During the month of July, between the time of camp meetings in the Midwest and those to be held in the East, James and Ellen White were in Battle Creek with many things to care for and much writing to be done. In general they were enjoying good health. Ellen wrote to Willie in Oakland about their living arrangements:
We sleep in the [Review] office and are well arranged. We can be retired now as we please. If only Lucinda [Hall] were here we would prepare our own meals. We go here and there and everywhere. But thus far we have fared well enough.--Letter 25, 1875.
To Edson and Emma she wrote, "We are both in very good health and cheerful in the Lord. We try to do all the labor we can and leave the results with God.... The Lord does indeed go with us and strengthens us for our labor."--Letter 23, 1875. Writing to Willie early in the morning of July 13, she reported:
Last Friday I spoke at four o'clock at the Health Institute. My subject was the training of children. They have the best set of patients there now that they have ever had. In the evening of Friday, we went to Potterville to rest. But these rests do not amount to much in my case. It was no rest for me. I spoke Sabbath.
I wrote much of the day, Sunday. I wrote thirty-five pages. Gave your father a pack [a hydrotherapy treatment]. Walked out with him. Had a long talk and praying season in the beech grove. Your father then helped Robert Sawyer. He worked like a young man. Has been a little stiff since.
After my thirty-five pages were written, I picked raspberries. Brother and Sister Carman found us at it in the field and said they came for us to go home with them. So we went. Next morning rode to cars and came to Battle Creek. Took dinner at the institute.--Letter 24, 1875.
Her afternoon was spent in the dentist's chair and the evening in a committee meeting. Some of the businessmen called to Battle Creek to care for the business interests of the cause were proving less than true to duty. She bore a close testimony to Harmon Lindsay, pointing out pride, jealousy, and injured dignity. The result:
Harmon arose and said he accepted every word Sister White had said. He had done wrong. He laid down his feeling then and there. But yet I do not see that the bottom is reached. Harmon will have to feel deeper than he has yet done before he can harmonize with the Spirit of God.--Ibid.
The next day, in her letter to Willie, now in Oakland, she again referred to such problems:
I have been writing about thirty pages for Brother and Sister Gaskill in connection with the Health Institute. Many things need righting up. May God help us to faithfully discharge our duty. I look with anxious, longing heart to the Pacific Coast. I long to be with you.--Ibid.
The next Sabbath, July 17, an aged couple were baptized in the Kalamazoo River at the usual baptizing place, not far from the church. Ellen White wrote:
We had a beautiful scene at baptism. Sabbath morning, Deacon Young and his wife were baptized. They went into the water like two heroes, perfectly calm, and they came out of the water with their countenances illuminated with the light of heaven. Uriah, Green, and Mack were at the waterside and they said when your father was praying, the Spirit and power of God came down upon the people and pervaded the congregation assembled.
Your father spoke in the morning and he and those who were to officiate with the candidates retired to prepare while I addressed the people about fifteen minutes.
Word came to me at noon that if there would be preaching, Mrs. Green and Mack would remain to the afternoon service. I consented to speak and felt much freedom in speaking.--Letter 25, 1875.
Sunday afternoon, July 18, at the request of Dr. John Kellogg, newly come to the Health Institute, she spoke in the nearby grove on health reform to a sizable and attentive audience. She spoke again, by request, on Tuesday afternoon, July 20. Thursday, July 22, found James and Ellen White at Goguac Lake for an afternoon with the patients of the institute. At an appropriate time, James White addressed the group for about forty minutes (Letter 26, 1875).
They watched closely the reports from California as to progress in the erection of the publishing house there. In a few days James would be off to New York to purchase a cylinder press and printing equipment for the new office. Adventists east of the Plains had raised nearly $8,000 to equip the new plant.
The Fourteenth Annual Session of the General Conference
The eastern camp meetings opened with the Michigan camp meeting in Battle Creek, August 10-17. The General Conference session and the regular annual anniversary meetings of the three Battle Creek institutions were also held during that week. James and Ellen White were present, of course, to listen and to participate. Reports showed the "present standing" of the cause to be:
Church members 8,022
Ministers 69
Churches 339
Licentiates 76
Systematic Benevolence Fund pledged by the churches $32,618
—The Review and Herald, August 26, 1875.
