While at the Magog camp meeting in Quebec, James White wrote an item for the Review:
It was just fifteen years ago this morning, August 15, 1880, when enjoying our usual morning walk with Mrs. White, that in the act of opening a green ear of corn with the right hand, a stroke of paralysis crippled the hand that now traces these lines, and touched the brain to that degree that we could speak only the word, "Pray." Friends bowed around us in earnest prayer, and immediately the arm was restored to its natural feeling, and the hand and fingers could be moved clumsily.
Each year, during the past fifteen, by the blessing of God, the hand that writes these words has become more natural. This wonderful restoration from paralysis, which came upon us in consequence of excessive labor and care in the cause of truth, has been the work of God in answer to the prayer of His people.
The past fifteen years of our life have been marked with labor, care, and periods of illness and despondency. But God has been gracious. When we have fallen under affliction, His hand has lifted us up. When we have erred in our efforts to advance the cause of truth, the Lord has corrected in love and has reached down His arm to point the way and to sustain. God is good. Christ is worthy of all praise. We are unworthy of the care, love, and mercy of the Lord during the past fifteen years, which enables us to say, to the praise of God, August 15, 1880, we are free from pain and feebleness, and have been able to do as much work during the last, as any year of our life.
And yet we feel a want of that spiritual life and power which the work of the times demands. We hunger and thirst for righteousness, and claim the promise "Ye shall be filled." Here we consecrate all to the cause of God. Will He accept the poor remnant of life? and permit us to finish our course with joy? Eternity will be none too long to give expression of gratitude for the privilege of laboring on in the work we entered upon in youth.--Aug. 26, 1880
Although he knew it not, James was just entering the last year of his life. He was within a few days of turning 59; Ellen was 52.
It was a time of mellowing for James White, but not always on an even plane. He sensed that he must lay off the burdens of leadership. His sometimes erratic movements and statements, and the light given to Ellen White in vision, as well as her own judgment, indicated clearly that the time had come. And James White tried. He had written to his wife a few weeks earlier:
I shall ...do all I can to please God, please and relieve you, and serve the cause of God. I do not reject your appeals. I am confused. I shall wait, and pray till these matters become clear in my mind.
The next day, July 15, he wrote to Willie:
Where I have erred, help me to be right. I see my mistakes and am trying to rally. I need the help of yourself, Mother, and Haskell.
The experience of attending the eastern camp meetings, in which both James and Ellen White had enjoyed good health, a hearty reception on the part of the people, and God's rich blessing in their ministry, had been exhilarating. At these meetings James White usually spoke Sabbath morning and Ellen White in the afternoon. She often closed her meeting with an altar call; this was followed by a social meeting in which the members bore their testimonies. James White usually spoke Sunday morning on some identifying doctrines of the church. On Sunday afternoon Ellen would usually present a powerful temperance address to audiences of from one thousand to four or five thousand, for people flocked to the Adventist campgrounds on Sundays.
The reports appearing in the Review and the Signs frequently mentioned the part Ellen White took in the Sabbath school hour, speaking for fifteen or twenty minutes in a telling presentation of the mission of the Sabbath school, for Sabbath schools were just getting under way. They were well organized and enjoyed general acceptance.
Several times in her letters Ellen White referred to a special burden she and she alone carried through some of these meetings, something from which she could seldom escape:
I have had many individual testimonies to write which has been quite a heavy burden on me in addition to my labors in talking the truth.--Letter 41, 1880.
She made reference to this work in a letter to Willie and Mary in California, reporting on the Vermont meeting:
Friday night I bore my testimony with great power. It seemed to cut everything before it that night. Brother Stone was nearly all night in prayer in the grove, and Sabbath morning he made a most humble confession. I assure you there was a break in the camp.... We indeed had the best meeting we ever had in Vermont.
I had some very bad, bad jobs to perform. I took Brother Bean and wife and talked to them very plain. They did not rise up against it. I cried myself, could not help it.--Letter 42, 1880.
