Appointments in Basel, Geneva, and Lausanne
Ellen White spent the first day of 1886 writing and knitting stockings. In a letter to her niece, Addie Walling, she told of her New Year resolutions:
"The old year is in the past and the new year is before us. Day by day the record will go up to God. What history shall I make? Oh, that it may be such a record as I shall not be ashamed to meet in the Judgment. I want to have Jesus with me every hour."--Letter 91, 1886.
Early the next morning, Sabbath, Kristine Dahl came to her room and opened her heart to the older woman, telling her she wanted to be a Christian and had decided to be baptized that day. Exclaimed Mrs. White, "Oh, how thankful I felt that she had strength to do this--to identify herself with the people of God."--Manuscript 61, 1886.
That afternoon Kristine and three others were immersed. Then everyone participated in the ordinances of the Lord's house. After taking her stand Kristine regularly joined the Whites in their family worship, taking her turn in reading the Scriptures. Before coming to Basel she had lived with her family in Norway.
That Sabbath was a special day of victory in another sense. The leaders of the work in Basel had hoped to raise extra money during the holiday season to purchase tents for evangelistic work in Central Europe. The appeal had been delayed because of Edith Andrews' death, but when $140 came in on the first Sabbath of the New Year, Ellen White was highly pleased.
Faith and Sacrifice of the Believers
She wrote to Willie, who was still in America:
"The church [members] at Basel you know are all poor. There are but about two brethren in Switzerland who own the houses they live in; all have to pay rent. Of those who work in the office here, the highest wages they receive for their labor is one dollar per day. That is six dollars per week, and they work early and late and board themselves at these wages. Others have less.
"I can see a spirit of sacrifice on the part of our people here, far ahead of that which is seen in America. They believe the Testimonies and accept them as the voice of God to them and they will, of their small wages, do all they can do to advance the cause and work of God."--Letter 72a, 1886.
By the beginning of 1886 Ellen White had had a fair chance to judge the condition of the work in Europe. She had attended the European Council, she had served in Britain, and now she had visited the Scandinavian countries and Italy. She observed that the situation in the Old World in the 1880's was quite similar to what the Adventist pioneers had faced in America in the 1850's. The believers were new, many of the workers inexperienced, financial resources scarce, and the responsibility of proclaiming the last warning message to the world immense, and not always understood.
When the plans were laid for the Whites to visit the European countries no specifications were made as to the length of the visit. They felt that they would be able to accomplish their work within a few months. But more and more it became obvious that they would not be able to leave Europe as soon as they had first thought might be possible. A month or two previously she had talked of returning to America in May, 1886, for the summer camp meeting season. Now that plan was abandoned:
"I cannot see how we can get away from here as soon as spring.... I was urged to go to Europe and in Europe I shall stay until I feel that I can be released to return.... I am in no hurry to return unless the Lord says, Go to America. We have scarcely begun.... I am glad I came, for the Lord has sustained me."--Ibid.
During January, February, and March, she settled more and more into the routine of her work in Europe, speaking almost every Sabbath in the Basel church, and pouring out a steady stream of letters, not only to workers in Europe but to America, as well.
The White Apartment in Basel
Her apartment in the publishing house was not fancy, but the rooms were made comfortable with borrowed furniture. Charles Andrews, J. N.'s son, went to America after the Third European Council, and Mrs. White inherited his bed, bureau, table, and wardrobe. Since the steam heat did not always take the chill off the winter mornings, a coal stove was installed.
In addition to Ellen White's room, the White family was supplied with a dining room and two other bedrooms. One of these was fitted up as an office with desk, typewriter table, and bookshelves. The other provided sleeping quarters for Willie, Mary, and little Ella.
Various Activities Day by Day
Mrs. White found time to be a good neighbor, as well. On Sunday, January 3, she and Mary walked out to visit Mrs. Erzberger. They found her on her way to visit Mr. and Mrs. Louis Aufranc, so they all went together. Mrs. White felt sorry for Mr. Aufranc. He had served as a translator in the Basel office for years, but his poor health habits during his student days had undermined his constitution.
During the following week, she began to have her own health problems. Her left eye became inflamed, and she was afflicted with headaches. When she couldn't write she would dictate her letters, thus continuing to work despite her indisposition. She tried to get out into the open air as often as possible.
One day in the middle of January, just a few days before her granddaughter, Ella, turned four, she took the little girl by the hand, and together they went for a walk. As grandmother and bubbly youngster walked and talked, they became so engrossed in their cheerful adventure that they lost account of their whereabouts. No one seemed to understand English well enough to tell them how to find the printing office. For an hour they searched for the way home. Finally they found the railroad track, which they knew led past their street. When they reached the office they found everyone very worried over their long absence!
Her eye trouble persisted throughout January, and sometimes, when she could not bear to write longer, Mary White would hear her singing to while away the time.