The business was quite routine and was handled with dispatch. There were resolutions recognizing the school and its contributions; on health reform, recognizing the benefits of following its principles and calling for greater energy in the promulgation of its truths; and on the work on the Pacific Coast, urging strong support in the development of the Pacific SDA Publishing Association.
An action was taken calling for marked advance in Europe and in other parts of the world:
Resolved, That we recommend the Executive Committee to take immediate steps to establish a printing office in Europe, to issue periodicals and publications in the French and German languages, and also to enter the openings presenting themselves in Great Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Hungary, Africa, and Australia.--Ibid.
Butler introduced a resolution to rescind the one taken in 1873 relating to his presentation on the question of leadership. James White then made some explanatory remarks, setting forth "the principles of leadership which, according to the Scriptures, must hold in the church of Christ." The following resolution was unanimously adopted:
Whereas, Further examination has shown that some of the sentiments contained in said tract were incorrect; therefore
Resolved, That the tract referred to be placed in the hands of a committee (said committee to be appointed by this conference) to be so revised as to correspond with the better understanding which now exists on the subject of leadership.--Ibid.
The committee appointed for this task was made up of Uriah Smith, S. Brownsberger, and J. H. Kellogg.
The following persons were elected: For president, James White; secretary, Uriah Smith; and treasurer, Miss Freddie House. Named to the General Conference Committee were James White, J. N. Loughborough, and J. N. Andrews.
In his Review and Herald report of the General Conference session and the Michigan camp meeting, Smith stated:
A greater amount of business was transacted during the seven days of this meeting than during the fourteen days of the meeting of 1874; and yet there was a fair proportion of time to devote to religious services, which were not without their interest and good results.
The happy disposal of so much business was due to the energy and tact of Brother White, who took hold to lift in every direction, and whose executive ability, when his way is clear from any serious hindrances and drawbacks, is equal to the occasion.--Ibid.
The Remaining Eastern Camp Meetings
On the train bound for the Vermont camp meeting, scheduled to open on August 19, White took his pencil and wrote wearily:
The Battle Creek camp meeting is passed. Many circumstances were unfavorable; but the Lord helped, and results are good. The influence of this meeting will be lasting.... The pleasant reflections of what God has wrought the past two weeks, and the triumphant hope of reward in the future, make us very happy.--Ibid.
After Vermont, they attended camp meetings in Maine and New York, and then they had to hurry to California.
At the meeting in Maine, Ellen White again had the opportunity to visit her sisters. Of this she wrote:
We went to Maine to visit my sister Harriet, who is dying with consumption. We went the route which was new to us which passed through Gorham, where my twin sister [Elizabeth] lives. We called on my sister Mary Foss and got her and her daughter Ellen and my niece Mary Clough to go to the camp meeting with us. They were very much interested in the meeting.--Letter 35, 1875.
From there they traveled to Rome, New York, for meetings that would run from September 9 to 14. They had promised to be in California for the camp meeting there September 23 to 30, if the publishing house was ready and a house of worship built in San Francisco. Meeting the challenge, the California members successfully completed the publishing house in Oakland, and O. B. Jones, the builder, was busy at work on a church building in San Francisco on Laguna Street. This meant that the New York camp meeting was the last they could attend in the East.
The New York Camp Meeting
The New York camp was pitched about two miles north of the city of Rome in a beautiful, level, beech and maple grove, skirted by a quick-flowing stream. Two large tents were surrounded by thirty-four family tents arranged in a square. Smith reported:
Brother and Sister White were present.... They, and others who spoke, enjoyed a good degree of freedom in the presentation of the truth, and the Word was listened to with eagerness and was cordially received by the people.... On Sunday, the attendance was large, estimated at about three thousand.--The Review and Herald, September 23, 1875.
