Ellen White devoted the winter months in Basel to writing. On some weekends she went to various churches in Switzerland. Christmas Day, 1886, she met with the church in Tramelan. It was a very special occasion--the dedication of the first Seventh-day Adventist house of worship erected in Europe. (At each of the two larger centers, Basel and Christiania, was a sizable meeting hall in the respective publishing houses.) The little chapel at Tramelan was built by the Roth family at a cost of 3,300 francs, [Equivalent to $660 in U.S. Currency in 1886.] and stood just back of the Roth home. Ellen White thought the building to be a little smaller than the first house of worship erected in Battle Creek in 1855, which was eighteen by twenty-four feet in size.
"Here is where the truth first started in Europe," wrote Ellen White of Tramelan. "Here is where the first church of believers was raised up."--Letter 34, 1887. She had made the trip by train accompanied by William and Jenny Ings. Snow was heavy on the ground; one of the Roth boys was at the station with a sleigh, giving Ellen White the first sleigh ride she had had in years. The heavy snow, the evergreen trees bowed down with their white mantles, the ride in the sleigh, all reminded her of her girlhood in New England. Vuilleumier and Ertzenberger were at Tramelan for the occasion; Vuilleumier translated for Ellen White, and Ertzenberger spoke at the Sabbath morning worship hour. Visiting church members came in from Chaux-de-Fonds and Bienne.
At the Sabbath afternoon dedication service Ellen White spoke about the Temple Solomon built, and the sacredness that should be observed in a building dedicated to the worship of God. She recalled earlier days of the message in America:
The first house built in Battle Creek was only about one third larger than this, and when we entered that building we felt happy. The meetings heretofore had been held in a private house. We all felt poor, but we felt that we must have a place to dedicate to the Lord.... In two years it had to be given up for a larger one.... It was not long before the third had to be built, and then the present one which will seat three thousand persons....
We hope that the Lord will so bless your work that this house will prove too small for you. We expect to see other houses erected by our people and in this our faith will be revealed, for faith without works is dead. This house, so small as it is, is recorded in heaven. I can come to visit you with more courage now than heretofore because the people will see that you mean business.--Manuscript 49, 1886.
On Sunday afternoon she met an appointment in the Baptist church in the city, speaking to two or three hundred townspeople. Then she hastened back to Basel and her writing.
She had promised in her dedicatory address that she would come back for more visits to the little church in Tramelan. She fulfilled this promise early in February. She filled appointments Sabbath, February 5, in the church. On Sunday afternoon, by special invitation of the pastor, she spoke again in the national Baptist church, giving a temperance address. Introduced by the pastor, she counted the meeting a success (The Review and Herald, April 5, 1887).
News of D. M. Canright's Final Defection
In March, Ellen White received word of D. M. Canright's final defection--and his request that his name be dropped from the church books in Otsego, Michigan. The action was taken by the church on the evening of February 17, at a meeting in which G. I. Butler, president of both the General Conference and the Michigan Conference, presided. In January Canright had taken the position that he would no longer be a Seventh-day Adventist and informed his longtime friend, Butler, of the decision. In the business meeting at which he was dismissed he made a clear-cut statement inscribed by the clerk in the records of the church. Canright made it plain
that he had come to a point where he no longer believed that the Ten Commandments were binding upon Christians and had given up the law, the Sabbath, the messages, the sanctuary, our position upon [the] United States in prophecy, the testimonies, health reform, the ordinances of humility.
He also said that he did not believe the Papacy had changed the Sabbath. And though he did not directly state it, his language intimated that he would probably keep Sunday. He thinks that Seventh-day Adventists are too narrow in their ideas.--Church Clerk's Record, February 17, 1887, Otsego, Michigan, in Johnson, I Was Canright's Secretary, p. 82.
He recognized that his best friends were among the Adventists and promised he would never oppose them. Mrs. Canright joined him in the apostasy. The steps Canright took in separating himself from the church came as no surprise to Ellen White, for shortly before this she had an impressive dream. In it she saw Canright desiring to leave a strong vessel sailing in rough waters to take his chances on a vessel with worm-eaten timbers, destined for destruction. She described this view in a letter of warning to him, now found in Testimonies, volume 5, pages 571-573.
