Oakland, California, was chosen as the site for the 1903 General Conference session. The date for the session to open was set for Friday, March 27; it would run through a third Sabbath. Meetings would be held in the Oakland church. Delegates would stay largely in the homes of our church members, and would breakfast with their hosts. A large tent was pitched across the street from the church, where noon and evening meals would be served by the staff of the San Francisco vegetarian restaurant.
This session would be different from any that had preceded it. With the new union conferences functioning well, many matters that normally would come to the General Conference were being handled by union conference committees.
It was planned that this session would be "more a council of leading workers than an occasion for instructing the multitude" (20 WCW, p. 381).
This would allow the rank and file of denominational workers to continue their labor in the field. There would be fewer delegates than assembled for the 1901 session at Battle Creek--initial provision called for 134.
This was the first General Conference session under the new constitution that had been adopted two years before. Not only was the plan for union conferences working well, but the various corporations and associations were being developed into departments under the direction of the General Conference Committee.
One weakness in the 1901 constitution had been early discovered, that the work as outlined by the delegates was to be administered by the General Conference Committee of twenty-five, under officers of its choosing--a chairman, a secretary, and a treasurer. Under this arrangement the church officers had no mandate from the people. They were responsible only to a committee of twenty-five. These twenty-five, if they wished to do so, could change the officers during the period between the sessions.
Finance and financial policies loomed large. There were heavy debts, and the proposal that the denomination operate on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Another point of vital importance following the 1901 session was the ownership and control of the institutions of the church. Corporations, controlled by their constituencies, had at some time in the past been formed to handle these institutions. No real problems were faced with bringing the publishing institutions or educational institutions into line, but the story was quite different when it came to medical institutions. It was with misgivings that certain church leaders had watched the steps being taken by Dr. Kellogg. First he had declared the work of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and its related interests as undenominational; second he was trying to keep the control of the institution in the hands of the constituency of the corporation, made up of stockholders, employees, and some General Conference men.
This problem began to come into focus at the meeting of the California Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association (mentioned in Chapter 12) held at St. Helena in late June of 1902. At that time actions were taken with the intent to make all institutions an integral part of the work of the church, controlled by the church. Dr. Kellogg was present and argued stiffly against the move. Nevertheless, it passed. Battle Creek Sanitarium was being rebuilt, and certain denominational leaders entertained grave questions as to the future ownership and control of that institution.
With the developments in all these lines, the leader of the church, Elder Daniells, kept in close touch with Ellen G. White and her son W. C. White. Through the latter he could channel problems and matters to the Lord's messenger; he was also the recipient of direct counsel from W. C. White.
Concerns of Ellen White
Ellen White's deep concern was for the spiritual interests of the church and the maintenance of the denominational image in its institutional work. While she was pleased with the steps that had been taken in reorganization in the 1901 General Conference, and she recognized that angels of God had walked up and down the aisles of the Battle Creek Tabernacle during that session, she was greatly disappointed that the recognition of waning spiritual experiences and the confession of wrongs that she had hoped would result with the leaders of the Sanitarium and the publishing house had not come.
Again and again following the 1901 meeting she spoke of her burden of heart and of her great disappointment that the steps that should have been taken had not been taken. On January 5, 1903, as she pondered these matters, she wrote:
One day at noon I was writing of the work that might have been done at the last General Conference if the men in positions of trust had followed the will and way of God. Those who have had great light have not walked in the light. The meeting was closed, and the break was not made. Men did not humble themselves before the Lord as they should have done, and the Holy Spirit was not imparted.--Testimonies for the Church 8:104.
As she lost consciousness, she seemed to be witnessing a scene in the Battle Creek Tabernacle. Study was being given by those present to the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon them. "The speaker turned to those who had been praying, and said: 'We have something to do. We must confess our sins, and humble our hearts before God.'"--Ibid., 8:105. Ellen White described the scene that followed the breaking of the hearts of the people as confessions were made and wrongs were righted. She wrote of the "rejoicing such as never before had been heard in the tabernacle." Then these words were spoken:
"This might have been. All this the Lord was waiting to do for His people. All heaven was waiting to be gracious." I thought of where we might have been had thorough work been done at the General Conference, and an agony of disappointment came over me as I realized that what I had witnessed was not a reality.--Ibid., 8:105, 106.
In other references to the same experience, she placed the responsibility very largely upon the leader of the medical work, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Referring to him in one of the meetings at the session, she stated: "After the meeting at Minneapolis, Dr. Kellogg was a converted man, and we all knew it. We could see the converting power of God working in his heart and life."--The General Conference Bulletin, 1903, 86.
Near the time for the opening of the session, Ellen White put into the hands of the delegates and others some of the testimonies that touched on many of the points at issue. The ninety-six page pamphlet presenting Selections From the Testimonies for the Church for the Study of Those Attending the General Conference in Oakland, California, March 27, 1903, was printed by the Pacific Press. A wide range of topics are represented in this pamphlet. There was special emphasis on the fires in Battle Creek, debt liquidation, and the vision of what might have been; there were various items dealing with the churches, consolidation of the publishing work, the work in the South, the Southern Publishing Association, and the use of the Morning Star. It closed with references to the work at home and abroad.
