Off to California
Having seen Testimonies 24 and 25 through the press, the first published since the autumn of 1873, James and Ellen White, accompanied by Mary Kelsey and J. H. Waggoner, left for California on Wednesday, January 27, 1875. They would assist in the soon-to-be-established publishing house. They arrived in Oakland on the evening of February 2. Loughborough, who welcomed them, noted that James and Ellen had returned "in good health and with their usual zeal." He was particularly pleased to observe that God had wonderfully sustained James, and his health was improved (The Signs of the Times, February 11, 1875). The couple threw themselves wholeheartedly into the work with the churches in Oakland and San Francisco and into the development of the publishing work on the Pacific Coast.
White announced plans, present and for the future:
We have come to this State by the request of the California Conference of S. D. Adventists to counsel with our leading men relative to the location of the Signs office, the institution of a publishing association here, and the best method of conducting a publishing house. We design to write for the Signs, and speak to the people as the way may open.
But the time of our stay upon this coast at this time cannot be more than three months, provided we attend our camp meetings in the several States, closing up with California on our return to the State next fall.--Ibid., February 25, 1875
A special session of the California Conference was quickly arranged for February 12, and at that meeting consideration was given to the location of the proposed publishing house. Delegates brought suggestions of several potential sites. On D. M. Canright's motion, Ellen White was invited to give her views as to location and other matters. "She did, stating that her mind was in favor of either San Francisco or Oakland, from the fact that they were situated on the great highway of travel and commerce."--Ibid.
The record is that "there was a general agreement that Oakland was the best point at which to establish permanently our printing office for this coast." On the motion of William Saunders, the conference unanimously voted:
That Oakland be selected by this conference as the point of location for the printing establishment.--Ibid.
After three months in California, James and Ellen White returned to the East. In an editorial statement written on April 28, James summed up their accomplishments:
Tomorrow we take the overland train for Chicago, accompanied by Mrs. White. We design to return to our Oakland, California home, before the cold of another eastern winter. And as we are about to leave this desirable field of labor for the present, we take a hasty glance at the past three months.
We reached Oakland from the East, February 2, 1875, very much rested by our six days' journey, and were ready for immediate active service. We were very happy to find in Oakland and San Francisco two active and well-united churches of about seventy-five members each. In our younger days Mrs. White always attended the same services with us, at which we would take turns in speaking; but the situation of things in the two cities seemed to demand that we should divide our efforts, so that we have generally occupied both stands, alternating, when not laboring in other churches.
We have both labored at Petaluma, Napa, and Santa Clara, and Mrs. White, with our son, W. C. White, has spent one week with the church at Woodland....
Besides speaking, we have had the general care of the Signs office, and have written considerable for our papers. Add to this the labors of the principal duties which called us to this coast last winter, to assist in forming a publishing association and locating and putting up a publishing house--and one can see at a glance how our time could be well employed.--Ibid., April 29, 1875.
Then he turned to some of the details of accomplishments. At the same time he expressed concern over the financial situation. While more than $19,000 had been pledged at the camp meeting in Yountville the previous fall, which was to be paid by the close of 1875, only a few had paid their pledges. As a result, cash was in short supply.
The Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association is complete, a body corporate, according to the laws of the State of California, that can sue and be sued, and its officers entered upon their duties with flattering prospects. The site, eighty feet front by one hundred feet deep, on the west side of Castro, between Eleventh and Twelfth, is purchased and paid for. Part of the lumber for the publishing house is on the ground, and Brother O. B. Jones commences to build about the middle of May. He would be very glad to employ every good carpenter among our people in the State if means could be furnished immediately to purchase all the material and push the job to a speedy completion....
Having seen this enterprise in good working condition, we leave the work of building and of managing the affairs of the association in able hands, and make a tour east to attend to more urgent and arduous labors.--Ibid.
White challenged the believers in California:
Our plans have been to return to the California camp meeting, and assist in an effort with the big tent in San Francisco during the months of October and November, and advertise largely from our own press in Oakland.
It will require great promptness on the part of the friends in California to carry forward all these plans, so dependent one upon another. A failure of any one might affect the whole, so that we might not see duty to leave important meetings in Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas to return in early fall.--Ibid.
His interest in the California enterprise led him to make a gift of $1,000 to the newly formed publishing association, and he promised to advance another $1,000 without interest until the poorer brethren could pay their pledges.
Back in the East for the Camp meetings
Soon after arriving in Battle Creek, to attend camp meetings, James White declared his general plan for working:
We hope to be able to attend all the camp meetings the coming season with Mrs. White. We shall come to our brethren, not to do the work, but to help them do it in the name and strength of the Lord. We have neither strength nor disposition to labor as we have done. It is important to be in season. We have many suggestions to make, and we think it important at this early date to call the attention of the preachers of the several conferences to the fact that if duty calls them from important labor to the camp meeting, it calls them to labor at these meetings and not depend on those from abroad to do all the work.--The Review and Herald, April 8, 1875.
Two weeks later, in a back-page Review note concerning their labors, he related their plans and made a significant comment:
We are anxious to meet with our people in the several conferences, if but for a few days at each camp meeting.... Our object at all these meetings shall be to preach the word faithfully, pray with and for the brethren, counsel with them as to the best means to advance the cause, and labor generally for love and union to continue with the Lord's people.