Within a few months he was preaching for the Baptists, and he soon became a very bitter enemy of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He continued to oppose Adventists until his death in 1919.
Writing Letters and Preparing Book Manuscript
Ellen White kept a record in her diary for much of February, March, and April, of letters written and of her work in book preparation. Picking somewhat at random, we find such notations as:
March 15--Have written seventeen pages notepaper.
March 18--Wrote several pages.
March 19--Wrote.
March 20--Wrote nineteen pages.
March 21--Twenty-five largest pages.
March 22--Wrote twenty-five pages, large scratch-book pages.... Wrote nine pages in regard to the condition of things [in the building]. Wrote sixteen pages for volume 1 [Patriarchs and Prophets].
March 23--fifteen large pages.
April 5 and 6--Wrote forty-eight pages; thirty pages of this was letter paper, eighteen note paper. Sent a long communication to be read to the Oakland April meeting. Sent letters to Elder Butler.
April 7--Wrote fourteen pages letter paper.
April 8--Wrote fifteen pages, volume 1.
April 9--Wrote fifteen pages letter paper, article for paper.--Manuscript 29, 1887.
In a letter to Edson and Emma written April 18, we get a further glimpse of the work going on in Basel.
Marian [Davis] ...is deeply buried in volume 1. That work is nearly completed. I stopped my work on that to put additions into volume 4. I work early and constantly until dark, then retire early and generally rise between three and four. I see so much to be done to get things in order. I talk, I pray, I write, and then must leave it all with God....--Letter 82, 1887.
She brought this letter to a close with a projection of plans for closing up her work in Europe:
We shall leave here for Prussia the twentieth of May, for conference meeting. After that we go to Norway, to attend the first camp meeting held in Europe, then attend conference in Stockholm, Sweden, then in Copenhagen, Denmark; from there to England. We cannot determine how long we shall stay there.--Ibid.
Visit to Zurich
But before leaving Switzerland, both Ellen White and her son wanted to squeeze in a visit to Zurich. Wrote W. C. White:
For several days we have been thinking of making a short visit to Zurich. We have been reading the account of Zwingli's work, and before leaving we want to see his city. Mother is especially anxious to see Zurich, and we have some business matters to attend to also.--A-2 WCW, p. 225.
With anticipation of spending a day in the city where Zwingli labored and preached, Ellen White, accompanied by Willie and Mary, Marian Davis, and Wilbur Whitney, on Thursday morning, May 12, took the train for Zurich. On arrival they hastened to the cathedral and the nearby chapel in which Zwingli preached. In the courtyard was a statue of Zwingli with a Bible in one hand and a sword by his side. On reaching the site, Ellen White recognized the surroundings. According to teen-age Patience Bourdeau [later Sisco] as told by her to the author, Ellen White served as a guide to the group, pointing out features of interest and of how things appeared in Zwingli's day. As Ellen was engaged at the time in the enlargement of The Great Controversy, her comment "We gathered many items of interest which we will use" (Manuscript 29, 1887) is readily understood.
While the men were in the city on publishing house business Ellen White, Mary, and Marian continued sightseeing. Their tour included a ride in a rowboat on the placid Lake Zurich. They were back in Basel at nine-thirty that night.
Taking advantage of the weekend, she left Friday morning, May 13, with Whitney and his wife for Chaux-de-Fonds, where the little company of believers worshiped in a rather small room. Some of the believers had come in from Tramelan and Bienne, making an audience of sixty. So many were crowded together on Sabbath morning that they had no room to kneel for prayer.
When she learned that this growing church was buying a lot and hoped to build a house of worship, her heart was touched. Since she would be leaving Switzerland in less than two weeks, she pledged her horse, carriage, and harness to help build the church.
