Although James White was theoretically in agreement with the idea that he should step aside and let others carry the burden of leadership in the church, it was not easy for him to stand back and have no say in what should be done and how. He was distressed when he saw moves made in administrative lines that he felt could result in failure or would injure the cause.
He buried himself in writing and in doing chores on the little farm and about the new home. He still held the position of editor in chief of the Review and Herald, and this kept the way open for him to speak to the church each week in reports and editorials. But why, he pondered and fretted, didn't the members of the General Conference Committee consult with him, and why didn't Willie, in Oakland? On the day he bought the new home, and less than a month since the changing of the guard at the General Conference session, Ellen White urged Willie:
Please write to Father. Write freely. Show that you have some confidence in him. He is doing well. Is cheerful and kind. He feels that everything is kept from him by you and Haskell. He has some strong battles with himself.--Letter 45b, 1880.
Two weeks later (November 17), in writing of her husband's experience to Haskell, perhaps the most influential of the three-member General Conference Committee, she said:
I see that his mind on Bible subjects is clear and powerful. His foresight and discrimination on the truth was never better. His health is good. He could never serve the cause better than now if he viewed all things clearly.... He feels that you keep all your matters shut up to yourself, and your propositions and plans are to be published without due consideration and consultation. If you could be together to decide your plans, it would be better. If you would show confidence in my husband, it would help him.--Letter 3, 1880.
Moving more in a pastoral role, James White frequently spoke in the Tabernacle. He occasionally baptized new converts and performed marriages. Among these was the marriage of the man to become widely known for his cornflakes, W. K. Kellogg, marrying Ella Davis. She was a sister to Marian, who assisted Ellen White in her literary work.
Ellen's insight penetrated her husband's situation; in writing a message of caution on November 8, 1880, to Haskell, she declared:
The only reason that my husband's influence today is not what God designed it should be is because he was not patient, kind, and was overbearing. Severity and too much dictation became interwoven with his character. You have seen and felt it. Others have felt it.
Then in warning and explanation she continued:
You, my brother, are in danger of failing just where he has failed.... The position of my husband, his age, his affliction, the great work he has done in the cause and work of God, have so fastened him in the affections of his brethren that many things he might say that savor of sharpness would be overlooked in him, that would not be regarded in the same light if spoken by younger ministers.--Letter 2, 1880.
Correspondence reveals that the early months of 1881 continued to be difficult. On April 22 she wrote freely of what she and James were considering: they would drop everything in Battle Creek and go to Colorado, where they could live and work without discouragements. If they were to continue in Michigan and James was to "labor ever so faithfully," she saw as the results:
All he would do would be criticized, and suspicions that had no foundation would be created if he did his best. And I should be held in the very same light by those who are on the doubting side of the Testimonies. I think that the future year's labor would be lost....
Now we shall leave for Colorado in a few weeks. I feel powerless to try to help anywhere. My husband's course, you well know, I have had no sympathy with. But at the same time if I speak the very things shown, it might appear that I was favoring his ideas. I feel sad, hedged in completely, and I will go away.... He has injured his influence, and if he goes now, others will take some responsibilities in regard to Battle Creek to set things in order....
As things now stand we can do nothing. We will take our things away. If James remains here he will take more or less responsibilities and he will become entangled in matters and things that he cannot help.--Letter 1, 1881.
But the proposed trip did not materialize. For Ellen it continued to be an almost prostrating situation. On April 19 she wrote to the children in the West:
I cannot see any way to help matters here at Battle Creek. I will not afflict my soul so much that I cannot do anything. I just wait and pray, doing my work in humbleness of mind and in quietness of spirit and say little about things. I have increased courage as I do this....
I dare not give counsel, even to my brethren. It is a perilous time. There was never such a state of things as now in Battle Creek. But we may be brought still lower before God will reach down His arm to lift us up. We need to feel and sense our weakness and feel our great need of help from God before help will come.
When one poor mortal will try to stand under heavy burdens as though he must carry them or everything perish, he will be crushed under them and find, after all, God did not want him to make himself the burden-bearer. But when we lay these burdens upon Jesus and then do what little we can in His strength and not feel that everything depends on us, we can keep serenity of mind, calmness of spirit, and shall be in a condition to do much more effective service.--Letter 3b, 1881.
