With camp meeting over and school not in session, Ellen White and her assistants found a home in the buildings of the Bible school in Melbourne. It was temporary, as she wrote:
I take up my abode in the school building for eight weeks. It may be less than that before we leave for New South Wales, where I hope to find a pleasant, retired place in which to complete the "Life of Christ." ...
We are now in the school, occupying five rooms. Our family consists of Emily [Campbell] and May [Walling], Marian [Davis], Sister Tuxford from New Zealand, and myself.--Manuscript 4, 1894.
She was weary from labors in connection with the camp meeting and divided her time between visiting the companies where there were new believers, and resting and writing. In mid-February she wrote, "We are usually well, hurrying off the American mail, but my mind has been so taxed recently for three weeks [that] it is a poor, tired mind, and I cannot tax it much more. After this mail is gone, I shall take things easier."--Letter 141, 1894.
The Anna Phillips Experience
One of Ellen White's concerns at this time was the mishandling on the part of some leading brethren in America of Anna Phillips and her claims to special revelations from God.
Miss Anna Phillips--sometimes spoken of as Anna Rice, for she had been taken into the Rice family--felt she had been called by God to serve as a special messenger to the church, inspired by heavenly visions.
Ellen White first learned of this while in New Zealand in October, 1893. Anna resided with Elder and Mrs. J. D. Rice, workers in northern California, and was at times in Battle Creek.
When both Rice and his wife attributed unusual importance to Anna's dreams and impressions, she came to believe that what came to her mind were the intimations of the Spirit of God, that is, that visions were given to her and that she had the gift of prophecy.
She wrote "testimonies," first to the Rices and then to other husbands and wives, touching on their personal experiences. These were earnest appeals for purity of life, with teachings that went beyond the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. Messages were directed to the leaders of the church aimed at giving guidance in administering the work.
Correspondence from America called the matter to Ellen White's attention. On November 1 she wrote to Elder and Mrs. Rice that she had not felt called upon earlier to encourage or condemn so long as she "had no special light in reference to this case."
She continued: I now feel constrained to write. Matters have been presented before me which I will now mention.... Elder Rice and some others were encouraging this sister to her injury that she had been ordained of God to do a certain work.... I will say the Lord has not given you this work to do to impress minds that this is a work which they must receive as from God. You have no duty to present it to the people in this light.
My guide said to you, "Look unto Jesus; receive your light from Jesus; talk of the light He has already given." ...
It is not the burden the Lord has given you to explain and interpret the words, the works, the writings of Sister Phillips. If you do this, you will mislead the people....
The Lord has not laid upon her the work of accusing, of judging, of reproving, of condemning and flattering others.... I will say no more at present on this subject, only this: there will be, I have been shown, many who will claim to be especially taught of God, and will attempt to lead others, and they will undertake a work from mistaken ideas of duty that God has never laid upon them; and confusion will be the result.--Letter 54, 1893.
Almost two months went by before Ellen White addressed herself again to the matter of Anna Phillips. On her journey back from New Zealand she had a few days in Sydney. There, on December 23, she wrote a general warning in the form of a ten-page letter addressed to "Dear Brethren and Sisters." It opens:
I have a message to you from the Lord. Brother Rice is not engaged in the work which the Lord would have him do....He cannot see the outcome of this work which he has taken up. Anna Phillips is being injured; she is led on, encouraged in a work which will not bear the test of God.
Ellen White then declared:
I have received from God the warning which I now send you. Anna Phillips should not have been given the encouragement she has had. It has been a great injury to her--fastened her in a deception. I am sorry that any of our brethren and sisters are ready to take up with these supposed revelations, and imagine they see in them the divine credentials.--Letter 4, 1893.
Mail each way across the Pacific took a full month, and mail boats ran about once a month. The lack of other data makes it difficult to pinpoint the time of reception and the dispersal of the messages sent. There is evidence that some letters, having missed the boat, were delayed in Australia for several weeks. Ellen G. White letters on file that pertain to this matter carry dates of November 1 and December 23, 1893; and for 1894, January 15, March 15, April 10, April 16, and June 1. Limited space precludes presenting her counsel in detail, but an extensive presentation appears in Selected Messages 2:85-95, in chapter 10, "The Visions of Anna Phillips."