Starting on the Long Journey Home
The conference to be held at Vohwinkel, in Prussia, on the weekend of May 27 to 29, mentioned in her April letter to Edson, would be her first appointment en route to the United States. Mrs. Ings accompanied her on this first part of the journey. They said farewell to their friends and associates in the work in Basel on Thursday evening, the twenty-sixth, and took the nine-thirty train for Germany. One of the young men from the publishing house, who was returning to his home in Germany, accompanied them, assisting as translator. At Mainz they were met by L. R. Conradi, who traveled with them to Vohwinkel, a short distance north of Cologne. Arriving at three o'clock Friday afternoon, the elder of the church met them and drove them two miles into the country to visit a little community of Adventists. These had moved away from the cities to find freedom to work and worship as they chose.
Meetings at Vohwinkel
Conradi spoke Friday evening; Ellen White was to speak at ten o'clock Sabbath morning. That Friday night, the Lord revealed to her in an interesting way the situation of those who would be in her audience in the morning. Her diary carries the account that she wrote on Sabbath morning:
Last night [May 27] I dreamed that a small company were assembled together to have a religious meeting. There was One who came in and seated Himself in a dark corner where He would attract little observation. There was not a spirit of freedom. The Spirit of the Lord was bound. Some remarks were made by the elder of the church, and he seemed to be trying to hurt someone.
I saw a sadness upon the countenance of the Stranger. It became apparent that there was not the love of Jesus in the hearts of those who claimed to believe the truth, and there was, as the sure result, an absence of the Spirit of Christ and a great want both in thoughts and feelings of love for God and for one another. The assembling together had not been refreshing to anyone.
As the meeting was about to close, the Stranger arose and with a voice that was full of sorrow and of tears He told them that they had great want in their own souls, and in their own experience, of the love of Jesus which was present in large measure in every heart where Christ took up His abode. Every heart renewed by the Spirit of God would not only love God but love his brother, and if that brother made mistakes, if he erred, he must be dealt with after the gospel plan.--Manuscript 32, 1887.
For ten or fifteen minutes the Stranger addressed those assembled, pointing to Christ as their example in conduct and labor and urging upon them the spirit of love and unity. He continued:
"That which distinguishes the character and conduct of Christians from all others is the principle of holy, Christlike love, which works in the heart with its purifying influence. The true Christian will work the works of Christ in giving expression in deeds of love one to another. With this living, abiding, working principle in life and in character, no one can resemble the world."--Ibid.
The Speaker continued giving counsel to all, but especially the elders of the church. He urged, "'Never draw apart, but press together, binding heart to heart.'" Having finished His remarks, He sat down. The sun, which had been hidden, beamed forth, shining full on the person of the Stranger. Turning to one another, the people in the audience exclaimed, "'It is Jesus; It is Jesus!'"--Ibid.
"What a revelation!" Ellen White declared. "All knew in a moment who had been speaking to them." And she described what she had seen in the vision of the results:
Then ...confessions of sin ...were made and confessions to one another. There was weeping, for the hearts seemed to be broken, and then there was rejoicing and the room was filled with the mellow light of heaven. The musical voice of Jesus said, "Peace be with you." And His peace was.--Ibid.
Little wonder that the theme of Ellen White's Sabbath morning discourse was "The prayer of Christ, that His disciples may be one as He was one with the Father."
Ellen White learned from Conradi, her translator, that those in her audience had never engaged in a social meeting. They had met together for prayer, but not to bear testimony. "We thought it a favorable time," she wrote, "to break them in, and our meeting was good, lasting three hours from its commencement." She was urged to speak again in the evening, and this she did, carrying the work forward, making special efforts to bring about harmony.
She spoke again Sunday afternoon, Conradi having occupied the morning hour. She reported that there was "a healing of their difficulties" (Ibid.).
She was interested to learn that the Sabbathkeeping families were largely engaged in the textile industry, weaving various types of cloth. This was true also of the believers in nearby Gladbach, whom she visited on Monday. She spoke to them in a room in the Doerner home. The next day, with Jenny Ings and Conradi, she was on the way to Hamburg en route to Denmark. She was weary and weak, not having been able to eat for almost a week. She recognized that without the special help of the Lord she could not engage in such travel and ministry.
The Meetings in Copenhagen
In Copenhagen Wednesday afternoon, the travelers were taken to a comfortable hotel where they had a little time for rest before the annual conference meetings would open on Thursday, June 2.
