The evangelization of the great cities of the world was a matter of deep concern to Ellen White, and high on the list was New York City. Her return to the United States in late 1900 intensified this interest. For several winters an evangelist, E. E. Franke, had conducted meetings in New York City with considerable success. He "could, as one of his converts testified, 'present all the Seventh-day Adventist doctrines in a finer and more convincing way than he had ever heard them presented'" (Ella Robinson, S.N. Haskell, Man of Action, p. 194).
But Elder Franke also had some weaknesses. He took great pride in extolling E. E. Franke's talents and abilities. He advertised rather lavishly, and sometimes spectacularly. He hired non-Adventist choirs as an attraction to draw crowds. But with his church members he was often abrasive and harsh, and on the least pretense would disfellowship any who disagreed with him.
In November, 1900, Elder S. N. Haskell was asked to spend some time in New York City to strengthen the work. He and his wife worked there for nearly two months. In temperament and experience Haskell and Franke were entirely different. Haskell was a solid New Englander, deliberate, extremely economical, and calm. He and his wife believed in personally contacting the people, visiting them in their homes, studying the Bible with them, bringing them into the church in a strong, solid way.
Soon there were rather bitter conflicts between the two evangelists. In late December, Haskell felt he must withdraw and spend some time in regaining his physical forces. Shortly after this, Elder Franke was called to work in Trenton, New Jersey. Then in midsummer, 1901, Elder and Mrs. Haskell were requested to settle in New York City and make it their field of labor.
Characteristic of their methods, the Haskells began an evangelistic city mission. For this work they rented an apartment on the sixth floor of a good building, well situated, on West 57th Street. They drew around them a group of Bible instructors and colporteurs and opened the way for laymen in New York who could devote some time to the work of the Lord to come and help. The mornings were spent in instruction and the afternoons in house-to-house missionary endeavor. As interests developed, Haskell was successful in securing the Metropolitan Lyceum on 59th Street, in which he planned to conduct a series of Bible lectures. Elders John Brunson and Luther Warren, young ministers called to work in New York, joined Haskell in the presentation of the message in the evening meetings.
Then, quite unexpected to them all, they learned that Elder E. E. Franke would return to New York City to conduct evangelistic meetings through the fall and early winter of 1901. They learned that he planned to hold Sunday-night meetings in Carnegie Hall, only a few blocks from the Metropolitan Lyceum. Elder Haskell feared such a program would interfere with his own efforts. Both men apparently forgot that there is more than one right way to accomplish a task, and in view of the tremendous needs of New York City, many methods of approach and many types of talent were needed.
Letters from Haskell to Ellen White in October revealed the differences and conflicts, and greatly perturbed her. She wrote several letters to Elder Franke during this period, reproving him on many points, encouraging him on others. It was clear that he was very weak in instructing his converts concerning spiritual gifts, and he had little use for health reform (Evangelism, 663-665). When it was announced that he would begin his meetings in Carnegie Hall on the first Sunday in November, there was considerable distress. Ellen White had declared that "according to the light given her we [the brethren] ought not to encourage Elder Franke to return to labor in New York City" (17 WCW p. 425).
But Franke had already secured his hall and had paid the rent. He had advertised in different papers and had distributed ten thousand advertising cards. He had made arrangements for music and other matters (E. E. Franke to EGW, October 25, 1901).
Apparently there were some misunderstandings and perhaps poor communication. On October 31, Ellen White wrote to Elder Franke:
I feel extremely sorry that matters have assumed the shape they have. Why did you not sit down with Elder Haskell and tell him all your plans? Why did you not come to some understanding? ... I am much interested in New York. There is abundant room for you both. Commence your labors in some other part of the city, farther away than within a few blocks of where another hall has been hired for meetings.... You can reach a class that Elder Haskell cannot reach.--Letter 157, 1901.
And on the same day to Elder Haskell she wrote:
I am troubled in mind. Last night matters were urged upon me that have made me afraid that we may fail to recognize that Brother Franke has talents which are needed in our cities. I feel afraid that we have not encouraged him as we should. We do not all have the same gifts.--Letter 158, 1901.