In the nine-page letter of January 14, written in Melbourne to A. T. Jones, Ellen White discussed several matters. On page 5 she reported that word had reached her that Jones was giving encouragement to Anna Phillips, and even reading some of her messages in public in such a way that people found it hard to discern when he was reading from her writings and when he was reading from Ellen White's pen. She urged, "I want you to consider this carefully, for the Lord has given me light to the effect that the attention of the people is not to be called to Anna Phillips."--Letter 37, 1894.
In the first paragraph of her ten-page letter to Jones written March 15, 1894, she dealt quite fully with the situation. She declared:
I have a message for you. Did you suppose that God had commissioned you to take the burden of presenting the visions of Anna Phillips, reading them in public, and uniting them with the testimonies the Lord has been pleased to give me? No, the Lord has not laid upon you this burden. He has not given you this work to do.... Do not belittle the work by mingling with it productions that you have no positive evidence are from the Lord of life and glory.
She pointed out that God had not called Anna Phillips to follow on after the testimonies. She wrote:
Many things in these visions and dreams seem to be all straight, a repetition of that which has been in the field for many years; but soon they introduce a jot here, a tittle of error there, just a little seed which takes root and flourishes, and many are defiled therewith.--Letter 103, 1894 (see also Selected Messages 2:85-87).
W. M. Adams, who was a student of Battle Creek College in 1894, has recounted his experience. He heard Elder Jones preaching in the Battle Creek Tabernacle. He intermingled some of the messages of Anna Phillips with those he read from the testimonies, and asked the congregation whether they did not hear the same voice in each. The people were left in confusion.
The next morning Adams was at the post office in the Review and Herald building, writing a postcard home. Jones came in and asked for his mail. He was handed a long envelope with Ellen White's name in the return address. He dropped on the bench, tore the envelope open, and began to read. Adams reports that as Jones read, tears came to his eyes and dropped on the sheets.
Soon A. O. Tait came in, and Jones addressed him: "Oscar, come here. Sit down. You heard me preach that sermon yesterday?"
"Yes," replied Elder Tait.
"Well, read this," Jones said, as he handed him the testimony he had just received from Ellen White. After Tait had had time to read, Elder Jones asked, "Who told Sister White a month ago that I was going to preach that sermon about Anna Phillips as a prophetess?"
"Ah, you know, Alonzo," Tait answered in his calm yet firm way.
"Yes, I do know. God knew what I was going to do, and He impressed Sister White a month before I preached the sermon to send the testimony that I am wrong. Look at that date."
It was a thoughtful week for the brusque and ever-ready A. T. Jones. Adams reported that the next Sabbath he again preached in the tabernacle and that he read portions of the testimony he received Sunday morning. He said, "I am wrong, and I confess it. Now I am right."--The Review and Herald, July 7, 1949.
Elder W. W. Prescott also became a supporter of Anna Phillips, but a few hours before he was to address the students at Walla Walla College, intending to introduce some of her messages, he was handed a copy of a letter from Sister White dealing with the matter. It was the first to come to his attention, and he dropped his plans. S. N. Haskell, president of the California Conference, happened to be at Walla Walla at the time. He exclaimed as he wrote of the incident to Ellen White: "I have heard about testimonies coming just in season, but I never experienced such providence before."--S. N. Haskell to EGW, March 31, 1894.
Ellen White was very careful in her approach to both Miss Phillips and the two prominent ministers who gave her support. "Sister Phillips is not to be condemned and denounced" (Letter 4, 1893), she counseled, pointing out that others close to her were largely responsible by giving her encouragement. Ellen White was concerned for Jones and Prescott, fearing that people would take advantage of the fact that they had been misled. She found it hard to understand why neither of these men, along with Rice, had communicated with her before supporting Anna Phillips. Of this she wrote:
I have expected that some account of these matters would be sent to me, and that counsel would be asked, and thus the way would be opened for me to let the light from my past experience shine forth. But nothing has come to me, and now I have my commission to speak concerning these things. I am so sorry that brethren in whom our people have confidence should appear in any way to endorse these things that claim to be from God, when no real ground for faith has been given. It is a terrible mistake to present before the people that which we have not had unmistakable evidence is the revelation of God.--Ibid.