Reinforcements From America
Meanwhile Willie White was completing his work in America, preparing to return in early February. He noted that Volume I of the Spirit of Prophecy (the forerunner of Patriarchs and Prophets) was out of print, and suggested that work should go forward at once to prepare another edition. Mrs. White herself had suggested to him that if she was to stay in Europe she should push her literary work there. She even envisioned the possibility of having some of her books published in Switzerland to provide work for the struggling publishing house. Except for translations of her books, this never materialized. She kept up her prodigious literary output throughout her stay in Europe. There was the continual correspondence with workers and laymen in America and the opening mission lands, the preparation of articles for church journals, as well as sermons that were edited for publication.
Marian Davis accompanied W. C. White when he returned to Europe, to help with the typing and preparation of Ellen White's writings for publication. When they arrived they found Ellen White ill and confined to her bed. The day before she had suffered two hours of severe chills. But seeing her son and her good friend Miss Davis brightened her spirits.
Marian had worked with her as a secretary and literary assistant since 1879 and would continue to do so for many years to come. Her first job in Basel was to work with Mary K. White in arranging Ellen White's accounts of her travels thus far in Europe for the book Historical Sketches.
Literary Assistants Help Ellen White
With her busy preaching and writing schedule, Mrs. White was producing more than Mary could cope with. And now, with plans being laid for the preparation of major books, it was even more essential that extra help be brought in.
The need for these literary assistants is not hard to understand. Mrs. White's sermons were delivered extemporaneously, in a free, lively style. But as any public speaker knows, oral presentations require editing before they are ready for the printed page. Mrs. White's literary assistants took down her sermons as she spoke, typed them out in proper form, and then passed them back to her for her careful study and approval. With her handwritten articles, a similar procedure was followed. This enabled her to work much more quickly, freed from the concern of the meticulous work of a copy editor.
The editorial work was standard copy editing and included correcting spelling and grammatical errors, punctuation, and also noting repetition or awkward expressions. If Mrs. White used the wrong tense of a verb her faithful assistants would correct it. Her secretaries were not "ghost writers," nor did they rewrite her messages. She was the author of all the books and articles that bore her name.
L. R. Conradi Comes to Europe
When W. C. White returned to Europe in February he brought another important addition to the mission force, Louis R. Conradi, a native German who had gone to America when he was 17. He had become a Seventh-day Adventist while there and had been ordained in 1882. Conradi would remain in Europe for many years, eventually becoming the head of the European work.
Ellen White noted his arrival by saying, "Brother Conradi is here now and he thinks of visiting Russia soon as there is a deep interest already awakened there through reading. I am glad Brother Conradi has come, for he is a successful worker among the Germans."--Letter 29, 1886.
In late February Mrs. White was still not fully recovered. She confessed in a letter to Dr. Kellogg that for a time she had felt homesick and discouraged, "but the peace of Christ rested upon me in the night season and I felt sure that the promises of God would be verified to me" (Letter 32, 1886). The next day was a mild one, and she was up for a walk with Marian. She wrote:
"The streets are filled with baby carriages and women walking with infants in their arms on a pillow. They seem to be far more painstaking than in America to give their children fresh air and sunshine. Mothers act more like mothers than many in America who devote much time to dressing their children. The children are dressed plainly ... and their cheeks are rosy."--Letter 95, 1886.
A Horse and Carriage for the Visitor
These walks were getting more and more difficult for Sister White. Her hip was giving her pain, and her ankles, both of which had been broken at one time or another, troubled her. At one point she was so lame she had to speak on Sabbath sitting in a chair. All agreed that she needed a horse and carriage. She kept putting off the purchase, thinking all the time how much the money was needed for the mission. But at last she consented.
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg offered to pay for the purchase, but by the time his offer arrived she had already borrowed the necessary funds and bought a second-hand carriage and "an ordinary horse." She found the carriage comfortable, and even noted that it would have to be greased only two or three times a year. In 1887, just before she left Europe, she sold the outfit and donated the proceeds to the work there.
Strenuous Personal Labor
During the first three months of 1886 Ellen White carried on a steady correspondence with the Bourdeau brothers, Daniel, who was working in Geneva, and A. C. Bourdeau, still laboring in Torre Pellice, Italy. Both of these men, although veteran workers, apparently had more than their share of personal problems. A. C. Bourdeau did not seem to be accomplishing much in Italy, but when she suggested early in January that he might come to Geneva and help his brother, he gave all kinds of reasons why he should not leave the Waldensian valleys. She finally succeeded in prying him loose, and he reluctantly went to Geneva for a month.
Since Ellen White always worked closely with conference officials, there is reason to believe that this suggestion was acceptable to the Swiss leadership. Then a series of circumstances finally called for Ellen White to go to Geneva herself.