Ellen White was one of the Sunday speakers. That night an impressive dream was given to her, of which she wrote:
I dreamed that a young man of noble appearance came into the room where I was, immediately after I had been speaking. This same person has appeared before me in important dreams to instruct me from time to time during the past twenty-six years.
Said he, You have called the attention of the people to important subjects, which, to a large number, are strange and new. To some they are intensely interesting. The laborers in word and doctrine have done what they could in presenting the truth, which has raised inquiry in minds and awakened an interest. But unless there is a more thorough effort made to fasten these impressions upon minds, your efforts now made will prove nearly fruitless. Satan has many attractions ready to divert the mind; and the cares of this life, and the deceitfulness of riches all combine to choke the seed of truth sown in the heart, and in most cases it bears no fruit.--Ibid., November 4, 1875
The angel pointed out that the preaching would be enhanced by the wide use of appropriate reading matter. He called for tracts on important points of truth to be handed out freely, declaring that this would result in a "hundredfold return to the treasury." He added:
The press is a powerful means to move the minds and hearts of the people. And the men of this world seize the press, and make the most of every opportunity to get poisonous literature before the people. If men, under the influence of the spirit of the world, and of Satan, are earnest to circulate books, tracts, and papers of a corrupting nature, you should be more earnest to get reading matter of an elevating and saving character before the people.--Ibid.
A Call for Colporteur Ministry Evangelism
Then the angel called attention to a fruitful line of endeavor that Seventh-day Adventists had up to this time not employed:
God has placed at the command of His people advantages in the press, which, combined with other agencies, will be successful in extending the knowledge of the truth. Tracts, papers, and books, as the case demands, should be circulated in all the cities and villages in the land. Here is missionary work for all.
There should be men trained for this branch of the work who will be missionaries, and will circulate publications. They should be men of good address, who will not repulse others or be repulsed. This is a work to which men would be warranted to give their whole time and energies as the occasion demands.
Those who distribute tracts gratuitously should take other publications to sell to all who will purchase them. Persevering efforts will result in great good.... God has committed to His people great light. This is not for them to selfishly enjoy alone, but to let its rays shine forth to others who are in darkness of error.--Ibid. (see also 3LS, p. 217).
In a few days the Whites would be leaving for California, so it was not until they were back in their Oakland home that Ellen found opportunity to write out this far-reaching instruction, which was to set in motion the colporteur ministry of the church.
Unexpected Revival in Battle Creek
From Rome, New York, James and Ellen White hastened back to Battle Creek, intending to be in California for the opening of the camp meeting on Thursday, September 23. They arrived in Battle Creek September 14, and expected to leave several days later for the West. They really had about two weeks' business to attend to in the short time they expected to be there.
In the evening they met with the church, concerned with its spiritual condition. In that meeting and the one on the following night, such an interest developed that James and Ellen delayed their departure and continued their work with the church. Smith described the developments.
For the benefit of the young, some of whom were falling into the snare of the devil, the effort was especially directed.... The Spirit of God was present to help. The hearts of the young were powerfully wrought upon. Many who had never made a profession, and for some of whom but little hope could be entertained, so wayward were the tendencies they manifested, made a move. The servants of the Lord were led out in exhortations as powerful and labors as earnest as any we have ever heard or witnessed. It was a visitation of the Spirit such as any people are rarely blessed with.
Meetings were held Thursday evening, Friday morning, the evening commencing the Sabbath, Sabbath morning, forenoon, and afternoon. At the conclusion of the afternoon service, twenty-three were baptized by Brother White in the Kalamazoo, which has witnessed so many scenes of this kind, yet none so remarkable as this. With but few exceptions, the ages of those baptized ranged from 12 to 17. This was an astonishing result to reach in so short a time. Yet we believe a genuine commencement of the work has been made, which may be cultivated to permanent and most happy results.--Ibid., September 30, 1875
Hastening to the West Coast
The unexpected delay in Battle Creek until after the Sabbath, September 18, meant that James and Ellen would miss the opening of the California meeting on Thursday, September 23. But they were happy to be on their way. After leaving Chicago Sunday morning, James reached for a pencil and wrote of their experience during the previous few days:
To say that we are weary only faintly expresses our physical condition in this respect. In addition to eight meetings of great labor from Tuesday evening to Sabbath P.M., closing with the baptism of twenty-three, every spare moment was occupied with important business pressed forward in a rush, packing trunks, valises, and baskets, for nearly a week's journey, giving ourselves but four and five hours' sleep each night. As we write, wife sleeps. God bless her, and give strength for the labors of the future.--Ibid., September 23, 1875
He hastily added:
But we are not weary of the work. We are filled with hope, courage, and faith, and design to extend our labors, and what influence the Lord gives us, as never before. God has been giving us strength, light, and freedom, and our peace is like an ever-flowing river. Our adorable Redeemer lives; and He reigns graciously in the hearts of His dear, trusting people.--Ibid.