But she could report, "Every camp meeting has been good. Father has labored well and has been very pleasant. I am satisfied it was my duty to come east. We have attended six camp meetings."--Letter 41, 1880. When she wrote this several meetings were yet ahead; the season would close with the national camp meeting in Michigan, accompanied by the General Conference session. Nearly all published accounts of the camp meetings reported that each had the largest attendance ever.
Potentially Difficult Times
As the time neared for the General Conference session with its election of officers and committees, the White household experienced some tense moments. James was trying to divest himself of responsibilities. Two weeks before the session opened Ellen wrote to the children in California:
Father at times seems to be seeing himself, then he will rouse up and make his stand, but I shall keep straight if God will help me.--Letter 41, 1880.
She declared that she had "stood firm as a rock to principle." In her next letter, mailed before leaving Battle Creek for the Indiana camp meeting, she seemed relieved as she wrote:
Father decided to remain and prepare for the camp meeting [and General Conference session held in connection with it]. He seems now to be in an excellent state of mind. While in Ohio we had several earnest and important talks. Also one since we came to Battle Creek.
Father has already sent in his resignation of every office except his connection with the publishing work. I think there will be no disagreeable issue.--Letter 42, 1880.
The Election of General Conference Officers
The national camp meeting opened on schedule on September 28. The first meeting of the General Conference session was held on Wednesday afternoon, October 6.
As President of the General Conference, James White was in the chair. Twenty delegates were present, and by vote of the conference their number was increased to thirty-eight by drawing in from those present several from conferences who had limited delegations. The appropriate committees were appointed.
Monday morning, October 11, the nominating committee reported with the following recommendations:
For president, George I. Butler. For secretary, Uriah Smith. For treasurer, Mrs. M. J. Chapman. For Conference Committee, G. I. Butler, S. N. Haskell, and H. W. Kellogg.
James White, serving as chairman of the meeting, called for the vote. "The nominees were ...unanimously elected."--The Review and Herald, October 14, 1880.
There was no issue.
Of the eleven organizations meeting during the session, the name of James White was brought in to head only one--The SDA Publishing Association. The other business of the General Conference session was quite routine, with all the business completed in just four meetings. In reporting the combined camp meeting-General Conference session, Uriah Smith noted:
A few days of serious illness on the part of Sister White, in the midst of the meeting, caused some anxiety and depression for the time on the part of many. But as prayer was offered in her behalf, she was remarkably relieved, and enabled to labor again in her usual strength before the meeting closed.--Ibid., October 21, 1880
As Ellen White wrote to her children on the Pacific Coast, she gave some interesting details of being healed on Sabbath morning and of her ministry later that day:
I spoke about twenty minutes when strength came to me and the power of God rested upon me and also upon the congregation. This was a great victory. I called them forward and hundreds came seeking the Lord. I am a new woman. God has indeed wrought for me. I also spoke Sunday afternoon to the large crowd.--Letter 43, 1880.
She added, "Father has laid off every responsibility except president of the [SDA] Publishing Association. And he has done it well, too."--Ibid.
James and Ellen White Plan for the Future
Now James and Ellen turned their thoughts to the future. On Wednesday, October 14, she wrote:
We are now deciding to spend this winter and next summer in preparing books. First I get articles prepared for Signs. 2. I get out articles for private testimony, health institutions. 3. Get out Testimony No. 30. 4. Letters to her children by a mother. 5. [Spirit of Prophecy] Volume 4. 6. Life of Christ, both books, the most sharp and interesting matter in one large book for canvassers to use for public sale.
So you see we have work to do. We dare not go south and will remain here this winter in Michigan. In summer we may go to Colorado. Thus you see how matters stand. Our time now must be in production of books before we get unable to use the pen.--Letter 43, 1880.
They instituted an immediate search for a place to make their home for the year before them. They looked at a three-acre property in Grand Ledge, but it did not suit. The house was run down. "I would rather have occupied our Healdsburg home, much rather," but it did not seem a good time to go to California. They finally settled on a three-story, well-built brick home on a thirty-acre tract of land between the city of Battle Creek and Goguac Lake, a mile from the city. It could be secured for $6,000. It stood on a prominence overlooking Battle Creek, and on it was a young orchard of 225 trees--apples, pears, peaches, and cherries (JW to WCW, November 3, 1880)--and an attractive ten-acre oak grove. The 10-year-old house, explained Ellen, had "all the advantages of a country residence."