When L. R. Conradi had first arrived in Basel it was planned that his work would be to hold meetings with James Erzberger for the German-speaking Swiss in that city. But since so little preliminary work had been done, the two men were sent to Lausanne, near Geneva, in D. T. Bourdeau's territory. Conradi found the colporteurs in Lausanne lacking any systematic approach to their labors, and set about at once to put everyone on a regular schedule. He was a good organizer.
Just as the work was getting well under way, Bourdeau wrote from Geneva that "after meditation and prayer" he had decided to come to Lausanne thefollowing
Sunday night (March 14) and preach on the subject of the Sabbath. This word was quickly relayed to B. L. Whitney and W. C. White, who were in Basel, and they hastily sent a telegram to Bourdeau, who was on his way to Lausanne. They urged him to abandon his intention to introduce the Sabbath truth at so early a point in the program.
Ever since her letter to Bourdeau about his handbill in which he called himself an "American missionary" Ellen White had been writing him, giving kindly counsels and urging him to take a more humble view of himself and not try to do all the preaching. Then in mid-January he had a dream which he unfortunately felt had some significance. In his dream, he and James Erzberger were out fishing. Bourdeau was baiting the hooks, and when he offered the pole to his colleague, Erzberger politely insisted that Bourdeau do the fishing himself. Bourdeau, of course, stepped forward to do so, but it seemed that in the dream, other ministers were scaring the fish away. Naturally Bourdeau interpreted the dream as a sort of divine approval of his course.
The week before he had planned to go to Lausanne and preach on the Sabbath truth, Ellen White had written him a letter, attempting to open up to him in a kind and tactful way some of his weaknesses. Among other things, she said:
"If you do as you have done in the past, you will press yourself forward, grasp the opportunities which your brethren should have, and use the time yourself to your own injury, and to the disappointment of the hearers. You flatter yourself that you can interest the hearers better than any of your brethren, and sometimes in this you deceive yourself."--Letter 35, 1886.
Meanwhile, Bourdeau's wife, thinking to do him a favor, decided that he was too busy building up the work to stand the fragmenting shock of Ellen White's message, and so she held it up until the Sunday morning when he started for Lausanne. He read it on the way. Then to make matters worse, when he reached Lausanne he was handed the telegram from Whitney and White urging him not to preach on the Sabbath question. The double surprise was more than Bourdeau could accept. Instead of staying in Lausanne where he was needed, he returned to Geneva at once for a "week of meditation."
Good Meetings in Bienne
It can be seen that Ellen White's decision to go to Geneva to encourage and help Bourdeau was timely. She left on Friday, March 19, and spent Sabbath along the way with the church in Bienne. As the train glided along the sixty miles she enjoyed the scenery, the many tunnels, and the quaint little villages in the mountain valleys. She also took careful notice of the status of women at that time:
"We see men and women both at work on the land that can be cultivated--women with their hoes and spades.... Men are working also, with far less diligence. One or more is standing by with his hands in his pockets, looking on or directing these women in their work. The working women in Europe generally bear the heaviest part of the burdens. It is a common thing to see women walking, driving the load, with two or three men riding upon the load drawn by a couple of large cows."--Manuscript 53, 1886.
At Bienne she stayed at the home of another of the Vuilleumiers--Virgil (Letter 96, 1886). Six churches had come together in Bienne for a weekend of meetings. She preached four times. James Erzberger spoke Sabbath afternoon. Then there was a "social meeting." "The testimonies were excellent," Ellen White said, "right to the point." (Letter 96, 1886).
Sunday morning she addressed the people for the last time and then left for Lausanne, where she visited briefly with the workers. Elder Bourdeau was back in Lausanne when she arrived, and she went with him on a three-hour steamer ride to Geneva. The next day she hastened back to Basel. Of her thoughts on the train she wrote: "As we journeyed from Geneva to Basel, we passed through large and small cities and my meditations were, How is this people in these large cities to be warned?"--Letter 38, 1886.
But even though her stay was short, D. T. Bourdeau appreciated her counsel and her visit. He had known her for many years, and her frank messages to him only deepened his respect for her. In his very next letter after her visit he begged her to come to Geneva again, and by midsummer, his letters showed that he was diligently working to apply her counsel in his life. He wrote:
"Thanks for your interest as expressed in your last letter which came to hand four days since.... I do not neglect visiting, nor am I disposed to rush on independently of my brethren in this enterprise."--D. T. Bourdeau letter, July 10, 1886.
It was never an easy thing for Ellen White to have to bear messages of reproof. About this same time when G. I. Butler felt the corrections of the Lord's servant were severe, she explained to him just how she felt in her own heart:
"The Lord knows I am not pleased with this kind of work. I love and respect my brethren, and would not in the slightest manner demerit them, cause them pain; but I have tried to move with a single eye to the glory of God."--Letter 73, 1886.
Bourdeau labored in Europe until 1888, when he returned to America, where he continued to serve among French- and English-speaking people until he died in 1905, carrying the full respect of his brethren.