At Two-Thirty Friday afternoon, March 27, Elder A. G. Daniells called the thirty-fifth General Conference session to order (Ibid., 1903, 1). Although only eighty-eight delegates were present that Friday afternoon, the session opened in normal fashion. The union conferences for which provision had been made two years before were taken into the conference, and also twenty-three local conferences around the world.
The meetings on Sabbath and Sunday were devoted to the three angels' messages and the finishing of the work of God in the world. Ellen White spoke on Sabbath morning. Her sermon was followed in the afternoon by Elder G. A. Irwin's address on "The Song of Victory." Elder Daniells spoke in the evening on "Our Time, Our Work, and Opening Providences." Thus the session was off to a wholesome start.
The business of the conference proper began Monday morning at nine-thirty. After a roll call of the delegates, the chairman, Elder Daniells, gave his address. In his opening remarks he spoke of the efficient functioning of the union conferences and observed, "Scores of men are now getting the experience of burden-bearing that was previously confined to comparatively few."--Ibid., 18.
He then introduced the very difficult financial situation in which he found the denomination, and the security of its institutions. Speaking of God's leadings through the Spirit of Prophecy, he stated that "another phase of reform to which this people were called was to arise and roll away the reproach of debt that rested so heavily upon them."--Ibid. The General Conference had been operating on a cash basis, reported Daniells, and had reduced the debts of the denomination by $250,000 (Ibid., 19). World membership at the end of 1902 stood at 67,000 (Ibid., 120).
The first motion placed before the General Conference was significant and far-reaching:
That Elder A. G. Daniells, chairman of the General Conference Committee, be, and is hereby, instructed to appoint a committee of five to examine into the financial standing of all our various institutions, and to investigate their relationship to the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, and to devise and recommend some plan to this conference whereby all institutions, as far as possible under existing corporation laws, be placed under direct ownership, control, and management of our people.--Ibid., 21.
It was right to the point and highlighted important work to be taken up at the session. It was referred to the Plans Committee, to be brought to the session in proper fashion. But another issue that threatened the cause lurked in the shadows--pantheism, propagated by Dr. Kellogg and his associates.
In her address on Sabbath morning, Ellen White had brought lessons from the sending out of the twelve spies and the experience of Israel. She dealt with the fruits of unbelief and pointed to the importance of trust and obedience. At this meeting she said:
Brethren and Sisters, from the light given me, I know that if the people of God had preserved a living connection with Him, if they had obeyed His Word, they would today be in the heavenly Canaan.--Ibid., 9,
She spoke of the work before the church:
God wants to work for His people and for His institutions--for every sanitarium, every publishing house, and every school, but He wants no more mammoth buildings erected, for they are a snare. For years He has told His people this.--Ibid., 10,.
That night in vision she was shown what she should bring to the session. This led her to request the privilege of addressing the delegates on Monday afternoon. In place of the regular business meeting she presented a sermon on Josiah's reign. She spoke of the investigation that was made by the king and of the punishment for apostasy. She declared:
Today God is watching His people. We should seek to find out what He means when He sweeps away our sanitarium and our publishing house. Let us not move along as if there were nothing wrong. King Josiah rent his robe and rent his heart. He wept and mourned because he had not had the book of the law, and knew not of the punishments that it threatened.
God wants us to come to our senses. He wants us to seek for the meaning of the calamities that have overtaken us, that we may not tread in the footsteps of Israel, and say, "The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord are we," when we are not this at all.--Ibid., 31,.
Then she called most earnestly for a change:
In every institution among us there needs to be a reformation. This is the message that at the last General Conference I bore as the word of the Lord. At that meeting I carried a very heavy burden, and I have carried it ever since.
We did not gain the victory that we might have gained at that meeting. Why? Because there were so few who followed the course of Josiah. There were those at that meeting who did not see the work that needed to be done. If they had confessed their sins, if they had made a break, if they had taken their stand on vantage ground, the power of God would have gone through the meeting, and we should have had a Pentecostal season.--Ibid.