As warnings became known to leaders in America, acknowledgments of being mistaken were made, and tensions over the Anna Phillips work and writings subsided. On June 1, 1894, Ellen White wrote:
I have been much interested to understand more fully the true condition of Anna Phillips. I feel sorry for her. I feel sorry that our brethren have done her so great an injury as they have, by encouraging her in the work she has been doing. I feel sorry that Brother Rice has not followed the counsel of God. I have nothing but tender feelings toward her.
I am indeed sorry both for Brother Prescott and Brother Jones. I have felt very anxious in regard to them both, but especially in regard to Brother Jones, who is so ardent in his faith and does not manifest the caution he should in his statements by pen or voice. I did pray that these dear brethren would be so completely hid in Christ Jesus that they would not make one misstep.
Heartfelt confession having been made, she could say:
I have more confidence in them today than I have had in the past, and fully believe that God will be their helper, their comfort, and their hope. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth those who love and fear Him.
She wrote assuringly, and sounded a warning to those who would be critical:
I have the most tender feelings toward our brethren who have made this mistake, and I would say that those who depreciate the ones who have accepted reproof will be permitted to pass through trials which will make manifest their own individual weakness and defects of character.
Brethren Jones and Prescott are the Lord's chosen messengers, beloved of God. They have cooperated with God in the work for this time. While I cannot endorse their mistakes, I am in sympathy and union with them in their general work. The Lord sees that they need to walk in meekness and lowliness of mind before Him, and to learn lessons which will make them more careful in every word they utter and in every step they take.
These brethren are God's ambassadors. They have been quick to catch the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and have responded by imparting the heavenly light to others.--Letter 27, 1894.
A prominent worker in Battle Creek made this observation on the effectiveness of Ellen White's messages of warning:
It was your testimony to Elder A. T. Jones which saved us from this terrible calamity. Nothing else could have accomplished that end. I tremble when I think how near the whole denomination came to being sold out bodily to the devil.--W. H. Littlejohn to EGW, March 25, 1894.
When the word from Ellen White concerning her work came to Anna Phillips' attention, she heartily accepted the message and repudiated her claims. She became a trusted Bible instructor, and died after years of faithful service.
In contrast to the way Anna Phillips "bore testimony" to several families regarding intimate matters, Ellen White presented her teaching on moral purity, teachings that linked poor mortals with "the riches of heaven's blessings."
The purity, the holiness of the life of Jesus, as presented from the Word of God, possess more power to reform and transform the character than do all the efforts put forth in picturing the sins and crimes of men and the sure results. One steadfast look to the Saviour uplifted upon the cross will do more to purify the mind and heart from every defilement than will all the scientific explanations by the ablest tongue.--Letter 102, 1894.
This is my teaching of moral purity. The opening of the blackness of impurity will not be one half as efficacious in uprooting sin as will the presentation of these grand and ennobling themes.
The Lord has not given to women a message to assail men, and charge them with their impurity and incontinence. They create sensuality in place of uprooting it. The Bible, and the Bible alone, has given the true lessons upon purity.--Ibid.
A decade later Ellen White sounded the following warning:
There will be those who will claim to have visions. When God gives you clear evidence that the vision is from Him, you may accept it, but do not accept it on any other evidence, for people are going to be led more and more astray in foreign countries and in America.--The Review and Herald, May 25, 1905 (Selected Messages 2:72).
The New Experience of James Edson White
Responding to his mother's appeal in which she recounted his perils shown to her as one endangered by the undertow, Edson White enjoyed a thorough reconversion and desired again to enter the service of the Lord. She understood well the attacks the enemy would attempt to make to regain his lost prey. She wrote him often.