We are very grateful that we were not suffered to be pressed into the leadership delusion, on the one hand, nor left to lose our interest in the cause on the other. We are anxious to help all who need help. We have never claimed higher honors than to be a servant of the church, and to counsel with our brethren.--Ibid., April 22, 1875
After spending much of May in Battle Creek, James and Ellen White started out to attend the first camp meeting of the season, in Newton, Iowa. Those who met them here and there reported that they were enjoying good health. Joseph Clarke at Bowling Green, Ohio, where they stopped en route to Iowa, declared:
Brother White has improved greatly in bodily and mental health within the past year. He says he has increased his weight twenty-five pounds by the practice of continued cheerfulness and courage in God, and by ignoring Satan's dark schemes to dishearten and discourage him.--Ibid., June 10, 1875
The Iowa Camp Meeting
In a three-column statement, James White reported that at the Iowa camp meeting there were thirty family tents besides the large tent and covered wagons. Uriah Smith was on the grounds, and the burden of preaching was carried largely by the three. Some two thousand attended the meetings on Sunday. On Wednesday, June 2, the Newton Free Press gave good space to reporting the meetings. We include excerpts from the lengthy report of W. S. Benham, editor and publisher:
The Seventh-day Adventists of Iowa, and Nebraska, both States being included in one conference, held their annual conference and camp meeting at Evans' Grove, just southwest of Newton, commencing last Thursday and closing on Tuesday. This is the second year of the conference and camp meeting at this place, and its central location and pleasant remembrances may make this the place for its permanent establishment.
The grounds were admirably arranged, the great pavilion located on the east side, with a semicircle enclosing over two acres, upon which ample seats were spread before the platform, while in the adjacent timber the teams were hitched and fed, a well dug on purpose, furnishing the requisite amount of water for all.
It is proper to state right here that no orders were given in regard to deportment on the grounds, no guards or sentinels placed on duty, and that from the opening to the close there was not an attempt at disorder or a symptom of rowdyism manifested. The people who came together for the camp meeting attended strictly to business, and the spectators at all the meetings showed that respect which was due to them as strangers and fellow-citizens....
Of the elders in attendance and taking an active part in conducting the exercises we may appropriately mention James White, U. Smith, Ellen G. White, R. M. Kilgore, Henry Nicola, C. L. Boyd, C. A. Washburn, J. T. Mitchell, and Harvey Morrison.
Elder White has made the subject of his present discourses his life study, and its propagation his lifework. He is the associate of Elders Smith and Andrews in publishing the Review and Herald, Voice of Truth, and Signs of the Times.
Mrs. White is a preacher of great ability and force, much called for as a speaker at the camp meetings of the denomination all over the Union, and a large share of her time is given to this work.
Elder Smith is pleasant in appearance, an earnest advocate of his doctrine, and preaches with good effect.
The tents are being struck as we go to press, and directly those attending the meeting will return to their respective homes, firmer, and stronger after this season of instruction and mutual pledges to each other of faithfulness to the faith. The meeting has been in all respects a success.--In The Signs of the Times, June 24, 1875.
James and Ellen White continued with the camp meetings in the Midwest as planned--Illinois; Wisconsin, where two meetings were held; and Minnesota--and then returned to Battle Creek for the July break. From there White reported:
Five camp meetings have been held the present year with the very best results. We think our brethren in each of the several States where they have been held will agree with the statement that they have been the very best camp meetings they have ever enjoyed. We can plainly discern the fact that each year our people are standing on higher ground, and that the yearly additions to our numbers are persons of greater moral value and influence than formerly....
We here notice with the greatest pleasure the tender care with which our wants were supplied upon the several campgrounds of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.... After a few weeks of that rest which change gives, we take up the eastern camp meetings....
Probably Mrs. White has never been able to hold the attention and move the hearts of the people as now. Brother Smith is getting the camp meeting armor on. He adds to his ever clear manner of presenting the truth of God a force and earnestness which make him eminently useful at these great annual gatherings of our people. And God be thanked that He gives the writer great freedom in his words, and makes him very happy in speaking words of good cheer to all fellow-pilgrims.--The Review and Herald, July 15, 1875.
Uriah Smith's Firsthand Observation
Uriah Smith had made the rounds of the western camp meetings with James and Ellen White, closing with the gathering in Sparta, Wisconsin, on July 6. He was deeply impressed with the significance of their ministry. Reporting that convocation, he wrote:
And now we shall be pardoned for adding to these lines a note of a personal nature. It has been a pleasure as well as a privilege to us to attend these meetings in company with Brother and Sister White. In all our long association with them, it has never chanced to be our lot to thus be with them in such a series of consecutive meetings from State to State. Hence, well as we have heretofore been acquainted with their labors, in a general way, we have never been in a position to realize so fully as now, nor so fully prepared as now to testify to, the value of their labors, and the benefit of their counsel to the different conferences and the cause at large.
God has given them a testimony for the people, both without and within the church; and His providence has so ordered that they have had an experience in this work from the very beginning, nearly the whole of their public labors being identified with it, and all their interest centering in it. Hence they are prepared, as from the nature of the case no others can be, to give counsel in regard to the different enterprises, and to at least assist in devising ways and means for the further advancement of this cause.
We have been happy to see their testimony received and prized as it was entitled to be. In this the brethren have done well. They have thereby in many instances been relieved from embarrassing perplexities and discouragements. And so long as the evidence presents the same showing that it presents today, we can but believe that he is recreant to the best interests of this cause who refuses to cooperate with them, and stay up their hands, in a work to which their whole life has been and is so unselfishly devoted, and to which their whole past record, and their present labors, show them both to have been, and to be, so undeviatingly true.--Ibid.