She began her work that Friday morning with a short talk. Reviewing the progress made in Denmark in the two years she had been in Europe, she reminisced:
What a great change in Copenhagen since we first visited them! Our meetings were held in a little damp hall.... The Lord was present. He gave me a testimony for hungry souls. Next our meeting was transferred to a basement. Above was a dancing hall and there were saloons all around us.... But the Lord gave me special messages for the people and blessed those assembled and blessed me in large measure. I spoke to them five times.
Nearly a year ago--July 17--I again visited Copenhagen in company with W. C. White and Sara McEnterfer. I spoke to the people about ten times. We had a hall--an improvement upon the one we had on our first visit the last of October, 1885. There had been special efforts made in Copenhagen by Elder Matteson and Brother Brorsen, and there were more than double the number [than] when we were on our first visit, and some of the best quality of people.
And now, June 4 [1887], we see many more who have been added to the number of Sabbathkeepers, and our hearts were made glad to see a respectable, noble, intelligent class of believers assembled in the city of Copenhagen and to listen to their testimonies translated to me by Brother Olsen. We could indeed exclaim, "What hath God wrought!"--Manuscript 33, 1887.
First European Camp Meeting at Moss, Norway
The next appointment was for Moss, Norway, to attend the first European camp meeting, to open Tuesday, June 14, and continue eight days. This was to be followed by the fifth session of the European Council. The people assembled in a beautiful pine grove. Tents were used for living quarters and for meetings--the first camp meeting held in Europe. A nearby house was rented for Ellen White and those who might be fearful of living in tents. She described the situation:
We are located in a house built on a rise of ground overlooking the water. The scenery is fine. Everything is comfortable for us and we expect to enjoy our stay here very much.... This is the first camp meeting that has ever been held in Europe, and it has made quite a stir about here. We hope this meeting will make such an impression upon minds that we will be able to hold camp meetings after this, not only in Norway but in Sweden and Denmark. This will bring the truth more directly before a class of minds we could not reach by any ordinary means.--Manuscript 34, 1887.
The pattern of meetings for such a conference had now been quite well established. Ellen White spoke Sabbath afternoon and again on Sunday afternoon on the ascension and second advent of Christ. Her audience filled the tent and crowded around it, for a good number from the community attended. The weather was good; on Monday, June 13, Ellen White wrote:
We can but pronounce this meeting a marked success. The news of it will be carried everywhere in these kingdoms--to Sweden, Norway, and Denmark--and will open the way for camp meetings in other places.
Many came to these meetings with great fear and trembling. They thought it must be at great risk to live in tents, but when they saw the arrangements--stoves in the tents if it should be cold and rainy--they had naught to fear. They were so charmed with the beautiful fragrant grove and the neat, comfortably furnished tents that they said if they had only known it was like this they would have prepared to occupy a tent themselves. The terror and dread of camp meeting is all removed and the way opened for camp meetings in these regions.--Ibid.
Monday was taken up mostly with business meetings of the conference session. S. N. Haskell preached in the afternoon. Study was given to the tithing system, a point accepted rather belatedly by the believers in Norway. When those at the camp saw that this was the Bible plan ordained of God from the first, that He had a tithing church as far back as Abraham, and that it was God's plan that His children should return to Him the tithe and to give gifts, the matter was understood in a new light. A resolution to be faithful in these matters was passed, with good support. On Tuesday morning, June 14, the Norwegian believers left for their homes and their businesses.
The Fifth Session of the European Council
Opening on the campground the same day, Tuesday, June 14, was the fifth session of the Annual European Council. Four delegates came from Central Europe, three from England, three from Norway, and one each from Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. They were favored in having four representatives from the United States--S. N. Haskell; J. H. Waggoner, who had come to assist in the work in Europe; and D. A. Robinson and C. L. Boyd, en route to Africa for mission service. In ten meetings the council gave special attention to the distribution of literature, and the production of literature that would fit the needs of the different countries. It was now clear that when the colporteurs were given proper training as Matteson had done in Sweden, literature evangelism could be very successful. It considered the opening of schools for the children of Adventist parents and also to the training necessary to prepare young men for ministerial work. On this latter point Ellen White wrote of the counsel she gave:
I went into the council and was deeply interested. I had great freedom in speaking in regard to the possibility of doing a much larger work than we have hitherto done and I tried to set before our brethren how much greater work could have been done if our brethren had taken greater pains, even at large expense, to educate the licentiates before they were sent into the field for labor.