Edson's heart had been stirred as he read in Battle Creek his mother's appeal for something to be done among the neglected blacks in the Southern States. His exuberant letters told of his plans to build a missionary boat and sail it down the Mississippi River as a base for work among the blacks. Knowing Edson's proclivity for adventure and his weakness in handling business matters, Ellen White entertained misgivings. She wished he and his wife, Emma, could be with her in Australia. She wrote on May 2:
In regard to the boat, I can only say, "The will of the Lord be done." If this is the Lord's plan, I have not a sign of an objection to it; but I feel deeply over the fact that you are not with us in the work. I am more disappointed than I can express.... I have not been able to get over this disappointment without tears.--Letter 79, 1894.
She followed with deep interest and many prayers the building, launching, and sailing of the Morning Star and its evangelistic and educational thrust along the rivers flowing through the Southern part of the United States.
The Month-by-Month American Mails
On April 9, she wrote of preparing the American mail while the house was full of visitors. "Elder Starr had to do most of the entertaining," she wrote, "for my letters must be prepared for the American mail."--Manuscript 23, 1894. And on April 16, the day the mail closed, as she finished her letter to A. T. Jones, she, in weariness declared: "I can write no more. This mail carries out more than one hundred pages."--Letter 68, 1894.
The May American mail carried 150 pages, some addressed to the president of the General Conference.
In many cases the communications ran from four or five pages of double-spaced typewritten material to ten or twelve, and the few lines quoted in this volume, although selected as epitomizing the thrust of a respective message, represent but very brief samples of the many, many messages painstakingly penned.
Exposing Errors and Weaknesses of God's Workmen
In early June as Ellen White was beginning to write for the American mail a member of her family said to her, "Have you read Elder Littlejohn's articles contained in the two issues of the last papers we have received?"
She had not, but she did. They carried the title "Danger in Adopting Extreme Views," and portrayed some of the weaknesses and mistakes of the apostles, the Reformers, and the pioneers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Ellen White, either by vision or experience or both, was so closely linked with these noble and fearless men who had been in God's service that to touch them pierced her heart.
She recounted her experience:
That night, in agony of distress both of soul and body, I groaned in spirit; I feared I should not live. I have had some experience of what is meant when it was recorded of Christ that "being in ... agony he prayed." Certainly I was helpless. Not one I knew could give me a word to bring relief.
All the next day my feelings were so intense that I could not write; all the next day I could not do anything. Certainly in my case these articles did not lift up the hands that hang down, or strengthen the feeble knees. The second night was one of sorrow and unspeakable grief. I felt crushed as a cart beneath the sheaves.
I prayed at half-past twelve o'clock at night, "O God, bring not Thine heritage unto reproach. Suffer not the world who hate Thy law to reproach God by reproaching His people who are seeking to present His truth to the world." ...
I could take in the situation, I knew what would be the sure results, for I have had the movements of the world presented before me, and was aware of the advantage that men would take of unwise statements. All these things forced themselves upon my mind as I considered the points presented in the articles to which I have referred.--Manuscript 27, 1894.
She wrote to Littlejohn on June 3:
Elder Littlejohn, you have undertaken to point out the defects of Reformers and pioneers in the cause of God. No one should trace the lines which you have done. You have made public the errors and defects of the people of God, and in so doing have dishonored God and Jesus Christ. I would not for my right arm have given to the world that which you have written. You have not been conscious of what would be the influence of your work....
The Lord did not call upon you to present these things to the public as a correct history of our people. Your work will make it necessary for us to put forth labor to show why these brethren took the extreme position that they did, and call up the circumstances that vindicate those upon whom your articles have laid suspicion and reproach.--Letter 48, 1894.
Let No One Call Attention to their Errors
There are twelve pages in the letter to Littlejohn. In words that may well be pondered, the messenger of the Lord wrote:
You were not in the early experience of the people of whom
you have written, and who have been laid to rest from their labors. You have given but a partial view, for you have not presented the fact that the power of God worked in connection with their labors, even though they made some mistakes.