James found satisfaction in visiting and mingling with the members. These loved and respected him, and were less concerned than the leaders in Battle Creek with his sometimes erratic movements. With the aid of Addie and May Walling, Ellen kept house in the big brick home and did a little writing. On a few occasions, as her ankle recovered from the accident, she accompanied her husband on his visits to nearby churches and to one or two weekend tent meetings he arranged for (The Review and Herald, June 7, 1881).
Concern for Edson
Ellen White felt considerable anxiety for Edson. He had returned from Oakland to Battle Creek, purchased a modest home, and was devoting his time to Sabbath school work, with which he was officially connected. She feared for his negative influence, for it seems he had not become any more responsible financially than when he was managing the publishing house in Oakland. In one letter to him, written April 22, 1881, she made it clear that the counsels and cautions given to him in her letters did not originate with her but from a higher source, the Lord Himself:
Now, Edson, will you please read over the cautions given you of the Lord. Do not think your mother deceived and too cautious, exaggerating matters. I know your dangers; I know the power of habit upon you.... I thought your first anxiety would be to get out of debt....
Now, my son, consider the warnings given you of God. Are these to be set aside and wholly disregarded? ...I beg of you, for your mother's reputation, for your wife's sake, and for Christ's sake, to develop more caution and economy of character. I have felt bad to see the testimonies of caution and reproof have so little weight with you. Your failures in the past were in consequence of indulging your own ideas and plans just as you are doing now, without moving safely and surely. ...
God is bringing you over the ground again, testing, proving you. Will you withstand temptation and, as tried gold, endure the test?--Letter 3a, 1881.
With the coming of spring she was eager to get out into the flower beds. She wrote to Mary in Oakland: "I have a favor to ask of you. Will you get a small box and put in it small pink roots and slips, a few choice rose cuttings, fuchsia, and geraniums, and send [it to] me?"--Letter 3b, 1881. Still waiting for the package she hoped Mary would send, she wrote on May 15:
We have the most beautiful situation in Michigan.... I have been gathering up shrubs and flowers until we have quite a garden. Peonies, I have a large number of them; hope to get California pinks. I want to get some of that green bordering we get from Sister Rollin.... I wish I had some seeds from California.--Letter 4a, 1881.
It was a joy to Ellen White to be sufficiently recovered to be able to tend the garden a bit and to get back to her writing.
The 1881 Camp Meetings After All
Although James White had given word in the Review when the camp meeting season opened that "Mrs. White is not in a condition of health to go the rounds of camp meetings as in year past" (The Review and Herald, May 24, 1881), she did consent to make an attempt to attend the early Michigan camp meeting at Spring Arbor, some fifty miles east of Battle Creek, near Jackson. It opened on Wednesday, June 1, but Ellen White, pressed for breath and feeling too ill to go into a series of meetings, stopped off with an Adventist family near the campgrounds. Early Sabbath morning James went to the grounds alone. Of her experience that day she wrote Willie and Mary in Oakland:
I knelt with Brother Weed's family and felt that God indited prayer. I importuned the Lord for help, for light, for strength to bear my testimony to the people of God. Light came. I went upon the ground and spoke to a large congregation with great power and clearness. I endured the effort. Sunday I spoke in the afternoon upon temperance and was so much encouraged that I left appointment for evening and spoke in the evening.--Letter 5a, 1881.
James reported that at that evening meeting his wife addressed the people "with clearness, point, and power, probably equal to any effort of her life" (The Review and Herald, June 7, 1881). Tuesday morning the deep impression came to her distinctly, "Go to Iowa; I have a work for you to do." The Iowa camp meeting would open on Thursday. "I should as soon have thought of going to Europe," she commented, "but I told your father my convictions, that I should go with him or alone. He seemed surprised and said, 'We will go.'"--Letter 5a, 1881.
The camp meeting was to be held at Des Moines, opening Thursday, June 9. James and Ellen White arrived about noon on Friday. G. B. Starr, a young minister at the meeting, told of how on arrival Ellen White declared, "Well, we are here at the Lord's bidding, for what special purpose we do not know, but we shall doubtless know as the meeting progresses."--In DF 274, "The Des Moines, Iowa, Temperance Experience." Both James and Ellen White threw themselves wholeheartedly into ministry, with Ellen White speaking several times, but particularly on Sunday afternoon addressing the people with "great freedom."
A heavy rainstorm came up, calling for extra effort on her part to make the people hear. Following the meeting she went to her tent, bathed, and retired early for the night. She reported what then transpired:
In one hour, a message came for me to repair to the tent and speak to some points introduced in their business meetings, upon the right of voting in favor of prohibition. I dressed and spoke to them about twenty minutes, and then returned to the tent.--Letter 5, 1881.
