There were some problems in Italy. Friday morning, November 20, 1885, just barely back home from her tour through the Scandinavian countries, Ellen White was approached by B. L. Whitney, president of the Central European Mission, with the suggestion that as soon as possible she accompany him to Torre Pellice to bolster the spirits of the few discouraged believers there. "Weary and worn from the arduous labors of our northern trip," she wrote, "I would gladly have rested a few weeks in our home in Basel."--Ibid., 226. But arrangements were made to start out again the coming Thursday, less than a week after reaching home. She wrote of the proposed trip to Willie, attending the General Conference session in Battle Creek:
We are thinking of taking the whole family along; of going into Brother Bourdeau's house and remaining a couple of months. We want the Lord to direct. It is cold as a barn here.... The very air seems as if I were breathing in air from a snowbank.--Letter 36, 1885.
But in the intervening days some things had to be done in Basel. First her living quarters needed to be made comfortable, regardless of the time when she would return from Italy. So Monday morning she directed her attention to that. She wrote:
Today I went down and selected one of those earthen stoves for my room, which is the parlor.... This stove is on the same principle as those white ones in Sweden, but this one we have purchased is about five feet high, brown earthenware. It is a beauty for $20.... So you see we shall be nicely fixed here for the winter....
Brethren Whitney and Kellogg are true and earnest to do all they can for us. Brother Kellogg boards with us. They seem to think I must have everything I need to make me comfortable.
But very little has been expended for furniture. Things picked up and borrowed have fitted us out with three good bedsteads and mattresses. Both rooms have carpets, not entirely covered, but answer all purposes.--Letter 37, 1885.
She wondered how long she would be in Europe. Dependent on this was not only the minor matter of furnishings for her apartment on the third floor of the publishing house building, but longer-range questions as to literary help, working materials, et cetera. Should Marian Davis be brought over to assist in the work? She wrote to Willie:
If I were sure that we would go to America next May, I would not think it best to disappoint Marian's plans. I just want her to do the things that will be for her health and after-usefulness.... I dare not urge her to come to Europe. I will send matters to be published if I am able to write. I shall not write as diligently as I have done.
I certainly have never done as much work in the same amount of time as in the last four months and I am thankful to the Lord for this. How long it will be duty to stay here I cannot tell, but just as long as it seems to be duty to stay I will do this cheerfully.--Ibid.
The November weekend had been a very busy one. "Several not of our faith" were present at the Sabbath afternoon meeting. Among them were four students from the theological college who had read Adventist papers and had come to Whitney and to the employees of the publishing house with questions on the reasons for their faith. One of these was soon keeping the Sabbath and was employed to assist with the German work in the press (Ibid.).
Plans were also laid for evangelistic meetings in Geneva, which called for Albert Vuilleumier and James Ertzenberger to assist. Then there were the preparations for the trip to Italy. Mary White would accompany her; Ellen's little granddaughter, Ella, would remain in Basel with Sara and Christine Dahl.
The Visit to Italy
Thursday morning, November 26, her fifty-eighth birthday, accompanied by Mary White and Whitney, Ellen White was on the train bound for Torre Pellice. She found it hard to realize that she was in Europe and had already labored in England, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and now was on her way to Italy (Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 226). Fortunately, the fog had disappeared and the sun was out in all its glory. Their journey took them through "wild and magnificent scenery." As they skirted Lake Lucerne with its swans and flocks of half-tamed birds, she recognized that the terrain was "intimately associated with those historical traditions connected with William Tell, the so-called liberator of Switzerland from the Austrian yoke" (Ibid., 227). Her eyes feasted on the intricacies of the tunnels and bridges of the St. Gotthard pass, and as she traveled she informed herself of the building of the railroad that tunneled through the Alps. By midafternoon they were on the south side of the mountains; by ten o'clock, in Turin, Italy.
