Not until her work on The Great Controversy was past the point that her attention might be needed did Ellen White consent to even consider the invitations for her to attend the later Eastern camp meetings. Many hearts rejoiced when they read on the back page of the July 22, 1884, Review:
Good News for the Eastern Camp Meetings.
Sunday morning, the twentieth, we received the gratifying intelligence by telegram that Sister White will attend the Eastern camp meetings, beginning with New York, August 14.
With Mrs. McOmber as a traveling companion, Ellen White set out in early August for the East. She spent a few days at the Iowa camp meeting, followed by meetings in New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont. On Tuesday, September 9, she arrived in Portland, Maine, for the camp meeting in her old home city.
Back Home in Portland, Maine
Tuesday evening, September 9, Ellen White, accompanied by Mrs. McOmber, was in Portland for the Maine camp meeting already in progress. Wednesday, they drove twelve miles to Gorham to visit Ellen's sister, an invalid who had suffered from rheumatism for six years. Her sister was not well, but there was nothing Ellen could do but have prayer with her and leave her in God's hands. Afterward she visited some old landmarks.
I visited localities of special interest in connection with my early life, among them the spot where I met with the accident that has made me a lifelong invalid.... I passed the spot where the house once stood where Jesus revealed himself to me in power, and I seemed to see His blessed face beaming upon me in divine love and gentleness.
I also visited my early home, and the house where my first vision was given me; but railroad buildings have crowded out many dwellings that used to stand in this locality. In the chamber of the last-mentioned house, I once passed a night of anguish at the thought that I must go out and relate to others the things that God had presented before me....
I felt the deepest interest in the meeting in Portland, where my childhood and youth were passed. Some of my old schoolmates made themselves known to me on the ground. I also met a number of relatives who were my neighbors forty years ago. It afforded me great pleasure to meet and greet these old friends.--The Review and Herald, November 25, 1884.
On Wednesday evening, September 10, she addressed the audience, and tells of her feelings:
The Lord gave me strength to bear my testimony. What emotions filled my heart as I stood before the people of my native city! It was here that I received my first impressions in regard to the speedy, personal coming of our Lord. Here my father's family, including myself, were excluded from the Methodist Church for cherishing this blessed hope. I knew there were none in the congregation who had been active workers in the message of the first and second angels. And yet this city was favored with special light and privileges in the great movement of 1842-1844. A large company accepted the faith, and rejoiced in the glad tidings that Jesus was soon coming.--Ibid.
In a letter to Mrs. Ings she wrote of the good attendance and of how "cousins and acquaintances came to the meeting."--Letter 27, 1884.
Uriah Smith was on the grounds, and she shared with him some of the page proofs, just received, for The Great Controversy. He was deeply moved in reading the chapter on "The Time of Trouble" and felt every sentence of it was needed. She too was thrilled in rereading it. Bearing in mind the problems Smith had faced a year before, in his relationship to the manifestation of the Spirit of Prophecy, she wrote: "We are so glad that Elder Smith is with us again. Elder Haskell says he preaches as he never has done before."--Letter 59, 1884.
A Time of Spiritual Triumph
What a change from the general situation in 1883! Battle Creek College having made a change in direction in its thrust and program, was now prospering. An ever-increasing number of young men and women were enrolled there, preparing to enter the work of the church. The college president, W. H. Littlejohn, kept the triumphs of the college before the nationwide church through his cheering reports in the Review. In addition, from time to time he submitted articles on spiritual and doctrinal lines.
The Battle Creek church, having made a turn around in attitude toward the college and toward the Spirit of Prophecy, was now exerting a strong, positive influence. Frequent reports from Healdsburg College and South Lancaster Academy indicated that these other schools of the church were making a positive contribution. Reports also were being received concerning several prominent members of outlying churches who were moving from darkness into the light.
It was evident that the Spirit of God was at work, and the reception of the messages that the Holy Spirit indited Ellen White to give was raising the church to new heights of spiritual fervor. In writing to children William and Mary on the West Coast, she told of the reaction of the president of the General Conference: "Elder Butler says the fruits of last year's work, the testimony I bore, can never be fully estimated and the result known until eternity."--Letter 60, 1884.