The issue under discussion was on the matter of voting for prohibition. Twenty-six years later, G. B. Starr, laboring in Australia, was confronted with a similar question. He called to mind how Ellen White, at the Iowa meeting, related a dream in which she seemed to be in a large gathering where the temperance movement was being discussed. A fine-looking man with pen in hand was circulating a temperance pledge, but none would sign. As the visitor was leaving, he turned and said:
God designs to help the people in a great movement on this subject. He also designed that you, as a people, should be the head and not the tail in the movement; but now the position you have taken will place you at the tail.--In DF 274, "The Des Moines, Iowa, Temperance Experience."
"'Shall we vote for prohibition?' she asked. 'Yes, to a man, everywhere,' she replied, 'and perhaps I shall shock some of you if I say, If necessary, vote on the Sabbath day for prohibition if you cannot at any other time.'"-- Ibid.
Writing of the experience--in an account Ellen White endorsed--Starr declared:
I can testify that the effect of the relation of that dream was electrical upon the whole conference. A convincing power attended it, and I saw for the first time the unifying power of the gift of prophecy in the church.-- Ibid.
Before the Whites came onto the grounds in Iowa, an action had been taken at the business meeting, leaving out the words "by vote." Apparently Ellen White's Sunday afternoon address--which, if it ran true to form, was on temperance--led to a reopening of the question, and the call upon Ellen White for counsel. The action, passed after she gave counsel, read:
Resolved, That we express our deep interest in the temperance movement now going forward in this State; and that we instruct all our ministers to use their influence among our churches and with the people at large to induce them to put forth every consistent effort, by personal labor, and at the ballot box, in favor of the prohibitory amendment of the Constitution, which the friends of temperance are seeking to secure.--The Review and Herald, July 5, 1881.
From Iowa, James and Ellen White went to the Wisconsin camp meeting. It was their plan to attend the Minnesota meeting also, but division of feelings between Butler and Haskell on the one hand, and James White on the other, led the Whites to withdraw instead and hasten back from Wisconsin to Battle Creek. It had been Ellen's hope that as she and James attended these camp meetings there could be a drawing together and reconciliation.
There was another matter that also gave her deep concern. This was that the two leading men in the General Conference were doing little to exert a right influence on the Sanitarium, which she mentioned as being "managed by one man's mind and one man's judgment" and that man veering from the "light God has given" (Letter 8, 1881). Taking the several situations into account, she wrote Butler and Haskell, expressing her distress and concern:
The little interest that has been manifested to see eye to eye by the leaders terrifies me. If God can sanction this lack of harmony, then He has never spoken by me.--Ibid.
The enervating experiences through which she was passing did not, however, deter Ellen White in her usual writing. "I am now settled," she told Haskell, "and have begun to complete volume 4, Spirit of Prophecy. I have great freedom in writing and great freedom in speaking to the people."--Letter 2, 1881.
A Significant Dream
It must have been at about this time that she had a significant dream. Its symbolism is most interesting. She wrote of it thus:
I had a dream. I saw Dr. Kellogg in close conversation with men and with ministers. He adroitly would make statements born of suspicion and imagination to draw them out, and then would gain expression from them, while I saw him clap his hands over something very eagerly. I felt a pang of anguish at heart as I saw this going on.
I saw in my dream yourself [probably Haskell] and Elder Butler in conversation with him. You made statements to him which he seemed to grasp with avidity, and close his hand over something in it. I then saw him go to his room, and there upon the floor was a pile of stones systematically laid up, stone upon stone. He placed the additional stones on the pile and counted them up. Every stone had a name--some report gathered up--and every stone was numbered.
The young man who often instructs me came and looked upon the pile of stones with grief and indignation, and inquired what he had and what he purposed to do with them. The doctor looked up with a sharp, gratified laugh. "These are the mistakes of Elder White. I am going to stone him with them, stone him to death."
The young man said, "You are bringing back the stoning system, are you? You are worse than the ancient Pharisees. Who gave you this work to do? The Lord raised you up, the Lord entrusted you with a special work. The Lord has sustained you in a most remarkable manner, but it was not for you to degrade your powers for this kind of work. Satan is an accuser of the brethren."
I thought the doctor seemed very defiant and determined. Said he, "Elder White is trying to tear us to pieces. He is working against us, and to save our reputation and life, we must work against him. I shall use every stone to the last pebble here upon this floor to kill him. This is only self-defense, a disagreeable necessity."