The believers in California were, of course, disappointed that the Whites were delayed, but they went forward with their camp meeting as scheduled. It was held north of San Francisco Bay at Fairfax, in Marin County. They found themselves in comfortable and convenient circumstances, occupying the Fairfax picnic grounds controlled by the North Pacific Coast Railroad Company. A stream of water ran through the grounds, and there was a good well. And of course there was ample room for all the tents.
As James and Ellen pulled into Oakland Friday afternoon, Willie met them at the station and took them to their home. James described the homecoming:
After an absence of five months we reached Oakland in the evening of the twenty-fourth ult., and lodged at our good home that night on Eleventh Street, near Castro. The carpenters had but commenced this house when we left last April. The next object that called our attention was our office building on the same block, commenced some weeks after we left, and brought very nearly to completion more than a month since.--The Signs of the Times, October 7, 1875.
Sabbath morning they crossed the Bay and arrived at the campground at 11:20 A.M. James White went immediately to the stand and addressed an eagerly waiting audience. Ellen, according to the usual procedure, spoke Sabbath afternoon. Both participated in other meetings, laboring especially for the children and youth (The Review and Herald, October 14, 1875). Several mornings during the week were given to the business of the California Conference. Officers elected for the conference were: president, J. N. Loughborough; secretary, William Saunders; and treasurer, W. C. White. Two of the resolutions voted by the conference read:
Resolved, That we fully endorse all the steps that have thus far been taken in locating and establishing the publishing house in Oakland.
Resolved, That we hereby express our gratitude to God, and to our brethren east of the Rocky Mountains, for their noble liberality in furnishing us with two power presses, a steam engine, and the necessary equipment for a first-class publishing house.... And we renew our pledge to be faithful to the trust conferred upon us in this important field, to endeavor to spread the present truth to the people, nations, and tongues of the earth.
Another significant action taken was:
Resolved, That we recognize the voice that for twenty-five years has been calling to Seventh-day Adventists through the testimonies to the church as a voice from heaven; and that it is our duty to heed it in all its teachings, whether it encourage, admonish, or reprove us.--The Signs of the Times, October 7, 1875.
The California Publishing House
Naturally, James and Ellen White were eager to get back to their new home in Oakland and to the publishing house now in operation, stocked with the machinery and supplies purchased by James White in New York City and sent by train to Oakland. In an article published in both the Signs of the Times and the Review and Herald, titled "How We Found Things," he gave a glowing report:
The appearance of this building from the outside is fine. The arrangement inside from the basement to the attic is admirable. The room in the basement is valuable. The several rooms of the two stories of the building are next to perfection in arrangement and conveniences. And there are four valuable finished rooms in the attic. In the rear of the main building and separated from it the distance of eleven feet is the brick engine house.
And all will cost less than first calculated, and are much better than first expected, owing principally to the ability and faithfulness of Brother O. B. Jones, who took successful charge of our three printing houses, and our college building, at Battle Creek, Michigan.--Ibid.
As soon as the plastering was finished in the publishing house, Jones went to San Francisco to erect the meetinghouse on Laguna Street. It was planned that when he returned to Oakland he would give attention to building tables, desks, shelves, drawers, et cetera.