And then she counseled:
Elder Franke needs to be helped in the right way. There is no need of your getting in each other's way, even though you both labor in New York City. It is not necessary for Elder Franke to interfere with your line of work. Is there not abundance to do in that great, wicked city?-- Ibid.
Referring again to the vision, she recalled:
The word was spoken regarding Elder Franke, "Forbid him not. I have given him a work to do. Varied gifts must be brought into exercise to break the terrible spell that is upon the people."-- Ibid.
She penned several communications indicating that God had given her light that Elder Franke was not to be restricted in his work. On the other hand, a good deal of counsel was given as to the conduct of his evangelistic meetings and his relationship to his brethren and to the church.
Ellen White Agonizes to Know God's Will
With the burden of New York City building in her heart and mind, Ellen White was perplexed to know what course she should follow. Somehow she felt if she could only be in New York she could help to smooth matters out and open the way for a strong coordinated evangelistic thrust in that city. On Sunday, November 3, she addressed a letter to Elder Haskell in which she wrote of the needs of New York City:
There is a vast amount of work to be done in proclaiming the truth for this time to those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Most startling messages will be borne by men of God's appointment, messages of a character to warn the people, to arouse them....
Messages will be given out of the usual order. The judgments of God are in the land. While city missions must be established where colporteurs, Bible workers, and practical medical missionaries may be trained to reach certain classes, we must also have, in our cities, consecrated evangelists through whom a message is to be borne so decidedly as to startle the hearers.--Testimonies for the Church 9:137.
She was careful in this letter to point out the unity that must exist in a diversity of talents held by the workers (Ibid., 9:144-146). She called for them to unite in a harmonious effort.
Three times in as many weeks she had decided that she must go to New York City. Three times she had turned away from it, feeling that her work on her books required her to remain in California. But on Tuesday, November 5, she decided to go. Writing to the men leading in the schoolwork at Berrien Springs, Professors Sutherland and Magan, she declared:
I shall probably see you soon, for after a week of conviction, I have decided to leave for the East. By my former decision not to leave home I came to a crisis in my experience and I will leave for New York City tomorrow morning, if the Lord will. And this seems to me to be His will.--Letter 161, 1901.
The expressions in this statement bring us again to the point of the personal responsibility of Ellen White in making decisions as to the course she should pursue in the conduct of her work, especially in the absence of any direct instruction from the Lord.
Never was there any question as to the message that she should give. Nor was there any question as to what she should do when the Lord clearly indicated the course that she must follow. This was evidenced in her letter to Elder Daniells concerning her responsibility to attend camp meetings in the summer of 1901, at which time she wrote: "If the Lord said, 'Go,' I would not hesitate a moment."--Letter 65, 1901.
But in judging the course of action that she should pursue, she watched for God's opening providences. She was influenced by the burden of her own heart, and she counseled with her brethren. While considering the matter of attending the General Conference session in Battle Creek, in due time she had the clear assurance that she should attend, and she acted accordingly. Now it seemed to her in this instance that she should make a hurried trip to New York.
As she counseled with Sara McEnterfer, she was advised not to go. A letter from Willie gave her no encouragement. As she counseled with Brother and Sister Druillard they said little, but thought that she should go. She wrote W. C. White, who had gone to Battle Creek to attend an important General Conference Executive Committee Meeting:
I think I have a duty to go to New York City. There is a testimony I have to bear there.--Letter 224, 1901.
I have never borne my testimony in New York City, but have had an impression I should do this.... I am burdened with the outlook, and I think I shall without further delay go to the city of New York.... I could help them if God gives me a message to go....
It may be my last chance to speak to them in New York and if there could be unity brought about among the Sabbathkeepers who are now standing one apart from the others, I should have done a good work in the strength the Lord will give me.... I think I shall start this evening for Oakland.... It is now half past two o'clock A.M.... May the Lord guide me is my most earnest prayer. Lord, help! Lord, help! is going forth from my mind constantly.-- Ibid.