You have made prominent before the world the errors of the brethren, but have not represented the fact that God worked to correct those errors, and to set the objectionable matters right. You have arrayed the errors of the early apostles, the errors of those who were precious in the eyes of the Lord in the days of Christ.
In presenting the extreme positions that have been taken by the messengers of God, do you think that confidence will be inspired in the work of God for this time? Let God by inspiration trace the errors of His people for their instruction and admonition, but let not finite lips or pens dwell upon those features of the experience of God's people that will have a tendency to confuse and cloud the mind. Let no one call attention to the errors of those whose general work has been accepted of God.--Ibid.
Before closing the solemn testimony, Ellen White penned these thought-provoking words:
God will charge those who unwisely expose the mistakes of their brethren with sin of far greater magnitude than He will charge the one who makes a misstep. Criticism and condemnation of the brethren are counted as criticism and condemnation of Christ.--Ibid.
In a seventeen-page general letter addressed to "Dear Brethren in the Seventh-day Adventist Faith," she declared, "I have been acquainted with everything that has arisen in connection with the work that has borne the appearance of fanaticism." When the Reformers and pioneers saw their mistakes, they "opened their minds and hearts to receive the light that was sent of God, and He forgave the mistakes they made, and through His great mercy cast their mistakes and errors into the depths of the sea." She asked, "Now since God has thus covered their errors, who will presume to uncover them, and to present them to the world?"--Manuscript 27, 1894.
Some argue that in the Word of God the sins and mistakes of various Bible characters are presented to all who may read, and does this not provide a pattern for today? The question finds its answer in a paragraph in the same letter, written four days after the testimony was penned to Littlejohn:
From the light which God has been pleased to give me, the work of calling up the mistakes and errors of sleeping saints, and resurrecting the errors which they have committed (except under the special direction of God), is not a work that God can accept.--Ibid.
After presenting the experience brought to view in the Littlejohn articles, Ellen White presented the episode of Joshua and the angel as set forth in Zechariah 3, [Note: She had presented this subject earlier in Testimonies for the Church, 5:467-476. Again, a decade later, she gave a chapter to it in Prophets and Kings, 582-592.] quoting extensively.
An Encouraging Experience
To be the messenger of the Lord was no light matter. The work was in no sense routine, and often it bore so heavily on Ellen White that she despaired for her life. Her dedication to the work of God, her love for it, and her love for the workmen in proclaiming the message drew her into heavy involvement when situations were opened up to her in their true light. She wrote:
When in great burden of soul for the people of God, seeing how many who profess to serve Him are dishonoring His name, seeing the end so near and a great work to be accomplished, I have wept in anguish of spirit; I was sore oppressed; I could not sleep, I could not find peace because of the peril of the Lord's people, especially at the great center of the work. I prayed in great agony of spirit.
Then I lost myself in sleep, and was in a council in America; I was unburdening my soul to my brethren and sisters.--Ibid.
In recounting the experience, she told of a surprising development. While she was speaking she heard a voice behind her. She looked, and exclaimed, "It is Jesus, my Saviour." Jesus repeated words that He told her to read in the fifty-fourth chapter of Isaiah: "Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit."
Jesus said reassuringly, "Lay your burden upon Me; I will be your Burden-bearer."--Ibid.
"Well," wrote W. C. White, "from that time there was a complete change, and she has been gaining."--4 WCW, p. 463. There was a very noticeable turnaround on her part in spirits and health. He told of her resuming her ministry in the nearby churches, and declared:
Her labors here seem to lift her up and give her strength and courage. It is the letters from America, and the views she has of some things there, that seem to wear on her mind and pull her down.-- Ibid.
And Ellen White could at that time report:
I am now much better healthwise than during my first year in Australia. I can walk better, and am improving in activity.... I am so thankful to my heavenly Father for His great goodness and lovingkindness to me.--Letter 13a, 1894.
But in another month, and another month, and another month, there would be "the American mail." In late July she wrote:
The preparation of mail to send to America, and the reception of mail from America, are stirring times in our history, and if we are not very careful, both the going out of the mail and the coming of the mail has a telling influence upon me that is not the most favorable.--Letter 85, 1894.