The publishing plant was managed by the two White sons, Edson and William, assisted by "advisers and helpers who had a lively interest in the work." Wrote James:
We found the Cottrell and Babcock, first-class, four-roller, air-spring, drum-cylinder printing press, and the Universal job press in the new building in complete running order, driven by the New York safety engine from Babcock and Wilcox. Only six weeks before these were doing good printing on the Pacific Coast they were lying at the freight warehouse across the continent in New York City waiting for shipment.--Ibid.
He reported that friends of the cause in California were meeting their pledges and it was his hope that by New Year's enough would have come in to pay for both the office building and the building site. He added:
Our eastern brethren have come nobly up to the work of raising means to furnish the Oakland office with presses, engine, types, binders' machinery, et cetera. We have already two presses, engine, paper cutter and book trimmer, standing press, and types and material sufficient to print the Signs. These are all paid for at a cost, including transportation and setting up, of $6,500, and there are eastern funds on hand to purchase more material, and more pledged by our liberal eastern people to make the Signs office a complete book and job printing office where as good work may be done as anywhere on the continent.--Ibid.
The San Francisco Tent Meeting
According to plans laid early in the year, as soon as the camp meeting in Fairfax was over the big tent was moved to San Francisco and pitched on McAllister Street, between Gough and Octavia, not far from where the new church was under construction on Laguna Street. Extensive newspaper advertising was employed to draw the crowd, and the newly established press in Oakland gave good support in printing thousands of advertising bills and frequent issues of a four-page sheet titled "The Tent Meeting." Each contained choice reading matter on the subjects introduced in the tent meetings and also a piece of appropriate music. These were eagerly sought after and preserved.
The meetings began in early October. The preaching was done by Waggoner, Loughborough, and James White. Ellen White came in on Sabbath and Sundays (Ibid., October 21, 1875, and Ibid., November 11, 1875). The Sabbath question was introduced the second week in November. Ellen reported on November 10 that half a dozen people had decided to keep the seventh day. They had attended the meeting in the tent Sabbath morning, October 9, and bore their testimony (Letter 36, 1875). Meetings continued in the tent through November. When the house of worship could be occupied in December, the meetings were moved to that location. Weekends, after speaking in the tent Sunday afternoons, Ellen White took the ferry to Oakland and spoke Sunday evenings in the hall.
A Dedicated Working Force in the Oakland Office
James White had started to publish the Signs of the Times in June, 1874, under forbidding circumstances. He wrote of it:
Our small office was in little, dingy, rented rooms, and the press work was done on the press of another, at quite a distance, at high prices, demanding considerable cash, patience, and hard work in moving heavy forms and paper on a wheelbarrow. Under these circumstances we looked forward with no small degree of interest to the time when we should have a good building and office complete at our command.--The Signs of the Times, October 21, 1875.
It was only by sacrifice and hard effort that the program was now coming to success. Those who labored in the new, pleasant quarters did so with the same spirit of dedication and sacrifice as marked the publishing work in the beginning days. White wrote of this in November:
While common laborers and common carpenters of our brethren in California have received from 20 to 35 cents an hour for their labors on and about the building, our friends, competent to edit the Signs, and keep the books of the association, have labored for half of one year for the mere sums of from 7 to 11 cents an hour....
We have sent for Mrs. White's niece [Mary Clough] to come from the East to assist in this work. We pay her fare to California, and a salary besides, to do the very work these would do [in assisting Ellen White in her preparation of books] could they be released from the office.
A brother wrote to this office that he would like Sister Driscall's place. But could he live on a salary of 9 cents an hour? Our California friends generally are ignorant of how matters stand.--Ibid., November 11, 1875
The Angel's Special Message for James White
It was not until getting settled in Oakland and during the San Francisco tent meeting that Ellen White, on October 20, found opportunity to write out the account of the remarkable dream given to her Sunday night, September 12, on the campground at Rome, New York. The instruction of the angel who appeared to her as a noble, well-dressed young man, pertained first to the publishing and circulation of the message and the development of a colporteur ministry, as noted earlier.