First floor has a parlor twelve by twenty-two, most thoroughly finished...; hall and front door, sitting room, twelve by seventeen; kitchen, fifteen by fifteen; buttery, twelve by twelve; bedroom, twelve by twelve. There is a well on the doorsteps one hundred feet deep; a cellar stoned up and plastered rough all over--an excellent cellar, and an immense cistern....
There is a good barn, and plenty of land to cultivate, pasturage for cow and horses. A living stream runs through one corner of the field for pasture. Now you have our future home.--Letter 45b, 1880.
They moved in on Sunday, December 19. Observing that it would soon be Christmas, Ellen noted in a letter to a friend: "My Christmas will be spent in seeking Jesus to be a welcome guest in my heart. His presence will drive all the shadows away."--Letter 51, 1880.
Attending to Literary Work
There was hardly a wasted hour in Ellen White's life. She learned early that serving as an effectual channel of communication for the Lord called for a total dedication. Often she had weeks and months of diligent work before her, just to convey to individuals the messages the Lord gave her for them. There was also a backlog of articles to be written for the Review and the Signs, and book preparation. While she was at home she spent almost every moment available in writing, except when she was ill--and this biographical account has minimized reference to such. She wrote on trains and in boats, while traveling by carriage, and sometimes during camp meetings, at a table in front of the pulpit. To introduce in chapter after chapter of this biography the references to her writing would be redundant; the work was, however, always with her.
For instance, in 1879 the Review carried eight E. G. White articles, and the Signs, fifty-five. The eight in the Review represented new material. In the Signs some were new materials entirely; a few were reprints of Review or earlier Signs articles. But the majority constituted the early part of the great controversy story, as given in Spirit of Prophecy, volume 1, published in 1870. When the articles appeared in the Signs, such expressions as "I saw," et cetera, were left out. She often enlarged the story through new writing. This formed the basis for the later Patriarchs and Prophets.
This program continued through 1880, with sixty-six articles of about the same mix. There was also the writing for the last part of the 192-page Testimony 28, and Testimony 29, of the same size. In 1880 her 19 Review articles, many of them drawn from the newly published Testimonies, were given front-page status.
While still in Texas in mid-January, 1879, with Marian Davis at hand to assist, she began work on Spirit of Prophecy, volume 4, work that would continue off and on for the next four years (JW to WCW, January 17, 1879). Early in 1880 she expressed the desire to take the little book Appeal to Youth, which was out of print, and enlarge it to include other letters written to Edson and William. She wrote to Edson in California on January 29, 1880, asking him to return by express mail all her letters to him, explaining:
I can then make selections from them which will be for the interest of the book.... I want letters, all letters, as soon as you can conveniently send them. I shall put nothing in the book but that which you would have no objections to.--Letter 56, 1880.
Life Sketches of Elder James White and His Wife, Mrs. Ellen G. White
Ellen White's rather sudden trip to the West Coast in early 1880 precluded her pursuing her plans for Appeal to Youth. In fact, work on the project was delayed almost a year. In the meantime, James White was pulling together the materials for a 416-page volume that would have the extended title Life Sketches, Ancestry, Early Life, Christian Experience, and Extensive Labors of Elder James White and His Wife, Mrs. Ellen G. White, usually referred to just as Life Sketches, 1880 edition. It was made up of two autobiographical works edited and amplified, the 1868 book Life Incidents, by James White, and Ellen White's Spiritual Gifts,, volume II, specifically entitled My Christian Experience, Views, and Labors in Connection With the Rise and Progress of the Third Angel's Message. In the new and enlarged work, 125 pages are given to James White and almost two hundred pages to Ellen White, followed by nearly one hundred pages of material that are "sketches of the rise and progress of the cause of present truth, presenting a brief history of our publishing work, the tract work, the Sanitarium, and the college" (The Signs of the Times, July 15, 1880).