After a night in a comfortable hotel they were on their way to the Piedmont valleys and Torre Pellice, the terminus of the railroad. A. C. Bourdeau had just located there with his family. Ellen White stated that the purpose of the visit was to "encourage the little company there who are striving under great difficulties to obey God" (Ibid., 231). The believers were meeting opposition on the question of the seventh-day Sabbath by one who had a few months before accepted it but was now a bitter opponent. Ellen White presented the picture of the beginning of her work in Torre Pellice:
The next day, Sabbath, I spoke to the brethren and sisters in the hired hall in which they held their regular Sabbath meetings. Owing to a delay in getting out the appointment, few besides our own people were present. But I felt the same interest in speaking to the few that I would have felt in addressing hundreds. Choosing as my text Isaiah 56:1-7, I tried to impress upon them the importance of obeying God and walking in the light, regardless of the opinions or course of the world.--Ibid.
She pointed out that the question may arise in some minds as to why commandment keepers are separated from the world into little companies, and she answered, "It is not because we choose to differ from those around us, but because we see the necessity of obeying all the requirements of God."--Ibid.
A Rude Interruption
Ellen White had a reason for choosing to speak as she did that Sabbath afternoon. Some months earlier J. P. Malan, who operated a printing business in Torre Pellice, had accepted the Sabbath truth and with his wife attended the European Council held in Basel in September. They entered interestedly in the meetings held there, but shortly after their return home, influenced by friends and business associates, Mr. Malan had turned rather violently against Seventh-day Adventists. The situation was an awkward one, for he published a newspaper in Torre Pellice and owned the hall in which the believers met.
The first clash after Ellen White's arrival was in his refusal to print the notices of meetings at which she would speak. In her diary she described him as "an educated man" and his wife as an educated woman, able to "speak English and interpret or translate into German and French" (Manuscript 29, 1885). She wrote of the next confrontation:
Sabbath while I was speaking he came into the hall and began to take notes of what I was saying. While the Spirit of the Lord was upon me and I was speaking with great freedom and power, he jumped up and said he wished to speak and ask some questions. Should he lose his soul if he did not keep the Sabbath, or was it necessary for him to keep the Sabbath to be saved?--answer Yes or No.
I said, "This is an important question which could not be answered with Yes or No. Those who had clear light upon the binding claims of the law of God, and rejected that light and would not keep the Sabbath, would be judged according to the light given. Those who had not the light to refuse and reject, but lived up to all the light God had given them, would not be made accountable for the light that they never had."--Ibid.
The confrontation was unpleasant; Malan was excited, gesticulating frantically, almost raving. Bourdeau endeavored to give Ellen White a running translation of what he was saying. Malan allowed little room for answers to his challenges, and the congregation began to disperse as though afraid. She wrote in her diary, "We felt sad for Sister Malan. She begged me to excuse her husband. Poor woman, she is in a trying place."--Ibid.
After Sabbath the Adventists made another attempt to arrange for the printing of notices for the Sunday afternoon meeting, but Malan refused, and the meeting was poorly attended. While she was speaking, he appeared again, and there was a repetition of the Sabbath afternoon experience. She described the climax of the meeting:
We kept right on with our work as calmly as if an angry, half-frantic man was not acting before us as if possessed of the devil. He grasped his hat and flew out of the hall in a rage and gathered around himself several and talked to them like a madman. This was not a very encouraging beginning, but we will remain and see if the Lord has anything further for me to do.--Ibid.
Visit to Waldensian Hideouts
A secondary objective in the visit to Italy was to find a comfortable place where Ellen White could get some rest and relaxation. Her diary entries for three consecutive days open with the words "We are having a beautiful day": "We have a most glorious morning": and "It is a beautiful morning": and of Monday, November 30, she notes that "the sun shines so warm and mild; the doors are open and it seems like spring."--Ibid.
During the week she did some sightseeing, going by carriage to nearby points of special interest. When the carriage could go no farther, several times she climbed the hills to points of historic interest relating to the experience of the Waldenses as they attempted to hide from their persecutors, and where many lost their lives.