Following this, the angel spoke of the work of James White:
Your husband and yourself can do much in the preparation of publications. You have a better knowledge of the wants of the people than many others. God has brought you in close connection with Himself, and has given you an experience in this work which He has not given to many others.
He has connected you with this powerful agency--the publishing department. Others cannot take your place in this, and do the work God has appointed you to do. Satan has been making special efforts to discourage your husband by controlling the minds of some who ought to be helpers. They have cherished temptations. They have been murmurers, and have been jealous without cause.
God will not leave nor forsake His servant while he clings by faith to His wisdom and strength. He has upheld him through the ministration of angels that excel in strength. His strength has not come from natural causes, but from God.
He will be beset with the enemy on the right hand and on the left. Satan will lead the minds of some to be distrustful of his motives, and to murmur against his plans while he is following the leadings of the Spirit of God. In God he must trust, for He is the source of his strength. The enemy, through agents, will harass and vex his patience, for the infirmities of human nature are upon him, and he is not infallible. But if he clings in humble confidence to God, and walks softly before Him, God will be to him a present help in every emergency.--The Review and Herald, November 4, 1875.
The angel touched on a number of important points:
Your husband must not be discouraged in his efforts to encourage men to become workers, and responsible for important work. Every man whom God will accept, Satan will attack. If they disconnect from heaven, and imperil the cause, their failures will not be set to his account or to yours, but to the perversity of the nature of the murmuring ones, which they would not understand and overcome.
These men whom God has tried to use to do His work, and who have failed, and brought great burdens upon those who are unselfish and true, have hindered and discouraged more than all the good they have done. And yet this should not hinder the purpose of God in having this growing work, with its burden of cares, divided into different branches, and laid upon men who should do their part, and lift the burdens when they ought to be lifted. These men must be willing to be instructed, and then God can fit them and sanctify them, and impart to them sanctified judgment, that what they undertake they can carry forward in His name.
Your husband must be humble and trustful, and walk carefully and tremblingly before God, for the ground whereon he treadeth is holy. God has strengthened him for great emergencies. He has given him strength, and light, and power like a running stream. This is not of himself, but of God. He has an inexhaustible fountain to draw from. He must not forget that he is mortal, and subject to temptations and weariness. His mind should have periods of rest, which will result in great good to himself as well as to the cause of God which he represents. He can with a mind invigorated do a greater amount, with greater perfection, than he can accomplish by steady labor and constant effort with a wearied mind.--Ibid.
The angel continued with commendations and counsel for J. N. Andrews and S. N. Haskell. Ellen White recorded the close of the solemn message with the angel's admonition: "God will have His servants connect closely with Him that they may have the mind of Christ."
The Call for a Day of Fasting and Prayer
As the year 1876 approached, the General Conference Committee called for Sabbath, January 1, to be observed as "a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer," to be observed as such "by all our churches and the scattered brethren and sisters throughout the length and breadth of our land." The committee promised to publish in pamphlet form an address to be read in connection with the services of that day (Ibid., December 16, 1875). It would be a day of special devotions and reconsecration to God.
Looking Ahead
As James White looked ahead, it was with courage. His heart was in the publishing of the Signs of the Times. Addressing the readers of the journal, he declared:
With the new year the Signs starts in to make its weekly visits to its patrons, and to all who may become such during the year. Its prospects of success are cheering....
We commence the series of articles setting forth the reasons of our faith and hope in this number, with the article on another page upon the millennium. These articles will continue in proper order quite through the year. Sketches of the life of Mrs. White will also continue, and will be very important to those who should know the facts of her remarkable experience.
And we shall very soon commence a series of articles under the caption "The Matter Reversed, or Christ in the Old Testament and the Sabbath in the New." We design to thoroughly ventilate the question.--The Signs of the Times, January 6, 1876.
As White was editor of both the Signs of the Times and the Review and Herald, both journals had been replete with his editorials and articles through 1875. Ellen had made large contributions also: fourteen major articles in the Review and twenty-nine in the Signs. Both James and Ellen were enjoying good health and seemed to be at the apex of vigor and vitality. The new year held great promise.