The General Conference session of 1889 was held in Battle Creek from October 18 to November 11. Ellen White joyfully reported that the "spirit that was in the meeting at Minneapolis" was absent and "there seems to be no dissension."--Manuscript 10, 1889; Letter 76, 1889. Still it smoldered in the hearts of some, principally those who composed the hard core of dissenters in Battle Creek. This she was to continue to meet through much of 1890 and into 1891.
The five-thirty and the eight o'clock morning meetings of the session were given to devotions and Bible study. The rest of each day was crowded full with the regular business, which included the auxiliary meetings relating to the Sabbath school, publishing, medical missionary work, et cetera. These business matters stretched two days beyond the anticipated closing time.
Among the items considered was the means by which to reach the South Sea Islands with the Seventh-day Adventist message. Action was taken to buy or build a ship and have it ready for service early in 1890. This culminated in the Pitcairn, a one-hundred-foot schooner built at Benicia, California, at a cost of a little less than $12,000 and launched at high tide Monday night, July 28, 1890. It set sail from Oakland, Monday afternoon, October 20, on its first voyage, with supplies for two years' travel. In addition to officers and crew, it carried a missionary force of six, three men and their wives.
Nothing up to this time had done so much to stir Seventh-day Adventists with a missionary spirit as the building and sailing of the Pitcairn, which was to make six trips from American shores to the island fields before it was sold in 1900. By that time, commercial transportation met most of the needs.
Another action of special note was the adoption of a constitution for the National Religious Liberty Association, formed in Battle Creek on July 21, 1889. The pressure on Congress to adopt a national Sunday law brought the question of religious liberty prominently to the front. Both the Review and Herald and the Signs of the Times, through much of 1888 and 1889, carried articles in nearly every issue relating to the steps being taken and the perils of religious legislation.
Consolidation of Denominational Interests
Just at the close of the conference session a committee on the consolidation of Seventh-day Adventist institutions rendered its report. The committee's recommendations seemed prudent and wise, but they evinced a forgetfulness of counsels given fourteen years earlier, and they ushered in a situation concerning which Ellen White was to have much to say in the succeeding decade. The recommendations adopted in part read:
Your committee appointed to take into consideration the publishing interests of the denomination have carefully considered this subject; and in order to meet the increasing demand of our work, and to avoid all sectional feeling and personal interests which are now liable to arise from the present plan of conducting our business by having separate organizations, and also to unify the work and secure the more hearty cooperation of all, would respectfully recommend--
1. That steps be taken at once to form a corporation for the purpose of taking entire control of all our publishing interests, thus bringing the work under one general management.
2. That the officers of this association be a board of twenty-one trustees, to be elected by the General Conference, with power to organize themselves....
The objects of this new organization shall be: 1. To hold the title of all our denominational publishing houses and the equipments thereof.
2. To own, publish, and control the sale of all denominational books, tracts, and periodicals.
3. To secure, as far as possible, by purchase or otherwise, the plates and copyrights of all denominational books now published by our different publishing houses, or that may be written in the future.
4. To encourage the preparation of books, pamphlets, and tracts upon the different points of our faith.
5. To appoint editors and managers to take a general supervision of the work of the various offices.--The General Conference Bulletin, 1889, 149.
One paragraph indicated the haste that seemed desirable in this matter, and another showed the intent of moving into the consolidation of other lines of denominational work:
In order that no time may be lost, your committee would further recommend that a standing committee of twenty-one be elected by the General Conference at its present session to take this whole question into consideration, with power to act. We would also suggest that the very best legal advice be consulted in bringing this new organization into existence.
Your committee would further recommend that a similar organization be effected for the purpose of controlling all our educational interests, and owning the property--thus bringing them under one general management. Also, another to control our health institutions.--Ibid.