On Friday, December 4, she did some writing, corrected the transcription of her Sabbath discourse, and prepared for the meeting the next day. Arrangements had been made to print the notice of the meeting at Pinola, a nearby town. When a copy was posted, they found it matched the notice of a meeting to be held by Miles Grant, who apparently had followed her to Torre Pellice. Grant, an Advent Christian minister and editor of the World's Crisis, published in America, was a bitter foe of Seventh-day Adventists. He took pride in what he termed the exposing of the pretended visions of Ellen White. The notice of Grant's meeting carried the declaration that he would do this in Torre Pellice. Totally ignoring this, Ellen White went ahead with her weekend meetings Friday night, Sabbath, and Sunday. Attendance was disappointing; some said that two parties of Adventists had come to quarrel with one another and that the people ought not to go to the meetings of either party (Letter 72, 1886).
That Friday night Miles Grant spoke in a hall above the one in which Ellen White was holding her meetings. Although he mentioned Ellen White in his address, he reserved his stronger blasts until Saturday night. Of this she wrote in her diary:
In the evening Elder Grant presented his slander he had gathered up--what this disaffected one had said, and those who had been reproved for their wrongs and iniquity--and presented it to the people as condemning evidence that the visions of Mrs. White were not of God.
The very same course has Robert Ingersoll pursued against the Bible. Grant has taken some expressions that he could turn and misrepresent and distort. These he has made the most of, and the people who are ignorant of me and my work accept these garbled statements as truth. But as I am a stranger in Italy and unacquainted with the people and the people unacquainted with me and my work, it would be of no use to try to undeceive them.--Manuscript 29, 1885.
Ellen White went right on with her meetings, making no reference to Grant, hoping to reach the hearts of those who would hear. But the outlook was bleak. In her diary she noted the position she took:
I might answer him and vindicate myself, but I will not even mention his name. I will keep right on seeking to speak the truth in love to those who will hear. I know I ought never to despair when engaged in the work for my Master.... I long to have the people see the truth as it is in Jesus, but all I can do is to pray and work the very best I can, having my will in submission to God's will and feel continually the work is the Lord's--the cause is His.... I am to do my duty. I am only an instrument in the hands of God, to do my part of the work in His love and fear.
This truth will triumph, but when, where, and how is for the Lord to decide. These thoughts bring peace and trust and confidence to my soul. I will not be discouraged, for the Captain of our salvation stands at the helm.--Ibid.
Again through the next week, as the days turned colder, Ellen White pressed on with her writing. Accompanied by Mary, she continued to do some sightseeing also, guided by Bourdeau.
They were now in the very heart of the Waldensian hideouts. Ellen White's heart thrilled as she recounted in her mind the history of God's noble, persecuted witnesses. Some of the surroundings had a familiar look to her, for in visions she had been shown the travails and persecutions of the Waldenses.
While Ellen White stayed in the Bourdeau home in Torre Pellice, council meetings were held to give study to the best way to conduct the work in Italy. "We keep asking the Lord," she wrote, "to open the way for the truth to find access to hearts in these valleys." On the third Sabbath Bourdeau spoke, giving Ellen White a bit of a rest, but Sunday afternoon she addressed an attentive audience. Grant had left the valley, and tensions were lessening. She spoke again Sunday night, her last meeting there. Of this she wrote:
The Lord gave me His Spirit and at the close of the meeting nearly all present shook hands with me. One man understood English and said, "The Lord has been here tonight. You have spoken by the inspiration of His Spirit." Several expressed an earnest wish for us to remain longer.--Ibid.
Tuesday, December 15, Ellen White's visit to Italy came to its close. At half past four in the morning, she and her companions were at the depot to catch the train back to Turin.