She related the vision of what "might have been." She called for teachers and leaders of church institutions to be sound in the faith, and to be faithful to the principles of the third angel's message. She pointed out that God wants His people to know that they have the message as He gave it in 1843 and 1844. "We knew then what the message meant, and we call upon our people today to obey the word, 'Bind up the law among My disciples.'"--Ibid., 32,.
As she closed her remarks, G. A. Irwin, chairman of the meeting, commented:
We have been told before it was announced from this platform today of the possibilities of the last General Conference. We have been told what God wanted to do at that conference; we have been told what He was graciously waiting to do; but that we failed to do the part we ought to have done, and so failed of receiving the blessing He desired to bestow upon us. And the saddest thought of it all is that the cause of God is years behind as the result of our failure at that meeting.--Ibid., 33,.
He asked:
Shall we simply listen to the stirring appeal that has been made in our hearing through the servant of the Lord, indited by the Spirit of God, and then dismiss this meeting, and go away to our several cares and responsibilities?--Ibid.
This did not seem to be the will of the congregation; and they moved into a testimony meeting in which many heartfelt confessions were made.
Messages at the Devotional Meetings
The next morning, Tuesday, March 31, Ellen White gave the devotional message. She spoke on how to receive a blessing. She called attention to the evidences of God's leading in the past and pointed out the importance of confession of sin. Then she dealt with faultfinding and criticism. She closed her words with an earnest prayer for pardon and help. The prayer occupied about the same amount of time as her talk. She talked with God about the things that were on her heart, and the mistakes that had been made. She confessed these mistakes and thanked the Lord for opening up to His people the true situation. She pleaded that the Holy Spirit might come into their hearts and break down every barrier.
Wednesday morning, April 1, she spoke again at the devotional service. Again she dealt with faultfinding and criticizing, backbiting and cannibalism. Then she began to deal with the church institutions and some of the problems faced by those institutions.
She reminded her audience of the financial embarrassment that had come to the publishing house in Christiania, Norway. Some wanted to let the house sink in its financial problems, but she said that "light was given me that the institution was to be placed where it could do its work."--Ibid., 58,. Then she came to the question of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, which was on the minds of many, for the institution was being rebuilt at a cost of two or three times what had been anticipated. Large debts were accumulating. Some in the meeting were probably surprised when they heard the words:
And let me say that God does not design that the sanitarium that has been erected in Battle Creek shall be in vain. He wants His people to understand this.
He wants this institution to be placed on vantage ground. He does not want His people to be looked upon by the enemy as a people that is going out of sight.-- Ibid.
She called for another effort to place the institution on solid ground, and declared, "The people of God must build that institution up, in the name of the Lord."
One man is not to stand at its head alone. Dr. Kellogg has carried the burden until it has almost killed him. God wants His servants to stand united in carrying that work forward.-- Ibid.
Before she closed her presentation, she declared:
Because men have made mistakes, they are not to be uprooted. The blessing of God heals; it does not destroy. The Mighty Healer, the great Medical Missionary, will be in the midst of us, to heal and bless, if we will receive Him.--Ibid., 59,.
We should pause for just a moment to note Ellen White's relationship to situations of this kind. She knew that institutions had been overbuilt, in disregard of counsel that God had given. But even though mistakes had been made, she contended that it was God's institution, that the church was to stand by it and make it succeed.
This was Ellen White's sympathetic approach to the problem of the rebuilt but heavily indebted Battle Creek Sanitarium. Her deep concern was for its medical superintendent, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of whom she declared a few months later:
At the General Conference held in Oakland, Dr. Kellogg gave an exhibition of himself that revealed the spirit that controlled him. Long before that meeting he was presented to me as a man who understood not the spirit that controlled him. The enemy of souls had cast upon him a spell of deception....
During that meeting a scene was presented to me, representing evil angels conversing with the doctor, and imbuing him with their spirit, so that at times he would say and do things, the nature of which he could not understand. He seemed powerless to escape from the snare. At other times he would appear to be rational.--Letter 51, 1904.