As will be seen before the story is finished, she herself soon had some occasion to question whether she moved in the line of duty.
Off to New York
So, with a telegram sent to W. C. White to meet her in Chicago on Sunday morning, November 10, Ellen White with Sara McEnterfer went to Oakland, where they could catch the transcontinental train.
Thursday morning, November 7, they left fog-shrouded California bound for New York City. By eleven that morning the weather had cleared, and that night she slept longer than she had any time during the previous year. The decision to go to New York had been an agonizing one, and having made it, she was greatly relieved.
The next day as the train clicked past the Great Salt Lake and she looked out on miles and miles of sagebrush and dry sandy plains, her heart was at rest. She was quite sure she was doing the right thing. She wrote to the folks at home:
I am well, and am resting. My heart is drawn out in prayer to God, that He will give me a fitness by His Holy Spirit for the work before me.... I shall not be left to confusion while I put my trust in Him. I praise His holy name. I feel that I am indeed in the line of duty, that the Lord is guiding me.--Letter 174, 1901.
The next two days of travel were not too pleasant, but on Sunday morning at nine-thirty they were met at the Chicago station by W. C. White, along with Elder A. G. Daniells, Homer Salisbury, and Alan Moon. Salisbury had been planning to go to England. In a hurried and brief conference they discussed these plans. And then, with Willie joining the party, they caught the next train out to New York City (Letter 183, 1901).
Monday morning the White party was in New York at Elder Haskell's city mission and Bible training school. It was situated at 400 West 57th Street, a couple of blocks from the southern end of Central Park. Fortunately there was an elevator in the apartment building to take them up the six stories to the room occupied by the city mission family.
Monday and Tuesday were spent in discussion with Stephen and Hetty Haskell about their work. Ellen White joined in the daily round of activities at the school--up at six, Bible study at six-thirty to seven-thirty, breakfast, classes through the morning, et cetera.
On Wednesday there were interviews with Elder Franke and his wife and a visit to Elder J. E. Jayne, the conference president. On Thursday she and Willie took the streetcar over to Brooklyn to see the vegetarian restaurant on the corner of Fulton and Cranberry streets and to pay a visit to George A. King and Carl Rasmussen, who operated the restaurant. The families of both men lived above the restaurant.
The Rasmussens had several children and a sister-in-law living with them. The latter had lived in Battle Creek years before and had met Ellen White there. She had thoroughly prepared her nephews, the Rasmussen boys, to dread the visit of the prophet. Her philosophy was that it was a sin for children to play with toys or laugh, and claimed that Sister White backed up her cheerless views.
The boys were amazed when Ellen White on meeting them, turned to her son and asked, "Willie, where are those things for the boys?" Willie produced two packages, each containing a toy train. The boys were delighted, and no doubt were careful to display them for their aunt's benefit! Ellen and Willie enjoyed a good meal at the Rasmussens' and Kings', topped off with one of Mrs. Rasmussen's Danish Christmas cakes, which Willie enjoyed so much that he asked for the recipe. He spiced the meal with a few interesting and humorous stories. At first the Rasmussen boys were afraid to laugh, but when they saw Ellen White smile and heard Elder White laugh at his own stories, they soon joined in. Sister White had no objection to a little sensible humor. Loud, hilarious laughter she detested.
The several churches in the New York area joined on the weekend in the mass meeting in Elder Haskell's 59th Street Hall. The hall was packed, and Ellen White spoke to about seven hundred on Christ's prayer for unity as set forth in John 17. At a later meeting she spoke there again to an audience of about the same size comprised of many non-Adventists. Her text was the first chapter of Second Peter and she spoke on a favorite subject,"Peter's Ladder." Looking back on the experience, she noted that the meetings were a "grand success" (Letter 183, 1901).
The following Sabbath Ellen White made a three-hour trip by boat and train to Trenton, New Jersey, to speak to Elder Franke's church. She witnessed a baptism in the morning at the Delaware River and was favorably impressed. She wrote:
I was much pleased with the neat, plain robes that were worn, prepared for men and women; and the administrator also had a becoming garment, a surplice that covered the rubber baptismal suit, which was everything it should be.-- Ibid.