Back Home in Basel
The travelers returned to Basel by way of Geneva, spending a night and a day there in the Daniel Bourdeau home. The time was divided between sightseeing and writing a letter of some length to a young man "crazed on the subject of marriage" (Manuscript 30, 1885). This she left with Bourdeau to be translated. With additions, the material was worked into two articles for the Review and Herald--"Courtship and Marriage" (January 26, 1886), and "Unwise Marriages" (February 2, 1886). Years later, portions were published in Messages to Young People and The Adventist Home. A carbon copy of the articles was at the time given out for translation for the French Signs, published in Basel; it then would be sent to Christiania, for publishing there.
By the weekend Ellen White and Mary were home. Mrs. White spoke to the believers Sabbath morning in the meeting hall at the publishing house. A large mail was waiting for her, and she picked up her work with no overshadowing of urgent travel plans. She had now made the rounds of visits to the principal countries of Europe where the message was reaching out. If she was to remain in Europe, she hoped to make progress with her literary work.
Mary White was delighted to be back home with her little Ella, now nearly 4 years old. There was a heavy snow the day before Christmas. Ellen, perhaps with some allowable exaggeration, described the view of the large park in front of the publishing house as "the most beautiful picture I have ever seen in winter." "Ella," she said, "has a fine time trying to snowball her mother and grandmother," but paid a price by way of a cold, thought to be from eating some of the snow (Manuscript 30, 1885).
As to her situation in general, Ellen wrote to Willie on December 22:
I can tell you, I find abundance of work that keeps coming ready to my hand and I see no place to rest, even in Europe. I think I will purchase me a horse and carriage and ride out daily. I do not take pleasure in the rides taken with a coachman and hackman. Well, I am certainly doing more work than at any other period of my life, and I am thankful that the Lord has given me strength to work....
I see our work has but just begun here; I see so much to be done and I am doing too much. I wish I could do the work of ten. I would gladly do it. But I can only do the work of one--poor, frail at that. May God work Himself.--Letter 38, 1885.
"In regard to writing in the future," she commented, "I cannot say. I must write." One important literary task that loomed before her was the enlargement of the first of the great controversy book, Spirit of Prophecy, volume 1--the one dealing with most of the Old Testament history, a volume that was to become Patriarchs and Prophets. She wrote:
I think I can do it as well here in Europe as in America. Make just such arrangements as you please. If Marian is worn and has her plans arranged to stay, I can send writing there, but if you think it advisable for her to come, all right....
Referring to the work uppermost in her mind, she continued:
Tell her I have just one minute ago read the letters in which she has specified the improvements to be made in articles for volume 1. I thank her. Tell her that she has a point about Zedekiah's having his eyes put out. That needs to be more carefully worded. Also the rock, when the water flowed--something in reference to this. I think I can make the articles [chapters] specified more full, and as I am famous for moralizing, this will be no cross. Tell her to write to me, as I prize her letters as if she were my own child.... Tell Mary [Marian] to find me some histories of the Bible that would give me the order of events. I have nothing and can find nothing in the library here. It is getting dark and I am resolved not to use my eyes or brain by candlelight.--Ibid.
After signing her name, she added a postscript: "I cannot go through this. I have been interrupted so many times and I am too tired to correct my mistakes."--Ibid.
Through the Early Months of 1886
During the winter and spring months of 1886 Ellen White devoted her energies to her writing, with occasional weekend trips to visit nearby churches in Switzerland. In addition to her almost-constant letter writing, her first literary work was to carry out the resolution, passed during the closing days of the European Missionary Council, that called for the publication in English of a "report of the European missions, with the report of Sister White's morning talks and a sketch of her visit to the missions" (see Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 118). This would be for the information and encouragement of members in America.
W. C. White was editing the volume and gathering in the reports, which included Australia as well as Europe. But Ellen, with Mary's help, had to edit and prepare the E. G. White addresses, and she needed to write out the story of her travels. In doing this, several reports written for the Review and Herald, but principally her diary, diligently kept for just such a purpose, were a great help.