Elder Daniells' Concerns
Elder Daniells was weary of the conflict that he had been through, trying to hold things steady. He pondered whether he should lay down the responsibilities of leadership and engage in some other line of work, possibly in evangelism in some other part of the world field. But he was the man in the saddle. With other workers he made the trip from Battle Creek to Oakland in time for a week of presession meetings.
On several occasions Daniells related the experience that came to him at this time. He set aside Sabbath, March 21, preceding the General Conference session as a day of special personal fasting and prayer. He felt he must know his duty. He went to one of the offices in the Pacific Press publishing house where he could spend the day in study, meditation, and prayer, longing for some omen that would give him courage to move into the session. Through the day and into the evening he remained there. As he knelt in a final prayer, the burden that he might get into true relationship with God's great work on earth rolled upon his heart.
In recounting the story just a few hours before his death, he said, "I struggled unto death, crying aloud, and I nearly reproached the Lord for not giving me some sign, some evidence of my acceptance, and His support of me in the awful battle that was before us." During this struggle he prostrated himself on the floor, clutching, as it were, at the floorboards as he agonized with God. All night he wrestled with the Lord. Then, he reports, as the morning sun burst into the room, "As distinctly as if audibly spoken, the words burned into my mind as a message from heaven, 'If you will stand by My servant until her sun sets in a bright sky, I will stand by you to the last hour of the conflict.'"--AGD, The Abiding Gift of Prophecy, p. 367.
"I couldn't talk any more with God," he said. "I was overcome. And although I have made mistakes, God has stood by me, and I have never repudiated that woman, nor questioned her loyalty, to my knowledge, from that night to this. Oh, that was a happy experience to me and it bound me up with the greatest character that has lived in this dispensation."--DF 312c, "Report of a Parting Interview Between AGD and WCW, March 20, 1935," p. 5.
"Every doubt was removed from my mind," he reported on another occasion.
I knew that I must not run away from the work to which I had been called by my brethren, and that I must stand with them at my post of duty. I was deeply impressed that I must be as true as the needle to the pole to the counsels of the Spirit of Prophecy, that I must stand loyally by the Lord's servant, upholding her hands, and leading this denomination to recognize and appreciate her heaven-sent gift.... I then made my solemn promise to the Lord that I would be true to His cause, that I would do all in my power to prevent anything from arising in this denomination to dim the glory of the priceless gift and of the Lord's servant who had exercised this gift for so many years.--AGD, The Abiding Gift of Prophecy, p. 367.
The experience, Elder Daniells said, "marked the beginning of an important era of wholehearted acceptance of the Spirit of Prophecy" (Ibid., 366).
Ellen White in Oakland
A vacant home in Oakland had been rented for the use of Ellen White and her staff during the General Conference session, and she traveled to Oakland on Monday, March 23. Willie had gone on one day in advance. Sara McEnterfer, Maggie Hare, C. C. Crisler, and D. E. Robinson went along with Ellen White. She had hoped that they could drive down, or at least that she could have access to a carriage while she was there, for carriage rides rested her when she was under pressure. This was not feasible, and so a comfortable wheelchair was rented that would aid her in going from the home to the church where the meetings were held.
On Tuesday morning Elder Daniells, knowing that Ellen White had arrived in Oakland, went to greet her and welcome her to the presession meetings and the General Conference session. He wondered, How will she greet me? He knew of the seventy-page letter Dr. Kellogg had written to prejudice her against him. He knew that if anyone could influence her it was Dr. Kellogg. As he stepped up onto the porch he found the front door standing open. He looked down the hall and saw Ellen White seated in a rocking chair in the kitchen at the farther end of the hall. He made his way down the hall to the kitchen. When she saw him approaching she called, "Come in, Brother Daniells." Grasping his hand in a warm greeting and looking him in the eye, she said, "Do you know we are facing a great crisis at this meeting?"
"Yes, Sister White," he replied.
She gripped his hand tighter and with a snap in her eyes said, "Don't you waver a particle in this crisis."
To this Daniells replied, "Sister White, those are the most precious words I ever heard. I know who you are and what you mean."--DF 15a, AGD, "How the Denomination Was Saved From Pantheism," copy A, pp. 16, 17.
Then the Lord's messenger disclosed the forces behind the issues they faced. "Let me tell you," she said, "Satan has his representatives right here at this place now, and the Lord has bidden me, Have no interview with Dr. Kellogg, no counsel whatever with that man."-- Ibid., 17.
How different was this from the instruction given her just before the 1901 General Conference in Battle Creek! Then she was instructed to accept the doctor's invitation to stay as a guest in his home.
Elder Daniells now knew that Ellen White had not been influenced one whit by the seventy-page letter and that he had her full support.
Presession meetings were held throughout that week, and Ellen White spoke on two occasions to the General Conference Committee.