In February, 1894, while in Melbourne Ellen White wrote:
I am tired, tired all the time, and must ere long get a restful place in the country. I want not a home where all is bustle in city life. I want this year to write and to exercise prudently out of doors in the open air.--Letter 140, 1894.
I am getting to be very tired of moving. It worries me out, settling and unsettling, gathering manuscripts and scattering them, to be gathered up again.--Letter 102, 1894.
During the two years or so it was expected she would be in Australia, Ellen White had planned to spend some months in Melbourne and also some months in New South Wales, in the vicinity of Sydney. With the next term of the Australasian Bible School scheduled to open on April 4, the time had come when she must close up her work in Melbourne to free for student use the rooms she and her helpers were occupying. Also, the climate of New South Wales, being farther north, gave promise of being more comfortable than that of Melbourne. So in March a house was rented for her in Granville, a Sydney suburb.
Ellen White made the overnight train trip, leaving on Monday, March 26. She was accompanied by six associates and helpers, Marian Davis, May Walling, Mrs. Tuxford, Elder and Mrs. Starr, and a Mr. Simpson from New Zealand. Stephen Belden and his wife and Fannie Bolton had gone on ahead by boat two weeks earlier, accompanying a portion of the household goods along with Ellen White's and the Beldens' horses and the carriages. Emily Campbell was left in Melbourne for a month to rest and catch up on the bookkeeping.
By early afternoon the next day they were surveying the Granville home and its surroundings. The building was large enough, with crowding, for her and her son, Elder and Mrs. Starr, and several of her helpers. Half an hour after their arrival she took her pen to hasten off a letter to Willie, reporting on the trip, describing the unpacked boxes of household goods scattered in different rooms, and announcing that Maude Camp, who was to do the cooking, had just arrived the night before. She added that the house was "better than I had imagined it would be" (Letter 145, 1894).
As do many houses in Australia, it carried a name: Per Ardua. It was of brick and had ten rooms, some oddly shaped. It stood on a three-acre plot with an orchard, a place for a vegetable garden, and a grassy paddock, with some shade from gum trees. There were also shade trees in the front. In her letter Ellen White commented favorably on the fireplaces, the broad porches, and the flower garden; she was pleased with the home generally. The air, she wrote, seemed to give her more freedom in breathing than Melbourne, and she courageously declared: "We all mean to be very cheerful and happy and of good courage in the Lord." She added, "It is just now a struggle for me, but I shall look to the light and not darkness."
Getting Settled In Granville
With so large a home only six minutes from the railway and two miles from Parramatta, it was inevitable that there would be many visitors. Soon after their arrival, in reporting on a brief trip into the country to buy apples, Ellen White wrote:
When we returned we found a temporary table made of stable door and boards extending out nearly the whole length of the dining room and three of our brethren sitting at the table in addition to our family, and Brother McCullagh made four.
She commented, "We enjoyed the meal as much as if the table was the best walnut pattern." In the next paragraph she explains how they adjusted to their circumstances:
We find there are many ways we can spend money and many ways we can save money. We have a skeleton wardrobe of two upright standards, and cross pieces nailed to these, and a shelf put on the top. A very simple cheap lace over blue or red cheap cambric is fastened to the top and back of the shelf. This back is neatly arranged, lifted up and fastened securely to the posts of the head of the bedstead.
Hooks were put in the crossbars, and an adjustable screen hid the washstand. All in all, a nice little dressing room emerged. "I am much pleased with this arrangement," she wrote, and added, "It costs so little. This was the arrangement in our tents at the camp meeting, and it proved such a convenient affair we do not dispense with it in our houses, which are usually destitute of clothespresses."--Letter 128, 1894. Supplementing their homemade improvisions were inexpensive articles of furniture purchased at auction sales.
Helping in a material way in the food line was the milk from a good cow they purchased soon after their arrival. They planned to secure a second one so they could have "plenty of cream and milk to cook with" (Letter 46, 1894). At the Brighton camp meeting Ellen White had taken a positive stand for a meatless diet. No meat was served in the dining tent at the camp meetings and none was used while they were living in the school buildings, although some roosters in the fowl yard and a calf in the pasture presented some temptations. "Some might have enjoyed it," she wrote to Dr. Kellogg, "but I said positively, 'No.'" No meat appeared on the table at Granville.