Occasionally she spoke on the Sabbath in the hall at the publishing house. Inasmuch as she was working on the enlargement of Spirit of Prophecy, volume 1, it is not surprising that on Sabbath, January 23, her topic was the rebellion of Lucifer. "I know the Lord blessed me in bringing out the subject," she wrote. "All were intensely interested. Sister Whitney took it down in shorthand.... We are in every discourse getting subject matter to be used."--Letter 94, 1886. The next Sabbath she spoke on Cain and Abel.
Marian Davis Joins the Force
When W. C. White, in early February, returned from the General Conference session held in Battle Creek, Michigan, he brought with him quite a company of workers. It included L. R. Conradi and his wife, and Marian Davis. Commented Ellen White when she got the word that they would soon be in Basel, "This settles the question that we shall remain in Europe during the best portion of the year 1886. We shall prepare books here and have them published here."--Letter 94, 1886.
When Willie arrived in Basel, he found his mother confined to her bed. For some days she had overtaxed herself and found she must lay her pen aside. Even so, she did not cease her work, but made good use of Sara McEnterfer, dictating to her. On Tuesday, February 16, she wrote of this to Addie Walling:
This morning I am so grateful to be able to do something on my writing. Marian and Mary [White] are now getting up a book of reports of travel and the morning talks, to be published. Sara makes a good reporter, so all the discourses have been reported and most of them are written out. I have several articles which we send at once to Eliza [Burnham] for the Signs.--Letter 95, 1886.
Three days later she added to the letter:
We are all busily at work. I have to write mostly by dictation, something I always declared I could not do, but I can, when I have to, do most anything.--Ibid.
A Horse and Carriage for Sister White
In a letter written in mid-February to Dr. John Kellogg, she makes mention of her plight:
I am in perplexity to know just what to do. My crippled ankles forbid my walking much. My hip also at times is quite troublesome. I have always been where I could have a team at my command to ride out. I have thought that I would purchase a horse and carriage so that I could be outdoors more, but a good horse would cost me $200 and an ordinary carriage $200 and $300 for a good one. As I do not expect to stay here longer than this summer and fall, I hardly feel free to invest so much means when money is wanted so much in so many places.
It is against me that I cannot have more exercise in the open air. At Healdsburg I have my horses and comfortable carriage and have made it my practice to ride out every day at least two hours.--Letter 32, 1886.
Within a month she had reached her decision and made the purchase, described in a letter to J. D. Rice in California:
I am now quite a cripple from the broken ankle. It was injured five years ago in Battle Creek. I cannot walk at times without a cane. I have had to purchase me a horse and carriage; cost something more than $300 for the whole outfit. All deemed it necessary for me as they surely saw I could not get exercise by walking....
I want you to tell your mother that the little feather bed she gave me goes everywhere I go and is a great comfort to me. My hip remains afflicted more severely now than for some time, but I am thankful that I am improving in health. I am cheerful and happy.--Letter 18, 1886.
The days were growing warmer. Shortly after the horse and carriage were secured, they were put into use in a trip to Bienne for the Sabbath meetings, March 20. Accompanied by W. C. White, Mary, and B. L. Whitney, she made the trip Friday. There had not been time to give the appointment in the paper, but some in Bienne got the word by letter and spread it around. She spoke Friday evening, Sabbath, and Sunday morning. Six churches were represented Sabbath morning, and the meeting room was crowded. In the social meeting held Sabbath afternoon, Ellen White reported that "the testimonies borne were excellent, right to the point."--Letter 96, 1886.
A Second Visit to Italy
Two weeks later, as spring came to Switzerland, Ellen White wrote to Dr. J. S. Gibbs, medical superintendent of the Rural Health Retreat in northern California:
It is now beautiful weather. The grass is a lovely green. Trees are leafing out, the birds are caroling their songs, and my heart is filled with gratitude to God. I will make melody to God in my heart.--Letter 11, 1886.