The Michigan Camp Meeting
Ellen White attended three more camp meetings, Ohio, Michigan, and Nebraska, but it was the Michigan meeting held at Jackson, some forty miles due east of Battle Creek, that was most notable in 1884. The attendance was much larger than anticipated. Wrote Smith in his editorial report:
The sight of the large tent 80 by 120 feet almost completely filled with Sabbathkeepers, even at the early-morning meetings, was one to inspire the dullest heart. The ground might appropriately be called a city of tents, for there were nearly two hundred cotton dwellings and pavilions, regularly laid out with appropriate streets and passageways, and some eighteen hundred of our people permanently located in the tents or in dwellings near the ground. This was a larger number of Sabbathkeepers, perhaps by 50 percent, than was ever before assembled at a camp meeting during the history of our cause.--The Review and Herald, October 7, 1884.
Encouraged by the good attendance and the response of the citizens of Jackson, who showed a deep interest, the conference voted to purchase a larger tent, 100 by 150 feet, for the next camp meeting. On Friday, September 26, an excursion train brought 240 college students and Sanitarium employees from Battle Creek, some fifty miles to the West.
It was impressive to observe the fruitage of Ellen White's labors as on several occasions anywhere from two hundred to 350 people responded to her appeals and went forward for prayers. "There was deep feeling," wrote Smith, "and though no excitement or fanaticism, the manifest movings of the Spirit of God upon the heart." He looked forward to the permanent fruitage of the spiritual messages.
What seemed to be a climax to the Jackson camp meeting came at the early-morning service on Sabbath, September 27, when the whole camp was electrified by the remarks made by the backslidden D. M. Canright.
D. M. Canright's Experience
Dudley M. Canright, a native of Michigan, was well known to a large part of those on the campground. At the age of 21 he felt called to the ministry and went to Battle Creek to confer with James White. After an hour's visit White gave him a pair of charts and a Bible and said to him, "Here, Dudley, take these, and go out and try it. When you become satisfied that you have made a mistake, bring them back." A year later Canright reported to White, "You have lost them."--Ibid., May 20, 1873; Carrie Johnson, I Was Canright's Secretary, p. 14. [Note: I was Canright's secretary, by Carrie Johnson, tells in well-documented form the story of his life, his backslidings, his final apostasy, and her experience as a youthful secretary working for him over a period of several months. He was then writing his antagonistic book The life of Mrs. E. G. White (1919). Her book is the best over-all source for much information on Canright and is well worth reading.] He threw himself wholeheartedly into his work. At times doubt and discouragements entered his mind, but, pressing on, he became not only a successful evangelist but an outstanding debater as well. In the Iowa Conference, presided over by G. I. Butler in 1869, Canright debated with a Presbyterian minister. But immediately afterward he fell into discouragement. Through Butler's diligent personal labors, running through the entire night, Canright regained his confidence and courage (Ibid., 25).
During the next fifteen years, although elevated to responsible positions, in which he served well, he experienced several such periods of depression. Each time, however, with the encouragement of Butler, he regained his confidence and continued a fruitful ministry. In 1882 he gave up preaching once again and took up farming in Otsego, Michigan. From there, on December 8, 1883, he wrote to Uriah Smith, expressing his high regard for Butler and all the leading men: "I have no feelings against any of them, excepting Mrs. White. I dislike her very much indeed.... If I were situated differently, I would just as soon join some other church." - Ibid., 65.
In response to the pleading of his friends, Canright attended the camp meeting at Jackson, Michigan, in September, 1884, the meeting reported in this chapter. There he again had a conference with Butler, and after prayer and counsel, receiving an explanation of some matters he had viewed in an exaggerated light, he reversed his position and took his stand with Seventh-day Adventists.
A thousand people that early Sabbath morning meeting, many with tears in their eyes, heard his heartfelt confession. He spoke of the clouds of darkness that had enveloped his mind. But now, he declared, all was clear to him. He confessed freely that for years he had harbored in his heart bitter feelings toward Mrs. White because of the testimonies he had received from her. [See Testimonies for the Church, 3:304-329 (1873); Selected Messages 2:162-170 (1880). See also Testimonies for the Church, 5:516-520 (1886); The Signs of the Times, 571-573 (1887); Ibid., 621-628 (1887).]
Later in the company of a select few, he made a more specific confession to her and begged her for forgiveness.
Canright seemed like a changed man. He went into the gospel field once more to minister. Writing of his experience for the readers of the Review and Herald, he stated that his problem went back eleven years to the time he and Lucretia, in Colorado, had received a testimony from Mrs. White that they had thought too severe. He referred to other messages from Ellen White. His explanation of the reasons for his course of action is worthy of notice:
I think that my disbelief of the testimonies and other truths has come by opening my heart to doubts, cherishing them and magnifying them.... Like Peter, I did not know myself till God left me to be tried. I feel greatly humbled under the shameful failure I have made....