In the afternoon she climbed a long flight of stairs to reach the hall where the Trenton members worshiped. Between two hundred and three hundred people were present, some baptized, some anticipating baptism, and some interested. The rather phenomenal response to Franke's evangelistic preaching seemed to augur a new day in city evangelism. Trenton, she maintained, should have a "plain, neat, substantial meeting house" (Manuscript 127, 1901). She wrote:
The Lord gave me my work on the Sabbath, to present the fourteenth chapter of John.... The blessing of the Lord attended the word spoken. Many testimonies of courage and of faith and hope were borne.--Letter 183, 1901.
By the time the meeting was over, night had come and rain was falling. It had been a happy and busy day, but the speaking in the crowded, stuffy room was soon to take its toll.
Sunday evening she spoke again in New York, her last appointment there. The discussions that took place while she was in New York City seemed to ease the tensions. What she observed broadened her concept of what might be done in the large metropolitan areas. She called for the purchase of a hall where the people in New York and the surrounding areas could be called together. As she closed her work, she left this admonition:
The mission established in New York by Elder Haskell must be sustained.
Elder Haskell must be assisted to locate himself and his workers in a more retired place.... Elder Haskell's strength must not be drawn on too heavily. He needs more prayer and less criticism. Let those who in the past have cherished the spirit of criticism take themselves in hand, and keep careful watch over every thought and word.--Manuscript 127, 1901.
And to Elder Franke, she added:
I have been asked, "Shall Elder Franke take up the work in the various cities, as invited?"
I answer, "Leave this matter with the Lord. Let Elder Franke follow his best judgment."
From the light God has given, it seems that now is the time to plan for work in Greater New York. When wise plans have been laid for this work, let these plans be decidedly and thoroughly carried out. God has a people in New York City.
We say to Elder Franke, Do all in your power to reach the people of New York, and let all who can sustain you in the work.... For Christ's sake, Elder Franke, lift the standard of the cross. Seek to diffuse light to those who are in darkness. In the name of the Lord, go forward.-- Ibid.
Attending Union Conference Sessions
With her work finished in New York City Ellen White, with Sara McEnterfer, journeyed to South Lancaster and on Tuesday, November 26, her seventy-fourth birthday, she settled into a room in the newly established South Lancaster Sanitarium, only a short distance from the school. The newly organized union conferences were beginning to hold their initial sessions. Ellen White was to spend two weeks there, with much of the time devoted to the first session of the Eastern Union Conference.
As she was coming down with a cold, she and Sara felt it was fortunate that she could stay in the Sanitarium. Her room was comfortable and she could have the advantage of the care she needed, with the institution's hydrotherapy facilities near at hand.
Regarding the meetings, she wrote:
We have had a very important meeting at this place. I am not well, and so have spoken only three times. I spoke Friday morning, Sabbath morning, and Sunday afternoon. Dr. Kellogg also spoke Sunday afternoon. He spoke well. The congregations at the meetings have been large.--Letter 178a, 1901.
Shortly after her arrival she made reference in her journal to a vision given to her in reference to Dr. Kellogg and the dangers that threatened his experience. She expressed the hope of seeing him face to face so she could discuss some of these matters with him. Perhaps she had such an opportunity at South Lancaster, though as her physical condition worsened, she had to refrain from interviews.
On Monday night, December 2, rain began to fall; by Tuesday noon it turned to snow and the thermometer plunged to -20 degrees Fahrenheit. Ellen White probably slept with her window partially open as usual because the next morning the water in the washbowl and pitcher were frozen. Her false teeth were frozen in a solid mass of ice and even her ink had congealed (Letter 184, 1901). But of the snow, she said: "This is a sight I have not seen for eleven years."--Letter 178a, 1901.