And then said the young man solemnly, "What have you gained? Have you in the act righted your wrongs? Have you opened your heart to Jesus Christ, and does He sit there enthroned? Who occupies the citadel of the soul under this administration of the stoning system?" ...
I then saw my husband engaged in a similar work, gathering stones, making a pile and ready to begin the stoning system. Similar words were repeated to him with additional injunctions, and I awoke.--Manuscript 2, 1880.
Times of Contemplation and Dedication
Through late June and into July, James and Ellen White continued their ministry in Battle Creek--James, through his editorials and back-page notes in the Review, Ellen, with her writing; the two united in efforts in the Battle Creek Tabernacle church. Often they repaired to the grove near their home for seasons of prayer. One particular occasion Ellen White especially remembered:
While walking to the usual place for prayer, he stopped abruptly; his face was very pale, and he said, "A deep solemnity is upon my spirit. I am not discouraged, but I feel that some change is about to take place in affairs that concern myself and you. What if you should not live? Oh, this cannot be! God has a work for you to do.... It continues so long that I feel much anxiety as to the result. I feel a sense of danger, and with it comes an unutterable longing for the special blessing of God, an assurance that all my sins are washed away by the blood of Christ. I confess my errors, and ask your forgiveness for any word or act that has caused you sorrow. There must be nothing to hinder our prayers. Everything must be right between us, and between ourselves and God."--Manuscript 6, 1881 (see also In Memoriam. A Sketch of the Last Sickness and Death of Elder James White, p. 47).
On one occasion, as Ellen White urged her husband to seek a field of labor where he would be released from the burdens that came to him in Battle Creek, he spoke of various matters that required attention before they could leave, duties that someone must do. Then with deep feeling he inquired:
"Where are the men to do this work? Where are those who will have an unselfish interest in our institutions, and who will stand for the right, unaffected by any influence with which they may come in contact?"--In Memoriam: A Sketch of the Last Sickness and Death of Elder James White, 45.
With tears he expressed his anxiety for the institutions in Battle Creek. He said:
"My life has been given to the upbuilding of these institutions. It seems like death to leave them. They are as my children, and I cannot separate my interest from them. These institutions are the Lord's instrumentalities to do a specific work. Satan seeks to hinder and defeat every means by which the Lord is working for the salvation of men. If the great adversary can mold these institutions according to the world's standard, his object is gained. It is my greatest anxiety to have the right men in the right place. If those who stand in responsible positions are weak in moral power, and vacillating in principle, inclined to lead toward the world, there are enough who will be led. Evil influences must not prevail. I would rather die than live to see these institutions mismanaged, or turned aside from the purpose for which they were brought into existence."--Ibid.
Uriah Smith, resident editor of the Review and Herald and James White's closest associate in the work of the church, had labored at his side for nearly three decades. Smith was well aware of the bruising conflicts; indeed, they had been out in the open for a year or two. He viewed the situation in the light of White's total dedication to the cause of God. Understandingly he declared:
Some have thought that he was deficient in social qualities, and sometimes rigid, harsh, and unjust, even toward his best friends. But these feelings, we are persuaded, come from a failure to comprehend one of the strongest traits in his character, which was his preeminent love for the cause in which he was engaged. To that he subordinated all else; for that he was willing to renounce home and friends.
No man would have been more glad than he to enjoy continuously the pleasures of domestic and social life, and the intercourse of friends, had he not thought that integrity to the cause called him to take a different course. But when this was the case, the voice of duty was first and all else was secondary. Some in whose natures this principle is lacking cannot comprehend the actions of a man who is governed by such motives. But how would any man be fitted, without such an element as this in his character, to be conservator of the interests of any cause whatever?--Ibid., 34, 35.
On July 8, Ellen White wrote nine pages in defense of her husband, reviewing some history to set the record straight.
An Overwhelming Burden for Battle Creek
Suffering from the excessive heat of the summer, early in July Ellen White proposed to seek a climate where she could work to better advantage, most likely Colorado (The Review and Herald, July 19, 1881). Then a sense of the condition of the cause in Battle Creek, and especially of the youth, rolled upon her with such force that she gave up any plan to leave. She determined to devote her strength to the work there. Smith states:
On making this decision, she felt at once a marked return of bodily and mental vigor, giving good evidence that this determination was in the line of duty.--Ibid.