I cannot consent to have flesh meats on my table. If I taste it myself, my testimony against it has no real edge. Some may have thought I was straining the point.--Ibid.
In Personal And Public Labor
Instead of finding a quiet place where she could write on the life of Christ, Ellen White almost immediately found herself drawn into both personal and public labor as evangelistic meetings in the Sydney suburbs yielded new members, and new companies and churches were formed. The Bible Echo reported:
Mrs. E. G. White, notwithstanding her arduous labors by pen, has entered upon public labor also, speaking to the churches and outside congregations with her well-known energy and earnestness.--April 23, 1894.
In working with these groups she came close to the people and soon discerned their needs. "We see now," she wrote Olsen, "that we must enter into personal labor, and visit from house to house, for great reforms must be made in families before we advance any further."--Letter 62, 1894.
As the results of the united labors of the several workers at Seven Hills, twenty-five accepted the Seventh-day Adventist message. A. S. Hickox held services not only Sabbaths and Sundays but also evenings, and then engaged in personal labor from house to house. By mid-May Ellen White had spoken four Sundays and one Sabbath. George Starr also labored there. "We rejoice," she wrote, "as we have seen family after family embracing the truth."--Letter 50b, 1894.
Helping Destitute Families
Not infrequently, as a family took its stand for the Sabbath the wage earner lost his job. Being depression times in Australia, it was almost impossible to find other regular employment.
"Now is a critical time," Ellen White observed.
You cannot know how we carry the heavy burden as we see these souls tested, thrown out of employment, unable to obtain labor unless they will give up the Sabbath. We must comfort and encourage them; we must help them as they shall be brought into strait places. There are many souls as precious as gold, and every sinner saved causes rejoicing in the heavenly courts.--Letter 30a, 1894.
Several families who were keeping the Sabbath lost their farms. As financial conditions worsened, their mortgaged farms were sold out from under them. Iram James was one who had thus lost his farm (Letter 146, 1894). She noted:
They are destitute of food and clothing. He keeps up good courage in the Lord.... Brother James, I understand, has four children, and some days has had nothing to eat but wild berries. But we have sent them flour, beans, peas, cornstarch, cabbages, turnips, and potatoes, enough to last them a little time. Perhaps help will come.--Letter 147, 1894.
The McKenzie family lost everything--farm, home, and furniture. The husband was a real-estate agent and a bookkeeper, earning good wages, but on the acceptance of the Sabbath he lost his position. The failure of the banks climaxed the situation. The man who bought the furniture at auction offered to sell back what pieces McKenzie's friends might help with. The Parramatta church raised what they could for him, and £10 was sent from Melbourne to help. The family was without food for three days, except a little dry bread (Letter 24, 1894). Food was sent from the White home--peas, tapioca, flour (graham and white)--and £1 in money. Mr. McKenzie attempted to sell books, but without success. Ellen White reported that when supplies were taken to the family, she "found Sister McKenzie full of courage and faith" (Letter 50, 1894).
A number of families went through similar experiences, and Ellen White came to their aid in very substantial ways as her means would permit.
Mr. Radley Makes His Decision
While many families suffered severely during the financial panic, not all were in the same circumstances. In early May, Ellen White, with another worker or two, visited the Radley family living near Castle Hill. They were just taking their stand for the message. The Radleys owned a large, well-established orchard of orange, lemon, and other fruit trees. At the time of the visit the wife was keeping the Sabbath, and from all appearances the husband and children would soon follow. But Ellen White was told that Mr. Radley, not fully having taken his stand, slipped back. As she recounted the experience at the General Conference session in 1901, she described him as a reading man. "In the night season," she said, "the angel of the Lord seemed to stand by me, saying, 'Go to Brother Radley, place your books before him, and this will save his soul.'"
I visited with him, taking with me a few of my large books. I talked with him just as though he were with us. I talked of his responsibilities. I said, "You have great responsibilities, my brother. Here are your neighbors all around you. You are accountable for every one of them. You have a knowledge of the truth, and if you love the truth, and stand in your integrity, you will win souls for Christ."
He looked at me in a queer way, as much as to say, "I do not think you know that I have given up the truth, that I have allowed my girls to go to dances, and the Sunday School, that we do not keep the Sabbath." But I did know it. However, I talked to him just as though he were with us.