Overlooked were earlier counsels concerning the perils of consolidating publishing interests; the men conducting the work of the church apparently had forgotten or were uninformed concerning this bit of history. As far back as the middle 1870s, the Lord, through Ellen White, counseled against drawing publishing interests together under one management. Writing of this to O.A. Olsen in 1896, she stated that "twenty years ago" she had been shown that the publishing house on the Pacific Coast "was ever to remain independent of all other institutions; that it was to be controlled by no other institution." She went on to say:
Just prior to my husband's death [1881], the minds of some were agitated in regard to placing these institutions under one presiding power. Again the Holy Spirit brought to my mind what had been stated to me by the Lord. I told my husband to say in answer to this proposition that the Lord had not planned any such action.--Letter 81, 1896.
From time to time Ellen White was to address herself to the question of confederation and consolidation, elaborating in some detail the principles involved as she pointed out the perils that lurked in moves in this direction. Not alone in the interests of unity and finance were the guarding counsels given in the mid-1890s. This was stressed in the following words of admonition:
As the work increases, there will be a great and living interest to be managed by human instrumentalities. The work is not to be centered in any one place, not even in Battle Creek.
Human wisdom argues that it is more convenient to build up interests where they have already obtained character and influence. Mistakes have been made in this line. Individuality and personal responsibility are thus repressed and weakened. The work is the Lord's, and the strength and efficiency are not all to be centered in any one place.--Letter 71, 1894. (Italics supplied.)
Opening the Way for the Enemy to Control
Perhaps the most important point of peril, that of one-man control, was emphasized in counsel published in 1902:
At times it has been urged that the interests of the cause would be furthered by a consolidation of our publishing houses, bringing them virtually under one management. But this, the Lord has shown, should not be. It is not His plan to centralize power in the hands of a few persons or to bring one institution under the control of another....
When so great power is placed in the hands of a few persons, Satan will make determined efforts to pervert the judgment, to insinuate wrong principles of action, to bring in a wrong policy; in so doing he cannot only pervert one institution, but through this can gain control of others and give a wrong mold to the work in distant parts. Thus the influence for evil becomes widespread....
Should one institution adopt a wrong policy, let not another institution be corrupted. Let it stand true to the principles that were expressed in its establishment.--Testimonies for the Church, 7:171-173. (Italics supplied.)
Much of this was to appear in warnings as the steps toward consolidation were pursued. It may not have stood out so clearly to Ellen White in 1889 and in 1891, but as the plans for consolidating publishing interests developed, she had no encouragement even then to give for such steps.
Reading and Working in Battle Creek
At the time of the General Conference session of 1889, Ellen White was residing in Battle Creek. This was quite contrary to her anticipation when she left California in early October, 1888, to attend the session in Minneapolis. It will be recalled that in a letter written on the last day of the meeting she had indicated some uncertainty about the plans for the immediate future.
She soon discerned that she could not leave Battle Creek in the near future. She stayed at the Sanitarium for four months and then, sensing no early release, moved into a nearby home.
Whether it was this same house that she was living in in July is not known today, but her residence at that time has been identified as 303 West Main Street. It was described by one who was at that time a member of her office family as a long office building that extended to the street. Her room was the "front room on the second floor" (DF 107b, Edna K. Steele to A. L. White, August 11, 1946). This will give us some orientation for Ellen White's description of the home situation as she wrote to her daughter-in-law, Mary, in mid-July, 1889:
Sister Uriah Smith has just called on me for the first time. We had a good social visit. I was pleased to show her all through both houses, the working rooms above the office, six in number, and the new-made house proper where the cooking is done and the family meet. She thought everything was so healthy and convenient that there could not be such a place found even in the grand houses in Battle Creek....
Sara [McEnterfer] has just brought from the office [in the publishing house] my pictures which have hung there for years--more than eight years. One large one, of Christ blessing little children, has not been found.... Father gave it to me just before he died. Well, we shall get everything together before long and shall keep a place here where we can call it home.