The Conference Business
The business meetings of the General Conference session had been relieved of many of the details that had come before previous sessions, so there was time for discussion of two main items: the ownership of institutions, and the new constitution under which leading officers would be elected by the delegates.
From day to day, reports were brought in from each of the union conferences. On Thursday Elder H. W. Cottrell, president of the Atlantic Union Conference, presented a memorial from the Atlantic Union delegates expressing the belief that the General Conference headquarters should be moved; it suggested that New York would be an ideal location. The memorial also expressed the hope that the Review could be relocated in some suburb of New York City. A few days later the committee on plans and constitution submitted a partial report recommending:
"That the General Conference offices be removed from Battle Creek, Michigan, to some place favorable for its work in the Atlantic States."--The General Conference Bulletin, 1903, 67.
On Friday morning, April 3, Elder Daniells read the resolution to the session and asked Ellen White to comment on it. She said that it would be impossible to do justice to the question "unless I take some time (Ibid., April 6, 1901). She opened her remarks by saying:
The question is one that should be clearly and distinctly understood by us all. Few of our people have any idea of how many times light has been given that it was not in the order of God for so much to be centered in Battle Creek.... For years the warning has been given to our people, Get out of Battle Creek.... At last Brother Magan and Brother Sutherland began to think of the advisability of moving [the college] from Battle Creek.... This was the first move made. It has been a success....
For the last fifteen or twenty years, light has been given that our people, by crowding into Battle Creek, have been leaving their home churches in a weak state.... The very worst thing that could now be done would be for the Review and Herald office to be once more built up in Battle Creek....
Let the General Conference offices and the publishing work be moved from Battle Creek. I know not where the place will be, whether on the Atlantic Coast or elsewhere. But this I will say, Never lay a stone or brick in Battle Creek to rebuild the Review office there. God has a better place for it.--Ibid., 84, 85.
She reviewed the history of the Sanitarium and her strong support for it and Dr. Kellogg:
Many souls have been converted; many wonderful cures have been wrought. The Lord stood by the side of Dr. Kellogg as he performed difficult operations. When the doctor was overwrought by taxing labor, God understood the situation, and He put His hand on Dr. Kellogg's hand as he operated, and through His power the operations were successful. I wish this to be understood....
God has given Dr. Kellogg the success that he has had. I have tried constantly to keep this before him, telling him that it was God who was working with him, and that the truth of God was to be magnified by His physician....
God does not endorse the efforts put forth by different ones to make the work of Dr. Kellogg as hard as possible, in order to build themselves up. God gave the light on health reform, and those who rejected it rejected God. One and another who knew better said that it all came from Dr. Kellogg, and they made war upon him.--Ibid., 86, 87.
Ellen White used this occasion to drive home a number of points:
1. Other church institutions were not to be directed by the workers in Battle Creek.
2. The rebuilt Battle Creek Sanitarium was not to be allowed to go into the hands of the world. "If you will trust in the Lord, this institution can be placed on vantage ground."--Ibid., 87.
3. Dr. Kellogg was not to be "pushed out of his place." "Spurious scientific theories," she declared in an obvious reference to pantheism, "are coming in as a thief in the night, stealing away the landmarks and undermining the pillars of our faith. God has shown me that the medical students are not to be educated in such theories, because God will not endorse these theories."-- Ibid.
4. Leaders were to examine the standing of Battle Creek Sanitarium "to see whether the God of heaven can take control of it."
A crisis was coming in Battle Creek, she warned:
The trades unions and confederacies of the world are a snare. Keep out of them and away from them, brethren. Have nothing to do with them. Because of these unions and confederacies, it will soon be very difficult for our institutions to carry on their work in the cities.
My warning is: Keep out of the cities. Build no sanitariums in the cities. Educate our people to get out of the cities into the country, where they can obtain a small piece of land, and make a home for themselves and their children.-- Ibid.
Our restaurants must be in the cities, for otherwise the workers in these restaurants could not reach the people and teach them the principles of right living. And for the present we shall have to occupy meeting houses in the cities.