At the Sanitarium Ellen White's health was at a low ebb. Sara reported that she was so weak that when she fell asleep she hardly had energy to wake up again. Several times her breathing seemed to stop. Friday marked a turn for the better. By now the snow was two feet deep. As she looked out the window of her room, she saw sleighs flying briskly over the snow and noted the world around her clothed in its pure vestment of white. "Whiter than the snow," she pondered. This was how God had "promised to make all who shall come to Him with broken hearts, and contrite spirits" (Letter 184, 1901).
I have been having a severe test of my faith. Over doing is not profitable. I have been shorn of my strength, quite feeble, nearly voiceless, too weak to see or converse with anyone except it was positively essential. I have not dared to go from the rooms assigned me in the sanitarium, dared not to go home to California, which I so much desired to do in my weakness.-- Ibid.
On the next Thursday, December 12, she seemed to have recovered enough to start the journey for Nashville and home. She had to drop from her planning a much desired visit to Battle Creek and the new college at Berrien Springs. She was carried to the train, and at 2:30 Friday morning the party arrived in Nashville. Edson met them and took them by carriage to the new office of the Southern Publishing Association, which was under construction. She was no worse than when she left South Lancaster, but no better. After a day or two of rather pleasant weather, it turned cold. Sara urged her to head for California and home immediately. This Ellen White refused to do, saying that she intended to attend the upcoming meeting of the Southern Union Conference, even if she should die there (18 WCW, p. 134).
W. C. White commented: I look for her to regain strength, and return to her home in good courage.-- Ibid.
The union conference session was to be held from Friday, January 3, to Sunday, January 12. In the three weeks before the session, W. C. White visited nearby institutions, including the school at Graysville and the college for black students at Huntsville, Alabama. The weather tempered as December wore on. Ellen White's health improved from day to day, and she was able to go out for a carriage ride each day.
The first Sabbath of the Southern Union Conference session Ellen White was strong enough to speak for about thirty-five minutes in the SPA chapel. The audience was attended by both blacks and whites, the blacks sitting on one side of the room and the whites on the other side. But on Sunday she suffered a relapse and was unable to speak again, though she much wanted to (Letter 3, 1902).
Elder George I. Butler and his sister Aurora Lockwood, who had come from Florida, were there, and Ellen White enjoyed meeting them again. They reminisced together, recalling their past experiences in the work of God. This took them back thirty-five years. Still not recovered, she invited Butler and other pioneer workers at the meeting to come to her room and have special prayer and anointing, that she might be healed. She reported the experience:
We had a precious season of prayer together.... My soul was all light in the Lord. A heavenly fragrance seemed to surround me. I was not healed, but I was given the comforting assurance that the Lord's presence would be with me. It is not possible for me to describe the peace I felt.--Letter 11, 1902.
And in her diary she wrote:
I am sure those present must have felt the deep influence of the Holy Spirit. I felt that the canopy of God was over me. I could say fully, Whether I live or die it is well, it is well, with my soul. My life is hid with Christ in God.--Manuscript 220, 1902.
The Journey Home
Sunday evening, January 12, just after the session closed, the White party was on their way to California via Chicago.
Monday morning in Chicago, Ellen White had her first ride in an automobile. H. W. Kellogg, formerly manager of the Review and Herald, and now connected with the manufacturing of the W. O. Worth automobile, arranged to have one of these cars there to take the traveling party to the Sanitarium downtown. A wheelchair had been brought to help move Mrs. White from the train to the car and from the car to the sanitarium. To Edson and Emma she reported: "I could not have been treated more kindly by my sons than I was by these young men."--Letter 22, 1902. She described the automobile as a "covered carriage, shaped like a streetcar"(Letter 11, 1902). She lay down on one of the seats that ran along each side.
She was exhausted when they reached the Sanitarium at 28 33d Place, and 33-year-old Dr. David Paulson treated her very gently. But his feelings about her venturing out on such a journey were much less gentle. Ellen White was to write of it to Edson and Emma after reaching home:
Dr. Paulson was very tender of me, and gave me an earnest scolding for leaving California at this time of the year. I took it, thinking I might deserve it. He told the truth from his standpoint and perhaps from my own. He was thoroughly indignant to think that the brethren had had no more mercy on me.