Friday, September 26, while on the campground at Jackson, Michigan, I felt in my heart the most remarkable change that I ever experienced in all my life. It was a complete reversion of all my feelings. Light and faith came into my soul, and I felt that God had given me another heart.
I never felt such a change before, not even when first converted, nor when I embraced the message, nor at any other time.... I want to say to all my friends everywhere that now I not only accept but believe the testimonies to be from God. Knowing the opposition I have felt to them, this change in my feelings is more amazing to myself that it can be to others.
I am fully satisfied that my own salvation and my usefulness in saving others depends upon my being connected with this people and this work. And here I take my stand to risk all I am, or have, or hope for, in this life and the life to come, with this people and this work.--The Review and Herald, October 7, 1884.
The Otsego Meeting
At the General Conference session held in November, announcement was made that general meetings would be held in Otsego, Michigan, to begin the next Friday evening and run through Monday. Ellen White, with a number of workers from Battle Creek, attended. Canright presided in Otsego, and she was entertained in the Canright home. In her report of the meetings she stated:
The brethren and sisters had come together from different churches, and the house of worship was crowded. The gallery was full, seats were placed in the aisles, and quite a number could obtain no seats. My own soul was strengthened and refreshed in dwelling upon the gracious promises of God. In watering others, my own soul was watered.--Ibid., December 2, 1884.
As the meetings progressed, all eyes were on Canright. She continued in her report, "How my heart rejoiced to see Brother Canright all interest, heart and soul in the work, as he used to be years in the past! I could but exclaim, 'What hath the Lord wrought!' "--Ibid. In the evening after the Sabbath he gave an impressive discourse, but it was on Sunday morning, when he recounted his past experience, that the people gave their most earnest attention. He declared:
It seems to me.... that my whole soul is now bound up in this present truth. I have told my brethren that if the world were before me, the truth is so clear that I know I could make them see it....
I want to say that I have been changed right around in my feelings and convictions. I do not say I am fully satisfied in everything; but I believe the truth as I used to believe it....
In the twenty-five years I have been with our people, I have traveled from Maine to California, and I have never known one man who has drawn back and begun to harbor doubts who did not begin to separate from God. I have never known one who through such a course has become more spiritual or more anxious to do something to save his fellow men....
When I left off preaching, I vowed to myself and to my God that I would go right along laboring as I had done, be faithful in the church, and do my duty every time. Well, brethren, after I had gone that way for a time, I found that I had lost my hold upon God. I lost my spirituality. Now there must be something wrong about such a course; for if it is right it seems to me that a man would certainly prosper in that way.--Ibid.
Bringing his confession and his declaration to a close, Canright made a statement that those in the church at Otsego and those who read the report of his address in the Review would not soon forget. Unfortunately, however, within three years he himself had forgotten it:
Brethren, I will say this: So far as I am concerned, I will start right here; and all that I have, all that I am, I will put into this work, and take my risk of everything. I will never do this backing up anymore; and I believe that if I ever go back from this I am lost. All I have I will give to this cause. I believe there is in this truth that which will save men. I have seen drunkards saved by it, and the wickedest of men saved by it; and may God help us to triumph with it when Jesus comes.--Ibid.
The same issue of the Review and Herald that carried the Canright statement also carried Ellen White's report of the three-day meeting in Otsego. Near its close she not only made reference to his restoration to the faith and the cause but also spoke warmly of her entertainment in the Canright home. She was ecstatic in her description of what had taken place:
I could but make melody to God in my heart every moment as I considered the work that had been wrought so wonderfully in this case. Elder Canright saved to the cause! His precious family led into the ways of truth and righteousness! I said in my heart, as I looked upon them, Saved, saved from ruin! If there is joy in the presence of the angels in heaven, why should there not be joy in our hearts? I do rejoice, I do praise the Lord, that mine eyes have seen his salvation.--Ibid.
The 1884 General Conference Session
Between the Michigan camp meeting held at Jackson and the rather memorable three-day meeting held at Otsego, a three-week-long (October 30-November 20) General Conference session was held in the Tabernacle in Battle Creek. It was a meeting of earnest activity in facing the challenges of a rapidly expanding work. Each day throughout the three weeks featured an early-morning devotional service and evening preaching. Mornings and afternoons were devoted to business. Needy fields were studied, and workers moved to fill the needs. It was a very busy session.
