Busy times with the Roth family
After the breathtaking journey through the Alps, Ellen White's train pulled into Geneva Thursday evening in a driving rainstorm. At the station waiting for the traveling party from Italy were the D. T. Bourdeau family. Soon the travelers were again comfortably situated in the hospitable Bourdeau home.
Much of the next day Ellen White spent in writing and then that evening, after the setting of the sun, spoke to a small group of interested persons in Bourdeau's home. Sabbath morning she took the train for Lausanne and went directly to the hall where Sabbath services were in progress. Bourdeau translated her message into French while Conradi rendered it in German. Here Conradi had at least twenty who had accepted the Sabbath.
As she met with the workers on Sunday she was impressed with their self-sacrifice, and the difficulty of their task:
"There are efforts being made, but how few the workers! Limited means, bound about constantly for want of money--it is pinch here and pinch there, and that kind of plain diet that in America they would think they would be going on the starvation plan. Many and most of their meals are bare bread and hot milk, and frequently the bare bread. The dress of all is severely plain; and yet how much easier working now than when the bloodhounds of persecution were upon the track of everyone who had dared to differ in sentiment from Rome, and afterward from the State Church....
"When I saw them in Lausanne in a small hall, boards without backs for seats, I then thought of how much good a little means might do that is squandered upon attractive garments or extras in diet and furniture by so many in America. My heart aches. I so long to see the example of Christ followed in self-denial, in self-sacrifice."--Letter 97, 1886.
Tour of the Swiss Churches
On Monday morning, May 3, Ellen White returned to her home in the publishing house in Basel, but not for long. In less than three weeks she was off again on a tour of the Swiss churches.
If Ellen White had once believed that her work in Europe would be finished in a few months, all thoughts of a short stay were banished by now. She knew that there was work enough to keep her busy for a long time. She wrote to her eldest son, Edson,* and his wife, Emma, saying, "I can tell you, children, that there is not much chance for idleness here. Everyone has all that he can possibly do. I can see no way to leave here until one year from now"--Manuscript 54, 1886.
While their objective was Tramelan, there were other Swiss churches to visit on this trip. And so it was on Thursday. May 20, Ellen White took her new carriage and her horse, Dolly, and with Willie, Sara McEnterfer, and John Vuilleumier set off to visit Tramelan, where the first SDA meetinghouse in all of Europe was soon to be built.
She had traveled through this area by train and decided the scenery was equal to that of Colorado, but when seen from an open carriage the view was even more breathtaking, perhaps because more time was allowed to take in the scene. She declared that the view far exceeded anything she had ever seen. "No one can tell what Switzerland is unless they have traveled over the road by horse and carriage," she added (Letter 78, 1886).
Tramelan and the Roth Family
That night they slept at the Crown Hotel in Moutier, and Friday at dinnertime reached the pleasant home of the Roth family in Tramelan. The Roths were in many ways an exceptional Adventist family. They had ten children--seven boys and three girls--but unlike most Adventists of the time they were not exactly poor. The father and oldest son were merchant tailors, and the next son, Oscar, had been a successful baker, but was now working as a colporteur. The building in which the family lived contained their bakery, two tailor shops, and a general store where they handled hats, shoes, and groceries, as well. Two of the Roth children worked in the publishing house at Basel.
For the meeting that Friday evening the Roths' large family room had been cleared, and benches and boards brought in. Besides the believers in Tramelan, a dozen had come from Chaux-de-Fonds to hear Ellen White speak. That night after the meeting she could not sleep until about midnight. This often happened when she spoke at an evening meeting. "When before the people I feel so deeply in earnest that they should come up to the holy standard erected by our Lord that I am unable to lay off the burden," she explained (Manuscript 64, 1886).
Caught in a Hailstorm
Sunday afternoon her friends took her off on a ride to visit a two-hundred-year-old convent. Suddenly clouds began to gather, lightning flashed, and huge hailstones fell, some as large as hickory nuts. Cattle and horses were running wildly about the fields. Roth put the cover up on the carriage and hastened to a nearby farmhouse, where the farmer threw open the doors of his barn to admit the horse and the carriage.
While Ellen White sat in the carriage waiting for the storm to pass, Oscar Roth talked with the family. It turned out that the farmer and his wife were devout Roman Catholics, and they were soon taking Roth to task for the frank statements they had read in Les Signes about the Catholics. The man was greatly offended, but Roth told him that he was not the one who chose the contents of the magazine. Finally the farmer calmed down and said, "Well, we will talk no more about it." Ellen White remarked, "We look upon this as being an interesting little bit of experience" (Ibid.). Later she was led to give counsel regarding the articles in our journals:
"Every article you write may be all truth, but one drop of gall in it will be poison to the reader. One reader will discard all your good and acceptable words because of that drop of poison. Another will feed on the poison, for he loves such harsh words."--Letter 91, 1899 (published in Counsels to Writers and Editors, 65, 66).
"We may have less to say in some lines, in regard to the Roman power and the papacy, but we should call attention to what the prophets and apostles have written under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit has so shaped matters, both in the giving of the prophecy, and in the events portrayed, as to teach that the human agent is to be kept out of sight, hid in Christ, and the Lord God of heaven and His law are to be exalted."--Letter 57, 1896 (published in Counsels to Writers and Editors, 65).
There was a missionary meeting that evening at which Ellen White spoke on the privileges and duties of the Christian. She stressed the importance of a right relationship to God, especially for believers who only rarely heard a regular minister preach. Everyone, she said, should become a channel of light to others, because "every true follower of Christ is a missionary" (The Review and Herald, July 20, 1886).
Monday, she drove to Bienne with Sara, Willie, and Mary and Oscar Roth. Here she spoke for another missionary meeting with Mary Roth serving as her translator. Then it was on to La Chaux-de-Fonds on Wednesday. The next day she took a trip to Le Locle to visit the Pierre Shield family and arrange an appointment for the following Sunday. She returned to La Chaux-de-Fonds to speak again that evening.
W. C. White was urging his mother on from place to place, trying to get her to visit as many groups of believers as possible. And she was doing her best. But the evening meetings and loss of sleep were beginning to take their toll. She spoke again Sabbath morning in La Chaux-de-Fonds however, and said of the meeting:
"The Lord blessed me. I was very weak, but I knew Jesus was in our midst, and His sustaining grace was given me. My heart is seldom more deeply stirred than it was at this meeting. I could not forbear weeping as I had a vivid sense of the love of Christ. The congregation was many of them in tears. I knew that Jesus of Nazareth was passing through our midst, and His blessing was flowing in rich waves of love to our souls."--Manuscript 20, 1886.
She knew that there were some in the congregation who were convicted, but had not yet decided to follow Christ, so she asked those who wanted to be "fully on the Lord's side" to stand. Nearly all stood. Erzberger offered a "deed and earnest prayer" followed by a lively social meeting (ibid).
On Sunday they traveled on to Le Locle. The Adventists here had suffered a great deal of opposition, and were almost afraid to have her come to speak. But they had secured a hall, and she spoke to a good crowd on temperance. After the meeting the believers took heart and decided that if she would return they would get an even larger hall.
Later that day she sent her Swiss friends back to Tramelan with her carriage while she took the train for Neuchatel for a final speaking appointment before returning to Basel. Her work required haste, and she must surrender her preference for the quiet carriage ride amidst the beauties of nature to the demands of the Lord's work, but she never forgot those glorious days, itinerating in lovely Switzerland.