But erelong there will be such strife and confusion in the cities that those who wish to leave them will not be able. We must be preparing for these issues.--Ibid., 88.
At a later meeting actions were passed recommending that the offices of the General Conference be moved to the Atlantic Coast and also that the publishing association should not be rebuilt as a factory in Battle Creek. The Eastern States were strongly recommended as the location for the publishing house.
The Major Debate on Institutional Control
The first major debate was launched on Friday, April 3, just a week after the session had opened, when the report of the committee on institutions was introduced. The report, submitted the day before under the heading "General Plan for Reorganization of Institutions," read: "All institutions to be owned directly by the people, either General Conference, Union Conference, State Conference, or organized mission field."--Ibid., 67.
In introducing the matter to the session, Elder C. H. Parsons pointed out that this would have binding force on all new institutions, but that it would be applied to existing ones only by "moral suasian." None of the delegates at the session including Dr. Kellogg were so naive as to fail to see the import of the proposed resolution. The church was endeavoring to protect its properties and its interests built up from the sacrifices of its members.
Dr. Kellogg was strong in his support of an independent course, but he began his attack on the proposal in a low key, saying: "I think I ought to say to these delegates a word or two.... I rise to put myself on record simply, as I do not know what I shall say will have any influence whatever on any action that maybe taken."--Ibid., 74.
Kellogg questioned the purpose of the resolution. Elder Parsons pointed out in response that the denomination should own all new institutions insofar as possible, and there was a request that existing denominational institutions also be owned by the denomination.
Dr. Kellogg replied that he understood the real purpose--it was to coerce denominational ownership. Thus the debate was opened; extended speeches were made. By the end of that Friday-morning discussion, question on the motion was called but no action was taken. Kellogg requested the privilege of having further time to explain the position of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. All of Friday afternoon was devoted to this, and again all of Sunday afternoon. The General Conference Bulletin does not report these speeches.
On the second Sabbath Ellen White took the morning service. Her sermon, as published in the General Conference Bulletin, is titled "A Call to Repentance."--(Ibid., 88). She made no mention of the specifics of the Controversy, but opened her sermon by quoting the message to the church at Sardis. She remarked:
In view of this instruction, how important it is that we do not devote our time to faultfinding, or criticizing, but that we receive the divine truth into our hearts, that they may break before God!-- Ibid.
In the midst of her sermon she admonished:
Take your minds off human beings. They are finite, erring. We are only little children in comparison with God. From Him, as little children, we must learn our lessons. He wants us to humble our hearts before Him, in submission and contrition. He wants us to speak kind, tender, compassionate words to one another. Educate yourselves to speak such words. Be polite to God and to one another. Remember that He wants you to have the best of manners, that you may glorify Him before the world. He desires you to live in unity with one another, and to love one another. Remember that if you love one another here, you will live with the redeemed through the ceaseless ages of eternity. Oh, think of these things!--Ibid., 89.
As she discussed the situation, she introduced a rather interesting phrase:
This is our washing and ironing time--the time when we are to cleanse our robes of character in the blood of the Lamb.-- Ibid., 89.
Concerning this Sabbath-morning meeting, she reported to friends in Australia:
I was in doubt as to the advisability of attempting to speak, as I had contracted a severe cold. But I dared not remain at home, so I said, I will place myself in a position to speak, and then, if I am unable, I will be humble enough to refrain from speaking. I found the church crowded. To the praise of God, ... I was enabled to speak for an hour and a quarter. Some who for forty years have frequently heard me speak said they had never before heard me give so powerful a discourse. No one could doubt that the power of God rested upon me.--Letter 79, 1903.
She called for a reconsecration, asking all to rise to their feet who would seek to meet the mind of the Holy Spirit during the meetings and pledge themselves by God's help to put away all murmuring, complaining, and evil speaking and cease to hinder one another by setting a wrong example. Nearly all the congregation arose, testifying that they would seek to advance the work of God instead of hindering it (The General Conference Bulletin, 1903, 91). She asked those who had come forward to kneel in prayer and then she offered a most earnest petition to God.
