A busy two weeks of meetings
When the S.S. Cephalonia pulled up to the pier at Liverpool, Ellen White was ready to go to work. And the reception at the dock brought courage to her, for there waiting to meet the White party were M. C. Wilcox, editor of the Present Truth, the British missionary journal that he had launched the year before, and two other workers, among whom were George R. Drew and William O'Neil.
They were taken to the home of Brother Drew for the night, and all united in a season of prayer and thanksgiving for God's protecting care. Ellen White's health was better than when she left America, and she stated, "To me this was abundant evidence that I was in the path of duty" (Ibid., 162). It brought great encouragement to her.
Drew worked as a "ship missionary" in Liverpool, and when Ellen White learned from him that Liverpool had 300,000 inhabitants and there were only two denominational workers attempting to reach the people, she was distressed! "What can those do to let rays of light shine in this great city?" she asked with a troubled heart, "I am filled with pain ... when I consider the few workers and so much to be done. There will have to be help sent to this city."--Letter 22, 1885.
The First Missionary an Englishman
The first tangible "help" for Britain had come from Switzerland. According to Historical Sketches*:
"The first Seventh-day Adventist missionary to visit England was Bro. William Ings, who reached Southampton from Basel, Switzerland, on May 23, 1878.
"Bro. Ings remained at first two weeks, when he returned again to the Continent. He reported much interest, and people hungering for the truth. He soon returned to England, and resumed work in the land of his birth. At the end of sixteen weeks he reports ten keeping the Sabbath.... He and his wife remained in England until the beginning of the year 1882. Much of his time was spent in ship work, and thousands of pages of publications on present truth in various languages were sent by him to all parts of the world.... But Bro. Ings' labors were not confined to ship work. In Southampton and surrounding towns and villages he presented the truth faithfully as opportunity offered, going from house to house, obtaining subscriptions for periodicals, talking and praying with the people."--Page 81.
The same year that Ings began his work in England the General Conference sent J. N. Loughborough across the Atlantic. He arrived seven months after Ings came to the country. Loughborough plunged into evangelistic work in Southampton and its suburbs within a week after his arrival. He preached in a newly purchased tent sixty feet in diameter. Six hundred attended the first service. Meetings ran from May 18 to August 17, and thirty persons signed "The Covenant" to keep God's holy commandments and to wait for the Lord from heaven.†
No baptism was conducted until February 8, 1880, when Loughborough immersed six persons--he did not believe in rushing his candidates into the church! By July 2, 1881, twenty-nine had taken their baptismal vows. Credit was partially due to the excellent Bible work done by Maud Sisley, who had returned to her homeland from America.
Pioneer S. N. Haskell also visited Britain and labored on the Continent in 1882. He encouraged the workers and urged the beginning of a publishing enterprise in England. Other ministers followed with brief visits. J. H. Durland and M. C. Wilcox, however, were missionaries in Britain attached to the work there.
Foundations Deep and Solid
The needs of the field were staggering, and Ellen White saw clearly that only a beginning had been made. She was eager that the foundation be laid deep and solid. In 1879, while still in America, she wrote:
"I was shown in vision many things connected with the cause of God. The state of things in the church ... and the work of God in Europe and England, ... and in other new fields, was presented before me. There is the greatest need of the work in new fields starting right, bearing the impress of the divine. Many in these new fields will be in danger of accepting the truth or assenting to it, who have not a genuine conversion of heart. When tested by storm and tempest, it will be found that their house is not built upon a rock but upon sliding sand. Practical godliness must be possessed by the minister and developed in his daily life and character. His discourses should not be exclusively theoretical."--Testimonies for the Church 4:321.
Such counsels explain the thorough work J. N. Loughborough did for his converts and S. N. Haskell's emphasis on a strong literature ministry. For years both men had been closely associated with Ellen White in labor. They highly valued her counsel.
But returning now to Drew, in whose home she was staying. He was an Englishman, like Ings, and was born in Christchurch, Hampshire, in 1835. As a young man he had gone to sea and spent fifteen years as a sailor. Once, while in the port of San Francisco, he heard J. N. Loughborough preach and had accepted the Advent message. Then he returned to England in 1882 and engaged in his "ship missionary work," distributing free literature and selling books and magazines to passengers and crews in port cities.
Drew had worked first in Hull, and then in Liverpool. He was to continue to labor in Britain for the rest of his life. William O'Neil, who also met the White party at the boat, was with Drew in Liverpool to gain experience for work he planned to do later in London. The two men visited hundreds of ships along the twelve miles of docks in Liverpool and Birkenhead. In the first quarter of 1884 Drew visited 680 ships. He is credit with having converted the Finnish sea captain A. F. Lundquist, who introduced the Advent message to Finland.