On the opening day the newly organized Swiss Conference was received into the General Conference, and early in the session a memorial was presented by the Central European Mission. In this the General Conference was petitioned to proceed with the development of the publishing work in Europe, including the completion of the publishing house under construction in Basel, Switzerland. It urged that W. C. White be sent to Europe "at as early a date as possible, to take charge of the finishing and furnishing of this publishing house." Also:
We express our earnest desire that Sister White may visit Europe, that the cause here may share the benefits of her labors and of the precious light and instruction which the Lord so graciously grants us through His servant.--Ibid., November 11, 1884
Both Ellen and W. C. White responded to the invitation for them to visit Europe by stating that "they stood ready to go whenever God should indicate by unmistakable providences that such was their duty."--Ibid.
Later in the session action was taken:
That Elder W. C. White go to Europe to assist in the purchase of machinery for our [publishing] houses in Bale, Switzerland, and Christiania [Oslo], Norway, and in the placing of the publishing work there on the proper basis, and in counseling and assisting in all branches of the work in Europe.--Ibid., November 18, 1884
No formal action regarding Ellen White was taken at the session, but Butler, in reporting on plans for W. C. White, mentioned:
We may say in this connection that it is earnestly hoped by all the delegates at the conference that Sister White would conclude to make this trip with him, and thus greatly help and strengthen the work in the Old World. This we know would be, at her age, and with her infirmities, a step which would seem like a great sacrifice; but God could strengthen her for it.--Ibid., November 25, 1884
The needs of Australia also were studied in plans for the outreach of the work of the church. In January, 1875, Ellen White had been shown a publishing house there. Several times during the session there was talk of S. N. Haskell pioneering the work in this southern continent. Finally the following actions were taken:
That, in view of the great importance of spreading the truth to earth's remotest bounds, and of opening a mission in Australia as soon as possible, Elder S. N. Haskell go to Australia next May, taking with him a competent corps of laborers to establish a mission, and that he return in time to attend the next General Conference.--Ibid., November 18, 1884
Ellen White took a number of the early (5:30 A.M.) ministers' meetings. Dr. J. H. Kellogg came in and presented a good series of lectures on health, well supported, of course, by Ellen White. Among the resolutions passed at the session was this:
Whereas, We have received light from the Testimony of the Spirit that the health reform is a part of the present truth, and it having suffered neglect, both from our ministers and people; therefore--
Resolved, That we urge upon all our people, both ministers and churches, the duty and necessity of renewing their interest in this important subject; and we further request that articles on this subject be again published in our church paper.--Ibid.
On the last day of the session the following action was taken relating to the newly published Great Controversy:
Resolved, That we hail with great pleasure the publication of volume 4, The Great Controversy; that, while we anxiously looked for it, expecting that it would give important information concerning the closing scenes of this world's history, we can freely say that it more than meets our most sanguine expectations; and that we earnestly urge all our people to read it carefully and prayerfully, and to use all proper means to place it before the world.--Ibid., November 25, 1884
Butler closed his survey of the accomplishments of the session in these encouraging words:
Our conference, though full of labor and great perplexity, was a pleasant one. The instruction given by Sister White was excellent, and such a spirit of love and union prevailed in our midst as has seldom been seen before. Some whom we feared were lost to the cause have returned to help us in bearing the burdens of the work. Our delegates go home with courage and hope.--Ibid.
The Trip Home to California
The conference session closed on Thursday, November 20. W. C. White, reelected to the five-member General Conference Committee, had matters to attend to before starting west. This delayed the departure for Oakland of the chartered passenger cars until Monday, December 4. This gave Ellen White a couple more weeks in Battle Creek. She was invited to give the Thanksgiving address in the Tabernacle on Thursday, November 27.
Friday she went to Chicago, taking weekend services there. On Monday, December 8, she joined the group in the two westbound chartered cars as they passed through the city. She reached her Healdsburg home in mid-December and was joyfully received by her family of helpers (Letter 62, 1884).
Looking back over the year, Ellen White and her literary assistants could count fifty E. G. White articles published in the forty-eight issues of the Signs for 1884, and fifty-two in the fifty-one issues of the Review and Herald. And of course, the 549-page volume 4 of The Spirit of Prophecy, entitled The Great Controversy.
Her work for the coming year was outlined in the letter she wrote to her brother-in-law John White, in Kansas:
The decision of the conference is passed, that WCW, accompanied by his wife, shall accompany his mother to Europe.... I could not prevent this decision, but I told the conference I could not consent to go unless the writings that are now unfinished could be completed this winter.--Letter 61, 1884.