Everyone who comes into my room any time of the day exclaims, "Why, how nice and cool you are here." I feel very thankful for this home here in Battle Creek, for I never expected so good a home....
Now is the golden opportunity for me to get out my books, and I shall try to make the most of it. We are within a few steps of the office. No delays to annoy us by copy passing through the mails. Here proof can be passed in without any delay of time.--Letter 72, 1889.
So with Battle Creek as her headquarters, she pressed on with her book preparation as she could. Yet she traveled out to conferences and general meetings and to the nearby churches. As 1890 dawned she was still residing in Battle Creek, deeply involved in her work. She was keeping "four workers busy on different kinds of books." She added, "This with my much letter writing seems to keep me employed from 3:00 A.M. till 7:00 P.M."--Letter 35, 1890.
Schools for Ministers
In late February and early March, 1890, she was drawn into a twenty-week-long ministerial institute. Professor W. W. Prescott of the college led out but the work was quite independent of the college. Dan T. Jones, secretary of the General Conference, in rendering a report just at its close in late March, 1890, explained:
For some time our leading brethren have felt that the time had come when something more must be done for the education of workers. The growth of the work, and the way it is reaching out to the different nations and languages, seemed to make this a necessity. Accordingly, at the meeting of the General Conference Committee, held last July, the matter was carefully considered, and it was decided to have a Bible school for ministers.... The Bible school was held in the east vestry of the Tabernacle.--The Review and Herald, April 1, 1890.
O. A. Olsen reported that about fifty were in the Bible school. A. T. Jones taught Bible and history the first two-month term; Uriah Smith and Dr. E. J. Waggoner conducted the Bible classes during the second three-month term. Waggoner also taught church history and Hebrew. Professor McKee gave instruction in civil government a portion of the time. W. A. Colcord, with some members of the Review editorial staff, taught English and rhetoric (Ibid.). The first hour of each day was devoted to the spiritual interests of the students. Dan Jones reported:
These meetings were of especial interest the last few weeks of the term. Elder Olsen took charge of them, and Sister White attended many of the meetings, and bore her testimony with much freedom and power.
The restraint which had existed on the part of some connected with the school was removed by explanations that were made, and a tender spirit came in. The subjects of faith and the love of God were largely dwelt upon, greatly to the encouragement of all present.--Ibid.
Early-Morning Devotionals Drew Large Attendance
These devotional meetings, held during the last month of the school by Olsen and Ellen White, drew in an ever-increasing attendance. Dan Jones reported:
As the news of the good meetings went out, many came in from the Battle Creek church, the office, the college, and the Sanitarium, till the east vestry of the Tabernacle, which will seat about three hundred, was filled to overflowing each morning. The interest was such that the meetings were often permitted to continue for two hours.
All were greatly benefited, and many who had been cold and formal in their work in the past received such an experience in the things of God as to give them new courage and hope for the future.--Ibid.
The letters Ellen White wrote during this month testify that the spirit of Minneapolis was from time to time exhibited in Battle Creek. She applied herself to meeting the situation among the ministers in the Bible school and some of those who came in for the devotional meetings. Sabbath morning, March 1, she spoke at the worship hour in the Tabernacle, her subject being "Christ's Riding Into Jerusalem." "It made a solemn impression," she reported in a letter to Willie. "In the afternoon I spoke about one hour, and I said just as straight things as God ever gave me to speak."--Letter 80, 1890. There was a heartening response. "From this time I went into the morning meetings," and thus began an intense effort, carried on from day to day (Ibid.). In her letter begun on Friday, March 7, she described some of the situations rather vividly:
Ellen White's Bold Testimony Bears Fruit
[Monday] morning [March 3], I saw, as I was making an illustration, very pointed, [Elder] Larson had on a broad grin. I said,"What is it, Brother Larson? Have I spoken anything that is improper?" I asked twice the reason of such demonstrations. He finally said it was because he appreciated the illustration.
"Very well," I said. "If it fits you, take it, and I hope all will do this."