It was a newsy letter, to a man she had aided in getting his medical education, and one to whom she was giving counsel in an affirmative and encouraging way. In it she spoke of plans being laid for the work in Europe:
We are now contemplating another journey to Italy. We should visit other churches; they are calling for us loudly. They call for us to again visit Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. These places demand much hard work and I dread it, but I may feel that I must go. Jesus lived not to please Himself. I do not know as we will get away from here this winter. May the Lord direct.--Ibid.
Ten days later, Thursday morning, April 15, Ellen White, accompanied by Sara, Willie, and Mary, boarded the train for Italy. On Friday they were in Torre Pellice again, at the home of A. C. Bourdeau (Manuscript 62, 1886). The reception of this visit was quite different from the one in December. [For Ellen White's more detailed account of this visit to italy, see her review and herald articles "visit to the vaudois valleys, "June 1, 1886. And "labors in the piedmont valleys," June 29, 1886. For further details of her work in italy and this trip, see D. A. Delafield, Ellen G. White in europe, "the second visit to italy" and "the magnificence of the alps," pp. 174-185.]
Routine Program in Basel
Six weeks intervened between their return to Basel and the time they had to be off for the second round of visits to the Scandinavian countries. These weeks were used by Ellen White in literary work and in weekend visits to nearby churches. The family now occupied five rooms on the third floor of the publishing house. On June 11 she described the house situation:
We now number ten. WCW and Mary and Ella are well. Ella has grown to be quite a girl since you last saw her. Sara McEnterfer is well, and just as busy as she can be taking letters by dictation and writing them out on the calligraph. Marian's health is about as it usually is. She is at work on volume four, Great Controversy....
One week ago last Tuesday we returned home from visiting the churches in Switzerland. We traveled with our horse and carriage, and by thus doing obtained a view of the places and scenery of interest which we should not have done had we ridden on the cars.--Manuscript 20, 1886.
Traveling by carriage seemed to be the most effective means of bringing relaxation to Ellen White and was her recreation. In one letter she declared:
I have a good gentle horse, afraid of nothing. Four years old. I can drive him myself anywhere.--Letter 97a, 1886.
And this she did. On Thursday, May 20, with her son, Sara, and John Vuilleumier, she left Basel for a weekend visit to one of the churches. It was an unhurried trip and at the extended noonday stop for rest and refreshment near Laufen, she had an opportunity to write:
We are about fourteen miles from Basel, sitting upon the grass under a large, widespread oak, which is a shelter to us from the rays of a noonday sun in May in Switzerland. The horse, Dolly, is unharnessed. John Vuilleumier and Willie are at work rubbing him, using hay in the place of a curry comb; then he is left free to graze and do as he pleases.
John and W. C. White walk to the nearest house, which is not far distant, for milk to be used with our dry lunch. A bed has been made for me under the shelter of the friendly tree where I may lie down to rest. Sara McEnterfer prepares the luncheon, which is spread upon the grass upon smooth Manila paper used as a tablecloth. The prayer is made for the blessing upon our food, and the simple lunch is eaten with a relish.
W. C. White engages in writing letters on the Calligraph. Sara has arranged the dinner basket, washed the dishes in a stream of water close by, and EGW lies down hoping to sleep. She has been sick for several days and has not slept as many hours as health required. John Vuilleumier takes the German and French papers to the house where the milk was obtained, to do some missionary work and obtain names to whom he can send these little messengers of light and truth. Being refreshed with a short nap, I begin to use my pen.--Manuscript 56, 1886.
With that pen she described the scenery, "beautiful and interesting." Rugged mountains, with "battlements of rock ...on either side of the valley," which she spoke of as "God's great work of masonry." She was intrigued with the many castles with their watchtowers. Then as Dolly was harnessed again, her musing and writing was cut short by the summons, "All aboard!"
The next day she continued her tribute to the grand scenery of Switzerland, drawing spiritual lessons from the things of nature. "We can never describe the scenery," she exclaimed, "for it is indescribable. This view of Switzerland by carriage ride makes me desire to travel more by private conveyance."--Ibid.