"Why," he said, "I wonder that you are alive. We have too much interest in you and your work to want to bury you. We want your life to be spared." He was certainly very much aroused as he saw my feebleness. He talked as if he could not be reconciled to what I had done. I told him that I might have made a mistake.
"Yes," he said, "I am sure of it. You will lose your life if you venture to travel at this season of the year. Circumstances will occur that you cannot control. The Lord wants no such presumptuous movements. Your life is too precious to be thrown away in this manner."--Letter 22, 1902.
And a few weeks later, after reflecting on Paulson's "most decided scolding," she wrote to Elder Butler:
But I dare not say it was a mistake [to go to New York in midwinter]. I leave it all with the Lord. Certainly, I should not have gone to New York had I seen the end from the beginning. But I did not, and therefore I went, in response to the call of Elder Haskell, and in obedience, I thought, to the impression of the Spirit of God.--Letter 27, 1902.
At Oakland, C. H. Jones met the travelers and took them by streetcar to his home for the night. While on the tram Ellen White brought up the subject of a call to Jones to go to Battle Creek to manage the publishing house there. That matter had been discussed with her in the East. She saw no light in the proposal. At breakfast she brought up the subject again, and Jones showed her his letter turning down the invitation. She nodded her approval and then in sad, yet yearning, tones repeated the words of Christ appearing in Matthew 11:21: "'Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.'"
A hush fell over the group around the table. What did it mean? When the guests had left for St. Helena and Jones went to the office, he called his secretary and dictated a letter addressed to Elder Daniells, recounting the incident in the light of the call for him to go to Battle Creek:
I am afraid that city is doomed so far as our work is concerned. There are other things that Sister White said in regard to the work in Battle Creek which I do not feel free to mention, but I am really alarmed at the situation. There still seems to be a desire on the part of some, at least, to centralize everything at Battle Creek.--C. H. Jones to AGD, January 17, 1902.
On the journey West, Ellen White was unable to eat much, and this was so for a week after she arrived home. Then suddenly her appetite returned and she became insatiably hungry. "I am like a fever patient who has been half starved," she declared. "I feel hungry, hungry."--Letter 8, 1902.
On days when the weather permitted, she rode out in her carriage. It was not until mid-March that she was able to venture to speak in public and to take up her work in a normal fashion again.
In the story of the trip to New York Ellen White related to the leading of God's Spirit, probing His opening providences, weighing the impressions, as would any dedicated child of Christ. She felt she should go to New York, but she admitted that it might have been a mistake. She would have to leave it with the Lord. For her own part, she thought she had followed the Spirit's leading. She was grateful that her life had been spared.
Was her experience much different from that of the apostle Paul when, on arriving at Jerusalem, he felt it was his duty to follow the counsel of his brethren and entered upon certain purification services at the Temple that led to his arrest and imprisonment? Such experiences make it clear that God's prophets, while decidedly and unquestionably led of God in the messages that they bore and the counsel and instruction that they gave, were not in each activity of everyday life and work specifically commanded of God. In the absence of special light from heaven, they must reach out by faith and in trust seek God's guidance and direction, and move in harmony with the tokens that they feel indicate His guidance.
And now what of the future and all the work Ellen White saw before her? Ten days after reaching home she pledged:
I have suffered much, but my life is spared. I thank the Lord for this; for I have much to do. I shall be very careful of my strength.--Letter 11, 1902.
A few days later she thanked the Lord that she could continue to write, but she was unable to use her voice. She recalled that even while she was so sick in Nashville, her head was clear and she could write.
It was with rejoicing that on March 18 she was able to pray aloud at family worship. And she could walk again. She exclaimed, "I rejoice to think that I may hope to be once more as well as I was before I went to New York."--Letter 41, 1902.
Shortly after this she tested her voice by speaking Sabbath morning in the little Calistoga church. By mid-April, after speaking twice in Calistoga, testing her strength and physical ability, she accepted an invitation to speak in the Sanitarium Church. She had made a full comeback. Solemnly she declared: "The burden of my book work must not again be laid down as it has been."--Letter 21, 1902.