Next morning he was not present. Wednesday, Thursday, he was present. The Lord gave me great clearness and power in speaking. What was my surprise to receive a letter from Larson in which he asks me to set him right before the people because of my sharp rebuke--that is, confess I had wronged him.
This matter sank my heart like lead. What to say to these men, how to treat their strong spirits, was a difficult problem to solve. I knew not what to do. I knew that the Lord urged me to give the testimony that I did.... There seems to be now many getting the blessing of faith and freedom.
I called Brother Olds's name and gave him a pointed testimony. He confessed Sabbath afternoon. This morning he talked very humble and broken. Brother Brighouse said he never was so blessed in his life as he has been within a few days.
Brother Warren reveals the blessing of God in his face, for he looks as if the Sun of Righteousness was beaming upon him. He bore a testimony. He never felt the blessing of God in this way before.
Brother Fero has humbled his heart and he says he is free in the Lord and wonderfully blessed.
Brother Watt talked again this morning and he says he is gaining a deep and rich experience in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He seems to be altogether a different man, and many whose names I do not know are coming into the light. Oh, I hope and pray that this work may move forward in great power. We must have the blessing of God, deep and rich and full.
Brother Olsen stands well, firm and free and boldly on the right side.
What course Dan Jones may take now and what course Porter and Larson will take, who have been so actively engaged in sowing their unbelief and prejudice, I cannot imagine. I hope they will be born again.--Ibid.
With the break she was now witnessing, she felt that she need no longer be restrained because of the reluctance of some to receive her message. "I am free," she wrote, "and I talk as the Spirit of God giveth me utterance, and the word spoken is thankfully received by the largest number." She continued:
These men that have held things now have no power. There is a strong current setting heavenward, and if we wait on the Lord we will surely see of His salvation.--Ibid., 4.
J. W. Watt, in a letter of confession, told of how he came "full of opposition to the meeting," but he accepted her testimony to him and was eager to confess to Waggoner and to the class at the first opportunity. "I am sure the Spirit of the Lord is at work. What the strong spirits will do," she wrote, "I cannot tell," and then added:
Larson called to see me a few minutes ago. I was altogether too busy to see him. What he wanted to say I know not, but I feel that they want to get me to say something they can make a handle of, and I want to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.--Ibid.
The Backbone of Rebellion Broken
Ellen White laid her unfinished letter aside, but picked it up again on Tuesday, March 11, and gave a description of the happenings of the intervening four days:
Dear children, my heart is filled with praise and thanksgiving to God. The Lord has poured upon us His blessing. The backbone of the rebellion is broken in those who came in from other places. This morning the room was full. We first had prayer, then Brother Olsen spoke. I followed in the same line I had been laboring since one week ago last Sabbath. The Lord puts words in my mouth to speak....
Elder Waggoner spoke very humbly. Brother Steward spoke with much feeling and in humility. Brother Fero spoke well. Brother Larson then spoke and confessed to me, confessed his feelings had not been right. I responded and he took his position on the testimonies.
Brother Porter was on his feet all broken up, so he could say nothing for a few moments, then he said [that] when I spoke to him personally before those assembled in the office chapel, he rose up against it, but he felt now it was just what he needed and he thanked the Lord for the reproof. He confessed to me his wrong that he had done to me and Elder Waggoner; [he] humbly asked us to forgive him.... Said he had been disbelieving the testimonies, but he said, "I believe them now. God has been speaking to us through Sister White this morning. I believe every word. I accept the testimonies from God. I take my stand upon them."--Ibid.
She mentioned the names of others and their reactions. The following quotation continues the picture of the moving situation:
Brother Dan Jones was present. He kept his head bowed upon the seat all the time. Did not lift it up once till the meeting closed.... Captain Eldridge was present. The whole room was sobbing and praising God, for there was the revealing of His power. He drew graciously near.