"Now," I said, "we are going to help you to begin to work for your neighbors. I want to make you a present of some books."
He said, "We have a library, from which we draw books."
I said, "I do not see any books here. Perhaps you feel delicate about drawing from the library. I have come to give you these books, so that your children can read them, and this will be a strength to you."
I knelt down and prayed with him, and when we rose, the tears were rolling down his face as he said, "I am glad you came to see me. I thank you for the books."
As she recounted the experience, she spoke of the fruitage of the work:
The next time I visited him, he told me that he had read part of Patriarchs and Prophets. He said, "There is not one syllable I could change. Every paragraph speaks right to my soul."
I asked Brother Radley which of my large books he considered the most important. He said, "I lend them all to my neighbors, and the hotelkeeper thinks that Great Controversy is the best. But," he said, while his lips quivered, "I think that Patriarchs and Prophets is best. It is that which pulled me out of the mire."--The General Conference Bulletin, 1901, 84, 85 (Evangelism, 451, 452).
Mr. Radley soon took his position firmly, and his whole family united with him. Several of the children later gave their lives to the work of the church.
Work on the Life of Christ
The pioneering work in New South Wales did not lend itself well to the writing on the life of Christ she hoped to do. As she picked up her diary on April 25, just a month after the move from Melbourne, she wrote:
I thank and praise the Lord for the precious few hours' sleep I have had. It is now half past one o'clock that I awake and cannot sleep. My mind is troubled. I want every day to write something on the life of Christ.--Manuscript 74, 1894.
The Trial and Sentence of the Firth Brothers
In a letter written May 2, Ellen White describes an interesting new experience in Australia, the enforcement of ancient Sunday laws:
Two brothers named Firth, who reside in Kellyville, were converted to the truth from the world. The eldest is married. His wife is with him in the faith, and he has one child. He has a small place on a few acres of land upon which he makes his living. He gave the lot on which the church has been built. It is a nice little church, and is a gratification to them, for the people acted a part in building it.
The brothers live quite a distance back from the road in an orchard of orange and lemon trees. We were much surprised to learn that they were summoned last week for working on Sunday.... These men are to come before the police authorities today to answer for the charges against them. They say they will refuse to pay the fine.
Later in the letter she reported:
Our brethren Firth from Kellyville, who were arraigned for breaking the Sunday law, were today sentenced by the court either to pay a fine of five shillings or to be placed in the stocks. They brought an old law made in Charles II's time to bear upon this case of Sundaybreaking. Our brethren refused to pay the fine, and therefore will be put in the stocks.
But as the people have been so well behaved in New South Wales, these instruments of torture have fallen into disuse, and there are no such instruments as stocks at the command of the prosecutors. The stocks will have to be made for the occasion to punish the heinous crime of working on the first day of the week.
... There was quite a representation of our brethren and sisters in the courtroom.... The judge looked at them keenly, as also did his coadjutors.--Letter 79, 1894.
This triggered a whole chain of events. Wide publicity was given to the trial and sentence in the newspapers in the larger cities of Australia under such headlines as "Seventh-day Adventists in Stocks" (see The Bible Echo, May 14, 1894). The Bible Echo from week to week presented the unfolding story. Elders Daniells and Starr, assisted by J. O. Corliss, held well-attended meetings in the Parramatta town hall, and a growing interest in the teachings of Seventh-day Adventists was generated. On May 14, in a letter to C. H. Jones, Mrs. White dwelt on this point:
The persecution of two of our brethren of one of the neighboring churches, and the sentence requiring them to pay a fine or be placed in the stocks, has created such indignation in the public mind that the people are ready to hear, and are calling for the reasons of our faith. This persecution has resulted for the truth rather than against it. Our brethren refused to pay the fine, and the alternative was the stocks, but the authorities have no such instruments of torture. They forced one brother to pay the fine, by seizing upon his horse and cart, leaving him no chance to get home, so he had to hand over the money. The other brother has no property they can attach, and refuses to pay the fine; so here the matter stands.--Letter 40b, 1894.
W. C. White, now carrying the burdens of the new Australasian Union Conference in addition to his other duties, was engaged in a feverish search for a site for the new school. Ellen White followed each move with keen interest. In his room in the Per Ardua home he not only administered the work of the union conference but also collected samples of soil taken from the different properties that he and other members of the locating committee visited.