They were allowed to go and try their gift. They did not go with experienced workmen who could help them and educate them, but went out alone, and they did not all preserve close, studious habits. They did not grow, and were not taxing their powers to become able men in the Scriptures.--Ibid.
The result was discouragement for the young men, and it was difficult to hold them to the work of the church. One action taken by the council to correct this weakness, at least in part, read:
Whereas, The present truth is fast going to all nations of the earth, and the work is growing so as to call to it the attention of all classes; and, as we shall need to be prepared to defend the truth if the learning and wisdom of this world shall array itself against it; therefore--
Resolved, That we consider it highly expedient to encourage individuals to go to the best institutions of learning, that they may become acquainted with the theories of those who may oppose the truth, and to act as missionaries.--SDA Yearbook, 1888, pp. 75, 76.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Europe was coming of age.
On Friday, the families of D. A. Robinson and C. L. Boyd left Moss for London to continue their journey to South Africa. Ellen White participated in the meetings on Sabbath. As to Sunday morning, she wrote:
After taking our breakfast, Sister Ings and I walked out to the encampment. Found a retired spot and then spread out our fur and wrote an important letter of ten pages to the missionaries going to Africa.--Manuscript 34, 1887.
The Council closed that day. The worker group traveled together to Christiania, and from there separated to their various posts of duty.
The Well-Attended Meetings in Sweden
On Wednesday afternoon O. A. Olsen, the Ingses, and Ellen White took the train for Stockholm for the session of the Swedish Conference, which opened on Thursday, June 23. Sixty believers were present for the opening meeting at ten o'clock. They met in a tent, "the first tent that has been pitched in Sweden," noted Ellen White. She added that as the meetings progress, "the people flock to the tent. It is to them a new and singular meetinghouse."--Manuscript 35, 1887.
Friday afternoon she spoke to a large audience.
At five o'clock I spoke to a tent crowded full. Every seat was occupied and a wall of people was about the tent. All were orderly and listened with apparent interest. Many found seats on the platform. Many were standing under the tent and around the tent. I had freedom in speaking to the people from Titus 2:11-14.
.... I think I have not seen as an average, a more intelligent, noble-looking company than was before me, both men and women.--Manuscript 35, 1887.
People crowded onto the grounds again on Sabbath, and she addressed an audience of four hundred on Christ's second coming. Detecting that before her were many who understood English, she held her voice in even tones and with distinct utterance. The meetings continued through Monday, with forty attending the farewell meeting Tuesday morning. "I remained after the meeting," she wrote, "to bid all farewell. Shook hands with them and with the thought that we should never meet again until we meet around the throne of God."
But there was "another little parting scene."
All the colporteurs and workers assembled in the house of Brother Matteson and we had a formal parting meeting. Each one said a few words of their appreciation of the meetings. They had read the books of Sister White and wanted so much to see her, and as they had listened to her testimony they had accepted the message brought to them and had been greatly benefited and much blessed of the Lord. I responded in a short talk through Brother Matteson as my interpreter. We left Stockholm about 6:00 P.M. We were favored with the best of accommodations and slept quite well during the night.--Ibid.
On to the British Mission
Only one more stop was before Ellen White; then she would be free to take ship for America. While in Stockholm, she had hoped to hear from Willie about the tickets for the passage, and now she was on the way to England. To her surprise, she found him there. From Christiania he had gone to London in place of Basel, as she had expected.
The work of the church in England had grown slowly and the field still had the status of a mission, while on the continent it had attained the status of conferences. Ellen White's first appointment was for meetings Sabbath and Sunday at Kettering, some seventy or eighty miles north of London. She was there Thursday morning; although she found the weather excessively warm, she did some shopping with Mrs. Ings. The little church group worshiped in a good-sized hall, actually a building with metal sides and roof, which in the summer made it seem like an oven. Ellen White spoke there Sabbath morning and afternoon, and again Sunday afternoon. The Sunday meeting was attended by a good representation of the townspeople.