I hear nothing of Elder Smith, but we hope the gracious influence of the spirit of God may rest upon him, and he will find his way out of the darkness. But we feel full of hope and courage that these men, strong and high-headed, have begun to feel that they are working against the Spirit of God....
Brother Prescott talked well, and plainly told them God had spoken to us this morning through Sister White. "Let us," he said,"take heed to these words." He wept like a baby when Brother Larson and Porter were on their feet talking. Brother Olsen is so glad and relieved. He scarcely knows what to do with himself. Brother Waggoner feels so thankful.--Ibid.
The Spirit of Prophecy the Real Issue
The next day Ellen White, seeing clearly that they were in a time when decisions were being made, "called a meeting," as she said, "of the prominent ones, Elders U. Smith, Leon Smith, Olsen, Fero, Watt, Prescott, Waggoner, McCoy, Larson, Porter, Colcord, Ballenger, Webber, Dan Jones, Wakeham, G. Amadon, Eldridge, Breed, and Prof. Miller" (Letter 83, 1890). By this time it was clear that the real issue was the reliability of the testimonies and the basis of her writing. On Monday, March 10, she had responded to a letter of inquiry from Elder Colcord in which she made a soul-revealing statement about her call and work:
Your question I will answer as best I can. I take no credit of ability in myself to write the articles in the paper or to write the books which I publish. Certainly I could not originate them. I have been receiving light for the last forty-five years and I have been communicating the light given me of heaven to our people as well as to all whom I could reach. I am seeking to do the will of my heavenly Father.
I have never passed through such a scene of conflict, such determined resistance to the truth--the light that God has been pleased to give me--as since the Minneapolis meeting.
I have again and again felt that I must make a decided move out of this determined opposing element, but every time the Lord has made known to me [that] I must stand at my post of duty and [that] He would stand by me.
This has been the hardest long and persistent resistance I have ever had. There is now a settled purpose with me to write my experience in full as soon as I can get the time to do so, that these events shall be recorded as they have occurred. [Ellen White's determination to write out fully the story of just what happened is reflected in the lengthy letters to W. C. White and to mary, which she anticipated would form the basis of the documentation of the history that was transpiring.] Thank God that victory has come.--Letter 60, 1890. (Italics supplied.)
A Statement Clarifying Issues
Now at this Wednesday morning meeting she asked E. J. Waggoner to make a statement reviewing certain facts, which she hoped would offer some explanations that would help the brethren. After that, the floor was opened for questions. Reporting the meeting, she explained in a letter to Willie and Mary:
It was finally simmered down to this--that [in 1888] a letter had come to [Battle Creek] from California to Brother Butler, telling them [the brethren in Battle Creek] that plans were all made to drive the law in Galatians. This was met and explained, that there were no plans laid. You can see how these explanations must have looked to those present.--Letter 83, 1890.
The questions referred to an incident that took place in California prior to the institute in Minneapolis. This was recounted by A. T. Jones some years later:
Some time before starting to that institute, C. H. Jones, general manager of the Pacific Press, W. C. White, and some others asked Brother Waggoner and me to go with them for a few days' outing and ...study together the Scriptures on these "heretical" questions that were certain to come up.... Wind of this little innocent thing wafted to the brethren in Battle Creek as further confirmation of their settled view that Brother Waggoner and I in furtherance of our scheme to revolutionize the doctrine of the denomination were working other brethren into our scheme so as to come to the institute and General Conference at Minneapolis so strongly fortified as to carry our scheme. We did not know till after the institute and conference were all over that the General Conference men in Battle Creek held these things concerning us.... And so in all innocence we came to the meeting expecting just nothing but plain Bible study to know the truth.--DF 53, A. T. Jones to C. E. Holmes, May 12, 1921.
On the next Sunday, March 16, Ellen White carried the account of the Wednesday meeting further:
I have learned that the meeting we held last Wednesday was very much a success. I think those who have made so much out of so very little were much surprised at the outcome or showing up of the matter by E. J. Waggoner and myself.--Letter 83, 1890.