Grimsby--Headquarters Town
The morning after Mrs. White's arrival she and her party, accompanied by M. C. Wilcox, took the train for Grimsby, where the mission and publishing work had been headquartered since 1884.
Arriving at the mission office at 72 Heneage Street, Ellen White met Alfred Mason and his wife, Inez, Evangelist Sands H. Lane and his wife, Parmelia, and Jennie Thayer. All of these were Americans who had come to help with the British Mission.*
According to W. C. White, Grimsby was a place of 30,000 inhabitants, and "the greatest fishing port in England." "A strange place," he observed, "from which to issue our paper, nevertheless there have been over 9,000 copies sent out monthly' (W. C. White letter, September 18, 1885).
Mrs. White remembered Grimsby as "a very large place," but not large enough to be "called a city because it had no grand cathedral" (Letter 22, 1885). But here she began her public speaking endeavors, which were to take her before many audiences, large and small, in eight countries of Europe.
Friday afternoon a drenching rain threatened to cut down the attendance considerably, but 170 braved the elements to hear Ellen White lecture on "Christian Temperance," one of her favorite subjects. At the close of her address she was greeted with enthusiastic applause!
The next morning at half past ten she met with the little church in Grimsby to deliver her first Sabbath sermon. About thirty-five were present, including ten who had come in from Hull and Ulceby. A. A. John* was there from Wales, where he had been witnessing since early summer.
In the sermon that Sabbath morning the messenger of the Lord shared some experiences from the pioneer days of the cause. She told of the sacrifices that were made, and spoke of the responsibility that fell on each member to make further sacrifices to carry the "present truth" to others. Then she went on to assure the little church that the time would come when many would embrace the truth in the United Kingdom.
"Many of them were bathed in tears," that Sabbath morning, she wrote in her diary. After the service she was introduced to each member of the congregation, and those from Hull and Ulceby begged her to come to their towns to speak, also.
In the afternoon the Sabbath school was held. Ellen White spoke thirty minutes, and others followed in a "social," or testimony meeting. As she listened to the new believers recount their stirring experiences she said she "could not but think how similar is the experience of all true followers of Christ. There is but 'one Lord, one faith, one baptism.'"--Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 162. The church in England was one with the church in her own homeland--in trials and sacrifices.
Sunday morning she spoke again, this time on the text Revelation 3:15,"I know thy works." That evening, August 23, the Town Hall, largest auditorium in the city, had been secured for a public meeting.
An estimated 1,200 people had gathered, filling every seat and standing up lining the walls. The "Grimsby United Temperance Prize Choir" had volunteered to provide music. This fifty-voice choir, which had taken second prize at the London Crystal Palace competition the year before, sang seven numbers, three at the beginning, two at the close, and two following the benediction.
It was an appreciative audience that listened as Ellen White spoke to them on God's love as shown in nature. She was drawn out toward her audience in the spirit of the true evangelist. She said later:
"As I reflected that not until the last great day would I again meet all there assembled, I tried to present the precious things of God in such a way as to draw their minds from earth to heaven. But I could only warn and entreat, and hold up Jesus as the center of attraction, and a heaven of bliss as the eternal reward of the overcomer."--Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 162, 163.
Jesus Christ was the central figure in all of Mrs. White's preaching at home and abroad. She could say:
"Jesus Christ is everything to us--the first, the last, the best in everything. Jesus Christ, His Spirit, His character, colors everything; it is the warp and the woof, the very texture of our entire being."--Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 389.
The address was published the following Friday in the Grimsby News.
Fruitful Work in Ulceby
After spending most of Monday, August 24, in writing, Ellen White took the train ten miles to Ulceby, to visit there the little church raised up by A. A. John. Her labors were fruitful. One woman who had been convinced of the truth, but who was still undecided there, determined to obey all the commandments of God.
Before the meeting Mrs. White visited a short time with a baker, Edward Armstrong, and his family of nine children.* Armstrong told her how his wife had been a Sabbathkeeper for some time, but he had hesitated, fearing that to accept the Sabbath would cut off his livelihood. He supplied an English lord's family in Ulceby with bread, and this helped him secure most of his business in the town. Finally, he decided he would keep the Sabbath come what may. He announced his decision to the lord's mother, promising to bring her bread late on Friday and early on Sunday, but she refused, paid him up, and discharged him, declaring they must have fresh bread each day and that she would order it from Grimsby. A week later though she called him back to ask him if he had given up his foolish ideas. Satisfied that he had not, she told him she would take his bread anyway, because the bread they got from Grimsby was always sour.
This experience drove home to Ellen White the serious difficulty many people in Britain faced when they accepted the Sabbath, and it aroused her sincere sympathy.