Ellen White would not be leaving on the City of Rome for the States for a full month, and she was grateful for this time to visit the churches and companies of believers in England. She had hoped to do this on her visit the previous year, but unfavorable weather made it seem imprudent. Now plans were quickly made for a few days in London, where she could do some writing and some trading, and then to Southampton for three days. She went to the Isle of Wight to visit the family of a sea captain who had made considerable sacrifice in accepting the third angel's message.
The records yield but meager information as to just how Ellen White spent much of the month. She devoted some days to work on The Great Controversy chapters. In mid-July she was at Wellingsborough, near Kettering, for two meetings. Ten days later she was at Grimsby, a hundred miles north, where she was able to get some much-needed rest before starting on her trip across the Atlantic. On July 20 she wrote from Grimsby to Willie and Mary in London:
I am in good health, appetite good, strength good. We have the very best kind of living, and I am gaining my strength.--Letter 90, 1887.
This was cheering news, considering that for more than a month she had been traveling from place to place by train and boat, carrying through meeting after meeting in weakness and with an upset stomach, and with very little food to sustain life.
The Illness of Mary K. White
W. C. could not return to the United States with his mother, for he still needed to attend to some unfinished business, but plans were laid for Mary and the little girls to go without delay. Mary's health was failing. The growing symptoms of tuberculosis were frightening. For much of two years she had been working diligently in the new publishing house in Basel, a newly constructed stone building that was not well heated. She needed urgently to get to Battle Creek and under Dr. Kellogg's care. She and the girls would return with Ellen White, leaving Liverpool on August 4. Marian Davis remained in Basel to complete certain work.
As the sailing was to be on Sabbath, Ellen White and her companions were allowed to embark and get settled on Friday. Actually quite a group of Adventists would be taking the ship. Some were ministers, bound for the General Conference session to be held in November, and some were young people--D. T. Bourdeau and his son Augustin, O. A. Olsen and son, and a Professor Kunz. Sara McEnterfer most likely occupied the cabin with Ellen White and Mary and the children.
Across the Atlantic on the City of Rome
On board the steamer City of Rome Ellen White Sabbath morning wrote a few letters, one to Jenny Ings. She wanted to tell her that she wished she were on board with them en route to America, but she didn't, for she knew Mrs. Ings was still needed in Europe. This is what she did write:
All right this morning. Had a beautiful night. The water as smooth as a placid lake. Would not think we were on the boat if we did not hear the machinery and feel a little motion. I shall miss you much. I became attached to you and shall feel the loss of your society. The weeks spent together have been very pleasant indeed....--Letter 65, 1887.
The trip across the Atlantic took eight days and was reported as "pleasant and prosperous" (The Review and Herald, August 16, 1887). They encountered one storm, but Ellen White declared, "We had on the steamer a pleasant voyage."--Letter 50, 1887. She says little of how she occupied her time, but probably did a good bit of writing.
Thursday noon, August 11, the travelers landed in New York. The back-page Review and Herald note reported:
Mrs. E. G. White left immediately for New Bedford, Massachusetts, to attend the New England camp meeting now in session there, and Mrs. M. K. White came on to the [Battle Creek] Sanitarium, her health, we regret to say, being such as to render a stay awhile at that institution advisable.--August 16, 1887.
Before long, Ellen White wrote words of encouragement for the readers of the Review regarding the work in Europe. In her article published on December 6, after naming the countries where the work was advancing, she declared:
A good work has already been done in these countries. There are those who have received the truth, scattered as light bearers in almost every land....
Some connected with the work in these foreign fields, as in America, become disheartened, and, following the course of the unworthy spies, bring a discouraging report....
But we have no such report to bring. After a two years' stay in Europe, we see no more reason for discouragement in the state of the cause there than at its rise in the different fields in America. There we saw the Lord testing the material to be used.... The word has gone forth to Europe, "Go forward." ...The greater the difficulties to be overcome, the greater will be the victory gained.