The unique volume is described in one of the notices announcing its publication:
Those who do not understand the history of the great Advent Movement from 1843 to the present time cannot fail to be interested and instructed by the reading of this book. It contains the only detailed account of the rise and progress of the work of the Seventh-day Adventists in the third angel's message.--Ibid., June 24, 1880
It was one of the first volumes issued by the Review and Herald with illustrations. These consisted of steel engravings of the publishing houses east and west, the college building, Battle Creek Sanitarium, the Tabernacle, and the subjects of the biographical work, James and Ellen White.
With the national camp meeting and the General Conference session over, Ellen White was eager to get to a book that, while it was in preparation, carried the title "Mother's Influence, or Letters to her Children by a Christian Mother."
Having just purchased the new brick house and settled in for a winter of writing, she hastened off letters to Oakland. One gave some insights into how she intended to work on a volume that was never finished, as well as other book manuscripts:
We are now very busy in selecting pieces from letters. I am also writing for Signs. Mary, will you search carefully all the letters in that small trunk and send me those I may need?
There is a book of mine in the office by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and there are books on mothers' duties and home influences--anything of this character from which I can intersperse nice selections, with my preface or introduction, [A rather unusual procedure for Ellen White, but one that she employed while furnishing copy over a period of three years in the early 1870's for what was titled "Mrs. White's department" in the health reformer.] in regard to mothers' duties. You will please send these books of mine that will be an assistance to me.--Letter 45c, 1880.
But her plans for the winter's work were rudely broken on New Year's Day. Going by sleigh to a vesper meeting in the Tabernacle, she fell, tearing loose the ligaments in her ankle.
For more than four months she was on crutches, and was quite miserable; her pen largely laid aside. She did fill a speaking appointment at the Tabernacle on Sabbath morning, January 15. Late in March she was able to resume her public ministry with services in the Tabernacle and outlying churches (The Review and Herald, January 18, 1881; Ibid., April 5, 1881; Ibid., April 12, 1881).
Canright's 1880 Defection
While Ellen was recovering at their Battle Creek home, James White made a trip to New York City in the interests of securing new printing plates for the engraving "The Way of Life." He took D. M. Canright with him in an effort to encourage him back into active ministry. Canright was a man whose abilities were much admired by James White and Seventh-day Adventist Church members. He was an energetic and successful evangelist, and more recently called to the presidency of the Ohio Conference; he was a good executive. But in the summer of 1880, feeling that he could reach a higher point of popularity if preaching for some other religious group, Canright faltered, withdrew from the ministry, and for a time even gave up the Sabbath (Carrie Johnson, I Was Canright's Secretary, pp. 56-61). In time, however, as in some similar experience in the past, his counseling with G. I. Butler led him to reexamine the pillars of Seventh-day Adventism and its firm foundation and make himself available again for the ministry.
James White was pleased with the recovery Canright was making. Writing from New York City to Ellen on February 4, 1881, he reported: "Elder Canright is doing splendid in getting on the track." On February 17 he reported to W. C. White on the trip mentioned: "Elder Canright went with me, and I am glad to report him on better ground than ever before."
White's confidence in Canright, a man he had long admired, grew rapidly, until within a short time he was a trusted confidant. This was a result, no doubt, of the fact that White's former associates, not in church leadership, sought his counsel less and less. In fact, in an ill-advised letter to Canright, dated May 24, 1881, James White, after discussing problems, declared:
I want you to unite with me, and in a proper manner, and in the fear of God let us help matters. It is time there was a change in the officers of the General Conference. I trust that if we are true and faithful, the Lord will be pleased that we should constitute two of that board.
However, Ellen White entertained some misgivings concerning Canright, as expressed in a letter to Haskell on June 28, 1881. Discussing camp meeting help, she wrote, "I am really somewhat afraid of Elder Canright's position."--Letter 2, 1881.
This was a difficult time for James White, and for Ellen White, who tried desperately to keep things on an even keel.