"It is very difficult for poor people to keep the Sabbath," she wrote to her friend Dr. Gibbs. "It is not luxuries that they lose for they have not these; but it is the bare bread that sustains life that they lose. Many believe but have no kind of a show of getting the simplest food to sustain life." "But," she wrote, "God's eye is upon His conscientious, faithful children in England and He will make a way for them to keep all His commandments."--Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 163.
After spending the night with the Short family in Ulceby, and an "English style" breakfast of "porridge, bread and sauce, and cake," she took the nine o'clock train back to Grimsby.
A Large Meeting in Riseley
The next day she was off again, this time for Riseley, a little town near Wellingborough, where Pastors Lane and Durland had been holding a tent meeting for two months. It is a rainy and foggy day, but she found 400 gathered to hear her speak--300 filling the seats and 100 standing around the edges.
She was encouraged by the response. The people "listened as if spellbound" she wrote. "They seemed to drink in every word. After the meeting closed, all who could ... shook my hand heartily saying, 'God bless you for the words you have spoken.... May the Lord long preserve you.'"--Letter 11, 1885.
The Visit to London and Southampton
Mrs. White had also taken a cold, and when she went to London* the next day she was sick all the way. What new adventure lay before her in that great city?
W. C. White had gone ahead to meet Henry Kellogg, and these two met her when she arrived. Henry Kellogg, no relation to Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, was an Adventist businessman who previously managed the Review and Herald Publishing House. He had come to Europe in 1885 to help establish the publishing house in Basel, to purchase equipment, and to assist the publishing work in Britain and Scandinavia.
Arriving in London about noon, August 27, Ellen White took a brief walk in London, but soon had to retire to her hotel. The next day, Friday, she and her companions met W. M. Jones, pastor of the Seventh Day Baptist church in London and editor of the Sabbath Memorial. Jones led the White party on a two-hour tour of the famous British Museum. Of the visit she observed: "We could not have viewed much without the guidance and information given us from Elder Jones."--Manuscript 16a, 1885.
Following the visit to the famous museum, the party left by train for Southampton. That night, in a private home, she spoke to the church members for forty minutes and the next day, Sabbath, she spoke twice.
Sunday morning her cold was worse, but she joined others in a little sight-seeing, visiting the ruins of some old Roman buildings and walls. The scenery and ride fascinated Mrs. White, but she returned home with her head throbbing. "Every nerve in my body seemed to be quivering," she wrote (Letter 22, 1885). She was slated to speak that night, but could hardly utter a word. Brother Durland had rented a large hall and put out extensive advertising, but everyone was fearful that the meeting would have to be canceled. W. C. White reported:
"We spent much of the afternoon in prayer, and trusting that the Lord would help her as in times past, Mother consented to go to the hall and try to speak. There were about 600 assembled in the hall, and when mother began in a hoarse voice, to address them two or three left the hall. But in less than five minutes her voice cleared, and she spoke an hour, with more force than at any other meeting in England."--W. C. White letter, September 18, 1885.
Soul-Burden for London
Early Monday morning they were back in London. Here she spent two days and two nights in writing. Her most important project was to write out her sermon of Sunday night, which she had promised to the Southampton newspaper, the Hampshire Independent. Her last night in London was a restless one.
"I could not lay off the burden I felt for the souls in England. I was pleading with the Lord to arouse His people that the missionary spirit might burn in the hearts of those who were now at ease in Zion; and that the warning message might be given to these great cities. There are five million people in London and one hundred workers would not be too many to try to reflect light on this great city. Who will come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty? Who will go without the camp bearing the reproach?"--Letter 22, 1885.
In a dream given to her years before, she was shown the dying cities of the world desperately in need of light "One of dignity and authority" spoke to her saying:
"'Never lose sight of the fact that the message you are bearing is a world-wide message. It is to be given to all cities, to all villages; it is to be proclaimed in the highways and the byways. You are not to localize the proclamation of the message.'"--Testimonies for the Church 7:34-36.
On to the Continent
The journey from London to Dover by train took several hours, but Ellen White enjoyed the fresh green countryside, noting what a contrast it made to the "dry, brown fields of a rainless California autumn."
The channel crossing was rough enough to produce considerable seasickness. But she was not sick at all herself. At Calais, France, after an hour-and-a-half crossing, they met Brother Brown, a local literature evangelist, who supplied them with a welcome basket of pears, grapes, peaches, and nuts.
Bound for Basel, W. C. White tried to get a sleeping car for his mother, but the eleven dollars extra charge discouraged that idea. The Whites--mother and son--were frugal in their use of the Lord's money. Fortunately, however, they were able to get a through car.
At six o'clock the next morning, September 3, they reached Basel, Switzerland, where she was to make her headquarters for two eventful years. Soon after her arrival she wrote:
"Here we are in Europe at last. We have come through safely and have had a pleasant journey--no accident or harm has come to any of us."--Letter 22, 1885.