Taking the lead, she spoke in the Tabernacle on Thursday evening, July 14, and again Friday evening. She also took the Sabbath services both morning and afternoon. "The Lord gave me a message for the people," she wrote to William and Mary in Oakland. "They were stirred."--Letter 8a, 1881.
She mentioned what, under the circumstances, must have been a significant meeting that most likely took place late Sabbath afternoon, July 16, or the evening after the Sabbath. Of this she said, "I read a large number of pages to Dr. Kellogg and Father."Just what she read and said is not disclosed, but no doubt she told of the dream wherein they had gathered stones to be used in stoning each other. She gave an interesting account of the momentous week that followed in Battle Creek:
Sunday night I spoke to the office workers. Here I had special freedom. Monday night, meetings again in Tabernacle; Tuesday night I called all the responsible men of church and institutions and read the document I had written expressly for the benefit of Dr. Kellogg and Father; Wednesday night, meeting in Tabernacle.--Ibid.
As Uriah Smith brought to a close his Review and Herald report of the good work done in Battle Creek, he exclaimed:
Oh, that all might be enabled to heed the good words of counsel and admonition! Then would the spirit of religion revive in all our hearts, and the cause of Christ would flourish in our midst.--The Review and Herald, July 19, 1881.
Ellen White gave an account of her personal experience in a letter to her children in the West:
Up to the time I had commenced this work I was sick, but the Lord gave me strength. I did not get to rest until near midnight, and labored all through the day, writing. Wednesday night I felt I must have rest. A nervous twitching seized my thumb and I could have no control over it. It jerked continually. I feared paralysis.--Letter 8a, 1881.
The Carriage Trip to Charlotte
An invitation to spend a weekend at Charlotte, thirty miles northeast of Battle Creek, had come to the Whites. A. O. Burrill was holding evangelistic tent meetings there. James was glad that he had given word that he and his wife would drive over, for it would give her the change and rest she needed. The weekend activities were like a camp meeting. James White spoke three times and Ellen four. Many from the community attended the meetings. There was none of the strain of the preceding week in Battle Creek, and Ellen claimed she gained some rest (The Review and Herald, July 26, 1881; Letter 8a, 1881). Not long after this carriage trip she recalled their conversation as they drove through the countryside:
My husband seemed cheerful, yet a feeling of solemnity rested upon him. He repeatedly praised the Lord for mercies and blessings received, and freely expressed his own feelings concerning the past and the future: ..."The future seems cloudy and uncertain, but the Lord would not have us distressed over these things. When trouble comes, He will give us grace to endure it. What the Lord has been to us, and what He has done for us, should make us so grateful that we would never murmur or complain.
"Our labors, burdens, and sacrifices will never be fully appreciated by all. I see that I have lost my peace of mind and the blessing of God by permitting myself to be troubled by these things. It has seemed hard to me that my motives should be misjudged, and that my best efforts to help, encourage, and strengthen my brethren should again and again be turned against me, but I should have remembered Jesus and His disappointments....
"Had I ever left all my perplexities with the Lord, thinking less of what others said and did against me, I should have had more peace and joy. I will now seek first to guard myself that I offend not in word or deed, and to help my brethren make straight paths for their feet. I will not stop to mourn over any wrong done to me. I have expected more of men than I ought. I love God and His work, and I love my brethren, also."--Manuscript 6, 1881 (see also In Memoriam, pp. 50, 51).
Returning to their comfortable Battle Creek home on Wednesday, July 27, they picked up their tasks there. One of the first things Ellen White did that day was to write to the children in California of the experience of the past two weeks and of the meeting she and James had with Dr. Kellogg. "I have been alarmed at the state of things," she wrote, but was glad to add:
I think Father views matters in a different light. In some things I think he is striving hard for the Spirit of God. He seems more humble, more guarded in words and actions. He has a hard battle before him. I shall help him all I can....
I have felt crushed and heartbroken for months, but I have laid my burden on my Saviour and I shall no longer be like a bruised reed.--Letter 8, 1881.
As the new week dawned they were looking forward to more labor in the field. The Review of August 2 carried the following back-page note signed by both James and Ellen White:
The Eastern Camp Meetings: We have been urged to attend the camp meetings to be holden at Magog, P.Q. [Province of Quebec], Morrisville, Vermont, and Waterville, Maine. We shall attend these meetings, and others, as the providence of God opens the way for us, and we have health and strength to labor.
But James and Ellen were not at these meetings. Instead, the next issue of the Review carried the notice of James White's death.