Ellen White was asked to take the devotional service on Sunday morning. She opened her remarks with these words:
I have been carrying a very heavy burden. For the past three nights I have slept very little. Many scenes are presented to me. I feel an intense interest in the advancement of the work of God, and I say to our leading brethren, as you consider the questions that shall come before you, you are to look beneath the surface. You are to give careful consideration to every question discussed.--Ibid., 104.
She referred to the fires in Battle Creek and pointed out the needs of the world field. Referring to the proposition that money should be raised to meet the debts of the Sanitarium by the issuance of bonds, she declared, "Light has been given me that means are not to be thus drawn from our people."-- Ibid.
She was not unsympathetic to the situation in Battle Creek, for she said:
The light that God has given me is that there are proper ways that the conference shall devise to help the Sanitarium in Battle Creek. I wish that a portion of the work of this institution had been taken elsewhere. But the Sanitarium has been erected in Battle Creek, and it must be helped. God will institute ways and means by which it can be helped. But He does not wish His people to invest their money in bonds.-- Ibid.
She spoke of the great field that was to be worked, and especially the needs of the South. Then she introduced another point:
The question has been asked, "Would it not be well to pay men of ability wages that are in accordance with their experience and ability, so as to secure the very best talent?"--Ibid., 105.
Her answer:
The most valuable workers that can be secured for service in the cause of God are those who understand and obey the word, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."-- Ibid.
Writing of the experience later, she declared:
I was forbidden to say the things that I thought I must say on Sunday morning. Light came into my mind, and I was given a subject to present. I was instructed that I must try to lead the minds of the people away from the difficulties and perplexities around them.--Letter 49, 1903.
As she brought her talk to a close it was very clear that she had Dr. Kellogg in mind and had decided that the time had come to confront the issues. But she did not do it.
Do not cut any man's hands. I once read of a drowning man who was making desperate efforts to get into a boat close beside him. But the boat was full, and as he grasped the side, those in the boat cut off one of his hands. Then he grasped the boat with the other hand, and that hand was cut off. Then he grasped it with his teeth, and those inside had mercy on him and lifted him in. But how much better it would have been if they had taken him in before they had cut off his hands!
My brethren, do not cut a man to pieces before you do anything to help him. God wants us to have hearts of pity. He wants us to have reason and judgment and the sanctification of His Spirit.--The General Conference Bulletin, 1903, 105, 106.
Helge Nelson Assaults Her
As Ellen White was stepping down from the platform a man in the audience, Helge Nelson, rushed to the front and attempted to assault her. A newspaper account declares that "the venerable exhorter staggered against the pulpit platform steps and tottered feebly as she was grasped by a number of men who were close by, as the hand of her attacker descended upon the unsuspecting woman." The newspaper account continued: "Quickly, amid the scene of much commotion, 'Angel Nelson' [the title assumed by her attacker] was hustled out of the church by some stout-armed elders. While others attended the stricken woman, Alonzo T. Jones, president of the California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, summoned the police and Nelson was hustled off to the city prison by Patrolman Flynn and charged with battery."
The report stated that "Mrs. White regained her composure shortly, and happily received the congratulations of her friends that the assault had not caused more serious trouble."--DF 586.
Helge Nelson was not unknown to Ellen White, nor to many of the delegates who were present at that morning meeting. He claimed that he was to be the successor to Ellen White, that he was to be to her what Joshua was to Moses. At the 1901 General Conference session, Nelson had sought repeatedly for an opportunity to take over the meetings. An action was taken that disallowed him to speak.
But he had been given an opportunity to meet with some of the leading church workers. He had related to the brethren his experience and what he understood to be his call. In this committee meeting Ellen White had recounted her earlier contacts with Mr. Nelson. She told of how he had come to her home in California and she had spent time listening to him. She stated, "God has not given Brother Nelson the work of acting as Joshua in connection with His people. From the light that I have had, this could not be. It is an impossibility."--The Review and Herald, July 30, 1901. She closed her remarks in the committee meeting in Battle Creek by saying:
We love our brother. We want him to be saved, but we cannot allow him to take the time of this conference. It is not his time. God has given us a work to do, and we intend to do it, under His supervision, that souls may be brought to a knowledge of present truth.-- Ibid.