Ellen White then wrote of a meeting Sabbath afternoon in the publishing house chapel, called by Olsen. She told of it:
I spoke three times--very short twice, once a little longer. Elder Olsen talked well. He has been giving excellent talks. They are right to the point.... Brother Eldridge spoke of the meeting held a few days before, to investigate some things, as being excellent. He said that it was thought they had something to fight, but it was only a man of straw. He was relieved, for he was happily disappointed. Larson spoke well. Brother Porter spoke, but not as clearly and to the point as we might have expected. Oh, how hard for these men to die!
Brother Dan Jones then spoke. He stated that he had been tempted to give up the testimonies; but if he did this, he knew he should yield everything, for we had regarded the testimonies as interwoven with the third angel's message; and he spoke of the terrible scene of temptations. I really pitied the man.--Ibid.
What is the Evidence?
At this meeting Ellen White challenged the men to look at the evidence that had been before them all down through the years as to the integrity of her work, and particularly since the Minneapolis meeting. She referred to the test Christ had given, "By their fruits ye shall know them," and urged that candid consideration be given to the evidence. She declared:
I am convinced that Satan saw that there was very much at stake here, and he did not want to lose his hold on our ministering brethren. And if the full victory comes, there will go forth from this meeting many ministers with an experience of the highest value.--Ibid.
A second meeting of inquiry was held on the next Wednesday morning, with A. T. Jones present. He had not been with them the week before. Of this meeting she wrote:
Brother Jones talked very plainly, yet tenderly in regard to their crediting hearsay and not, in brotherly love, taking the matter to the one talked about and asking him if the report were true.
Willie, I talked as they had never heard me talk before.... The whole atmosphere has changed. There is now joy with Brother Dan Jones that I held to the point. He says he has made a fool of himself. Brother Eldridge says he feels subdued, like a whipped man, that all this maneuvering has been going on to meet obstacles that never had an existence....
Brother Dan Jones says it would have been lamentable [for the men] to leave Battle Creek without these two special meetings and the definite explanations made. He is a changed man. The Lord is at work. How Brother Smith will come out remains to be seen.--Letter 84, 1890. (Italics supplied.)
When asked why the meetings at which explanations were given were not held earlier, Ellen White replied:
The state of their impressions and feelings was of such a character that we could not reach them, for they had ears, but they were dull of hearing; hearts had they, but they were hard and unimpressible.--Ibid.
A few days before the Bible school closed, Ellen White left to spend a weekend in Chicago. From there she went to Colorado, where Mary was now in rapidly failing health, then on to California to spend much of April and May. Following a camp meeting at Fresno, she divided her time between Oakland and St. Helena.
Leaving California in early June, she stopped again in Colorado en route to Battle Creek. It was clear Mary would not live long. Tuberculosis had done its devastating work. Willie was with her. On Wednesday, June 18, Mary's life came to a close. She was 33 years of age and left a grieving husband three years her senior, and two daughters, 8 and 3 years of age. Her life had been a fruitful one, not only as a wife and mother but as a writer, editor, and publishing house worker. The funeral was held in the Battle Creek Tabernacle on Wednesday, June 25, and she was laid to rest in the White family plot in the Oak Hill Cemetery.
Ellen White was exhausted and needed a period of relaxation. This she sought in mid-July in Petoskey, some two hundred miles to the north on Lake Michigan, a popular summer resort area. Several Adventist families resided there or were there for the summer.
Soon she was planning for a few camp meetings and then a swing through the East and South, laboring in the newly organized Atlantic Conference and taking in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. The tour would also include work in Virginia and an appointment at Salamanca, New York, on the New York-Pennsylvania border. Ellen White's two-month stay in Petoskey extended to mid-September, and then she was back in Battle Creek for a month before starting on the three-month tour through the East and South.