Action on Institutional Ownership and Control
As Dr. Kellogg occupied Sunday afternoon with his review of his experience with the Battle Creek Sanitarium, some rather sharp things were said at times. Eventually, the following action was taken on control of institutions:
All institutions created directly by the people, through either General Conference, union conference, State conference, or mission field organization, to be owned by the people, through these or such other organizations as the people may elect.--The General Conference Bulletin, 1903, 223.
At times when Ellen White attended general gatherings such as this, she absented herself from the business discussions, but at the General Conference of 1903 she was often present and occasionally spoke to the matters that were being discussed. Writing to old friends on April 1, early during the Oakland meeting, she stated, "I expect to take part in the meetings daily. There are many important questions to be settled."--Letter 48, 1903. Her contributions to the meetings were mostly in the form of addresses, and in these she often made reference to the light that God had given to her in vision a few hours or a day or two before.
The New Constitution
The second major debate of the 1903 General Conference session, which came toward the end of the meeting, was centered upon the new constitution, specifically the provision for the election of a president and other appropriate officers for the General Conference. Actually, it was but a slight revision of the 1901 constitution, but it was handled as a new document.
Two reports were filed with the session from the Committee on Plans and Constitution. The majority report supported the new constitution, which would provide for the leading officers of the General Conference to be chosen by the delegates, thus giving them a mandate from the church. On this committee were a number of conference presidents and W. C. White. The minority report, signed by three men largely connected with institutional interests, claimed that the proposed new constitution would reverse the reformatory steps taken at the General Conference of 1901. These men argued that the constitution of 1901, which provided that the General Conference Committee could choose its officers, should not be "annihilated" without giving it a fair trial.
Dr. Kellogg strongly favored the minority report. In a letter written to Ellen White on the day of the opening of the session, he referred to "the schemes of Daniells and Prescott to become rulers over Israel," which would be "in direct opposition to the whole plan of reorganization which the Lord gave us through you at the last General Conference." He pointed out that if this were allowed to culminate it would "drive out of the work and into a separate movement all self-respecting doctors and nurses and many ministers as well" (JHK to EGW, March 29, 1903).
As the discussions went on, again and again reference was made to the 1901 General Conference and to a statement quoted from Ellen White that "it is not wise to choose one man as president of the General Conference." This had been read in 1901 from a manuscript source (Letter 24a, 1896) by those who advocated that the committee of twenty-five should elect the officers.
Now at this 1903 meeting W. C. White and A. G. Daniells were ready; Daniells read the statement, found in Testimonies to Ministers, in its context:
It is not wise to choose one man as president of the General Conference. The work of the General Conference has extended, and some things have been made unnecessarily complicated. A want of discernment has been shown. There should be a division of the field, or some other plan should be devised, to change the present order of things.... The president of the General Conference should have the privilege of deciding who shall stand by his side as counselors.--Page 342 (see also The General Conference Bulletin, 1903, 160).
Ellen White did not enter into the debate on the question of the constitution. W. C. White spoke strongly in support of the changes proposed, as did some of the other respected leaders, such as Loughborough and Butler. The matter was not settled quickly. A vote with a three-fourths majority was needed. At the close of the evening meeting, April 9, 1903, the vote was taken, with 108 delegates present. Eighty-five voted Yes, carrying the action by a majority of four.
Ellen White's final address was given Thursday morning, April 9, after J. Edson White had reported on the work in the South. She read from a manuscript written in 1902, making some comments as she read. Among these:
I have said, "The Southern work," supposing that our people would certainly understand that I mean especially the work for the colored people. I wish it now to be understood that this is what I meant.--Ibid., 1903, 202.
The session voted to make a quarterly appropriation for the work of the Southern Missionary Society.
Another significant action provided for the use of tithe money for the support of aged or sick workers and for the support of widows and orphans of workers (Ibid., 135).