A busy month in England
Mrs. White's final month in Europe was spent in Great Britain and began with a long weekend in Kettering. This little city, about fifteen miles east of Birmingham, is in the industrial Midlands and is today a center for the manufacture of shoes. "We walked out and did some purchasing in the city in the great market place," she wrote soon after her arrival. Then added, "Purchased shoes" (Manuscript 36, 1887).
Her spiritual feet were shod also "with the preparation of the gospel of peace" (Ephesians 6:15). Before daybreak Sabbath morning, July 2, she was up and writing. Here is how she expressed her burden of soul for England:
"I felt deeply the need of special help from God in seeking to win souls to Jesus Christ. 'Without me,' says Christ, 'ye can do nothing.' How weak we are in our own finite strength. We want to work for the Master. I want to please Jesus, who has loved me, who has died for me. There is an unutterable longing of soul for the sweet, constant peace of Christ. I want Jesus in my thoughts continually."--Ibid.
She later continued her diary entry thus:
"At ten o'clock (Sabbath morning) the carriage came to take us to the place of meeting. It is a good-sized hall. Its walls are iron and the hot sun resting upon it made it seem like an oven. We had about fifty assembled. I spoke to them from Hebrews 12:1-4. Although the heat was very great the Lord gave me much freedom in speaking. At twelve the carriage was at the door and we returned to our home with deep and earnest yearning of heart for the dear people whom we had addressed. We knew that many must have a true conversion to God or they would not be able to keep the truth or to withstand temptation.
"At three P.M. we again spoke to the church in Kettering from Matthew 22:11-14. This was a most solemn subject and the Lord impressed my heart with the terrible fate of the ones who, when Jesus shall come to examine His guests, He shall find without the wedding garment on. I think many were impressed. After the discourse there was a social meeting and many testimonies borne, but I felt that souls were in peril. Souls were undecided and I urged that those who were not fully on the Lord's side should make decisions that day--should break the chains of the powers of Satan and be wholly the Lord's."--Ibid.
The results were gratifying, and a man and his wife, still quite young, came forward. He was a building foreman, but an intemperate man and often drunk for days at a time.
"Both bore testimony, and with much simplicity and deep feeling told their determination, and we must leave them in the hands of God for Him to lead, for Him to guide. He will do this if they will only submit themselves to Him as to a faithful Creator. Oh what a terrible curse is intemperance!"--Ibid.
Mrs. White had arrived in Kettering on Wednesday evening, June 29, and stayed at the J. H. Durland home on Hawthorne Road. The next day she was joined by her son, W. C. White. Besides the two Sabbath talks, she spoke to the church once on Sunday in a hall the pastor had rented for church gatherings.
On Monday, July 4, Ellen White and her traveling companions journeyed to London and lodged during a four-day visit at the Tranter's Temperance Hotel on Bridgewater Square, Barbican Street.
Here at last she found a few quiet days going over with Willie the newly written chapters in The Great Controversy.
Always interested in the activities of the church that she helped to found, she made a trip out to Holloway to visit the International Book Depository at 451 Holloway Road. And she had time also to call "at the house occupied by our sisters who were giving Bible readings and trying to get access to the higher classes. We found them well situated," she observed (Ibid.).
Ellen White and Prison Work
While in Holloway she visited the Marsh family. Sister Marsh had been keeping the Sabbath for a number of years. Her husband was the warden of a prison,* and the family lived next door to the large, unfriendly building. "It looked sad, indeed," Mrs. White remarked with feeling, "to see the large number of prisoners taking their half hour exercise within the glowering prison walls, guarded at every step with officers."--Ibid.
Once, while in Salem, Oregon, June 1878, she had visited such a prison as a guest speaker.
"I had expected to see a set of repulsive looking men, but was happily disappointed; many of them seemed to be intelligent, and some to be men of ability. They were dressed in the coarse but neat prison uniform, their hair smooth, and their boots brushed. As I looked upon the varied physiognomies before me, I thought, 'To each of these men have been committed peculiar gifts, or talents, to be used for the glory of God and the benefit of the world.'...
"I spoke from the words of John: 'Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.' 1 John 3:1, 2.
"I exalted before them the infinite sacrifice made by the Father in giving His beloved Son for fallen men, that they might through obedience be transformed, and become the acknowledged sons of God."--Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 233, 234.
Mrs. White's personal example in social work as an opening wedge in reaching human hearts is well known. But it is not always understood that this work for prisoners, widows, orphans, et cetera, was as much a part of her commission as the reception and communication of light and truth. (See Selected Messages 1:33, 34.)
A Farewell to the Missionaries
That evening there was a farewell for several workers who had stopped briefly in Europe and were now about to leave for Africa--Elders C. L. Boyd and D. A. Robinson.* It was most likely on this occasion that Mrs. White passed on to the two men the letter on the conduct of the work in mission lands that she had written at the Moss camp meeting, because she mentions that there was "some plain talk about how the work should be commenced and carried forward in their new field" (Manuscript 36, 1887).
The next day, at the docks, there was another touching farewell scene: "We could not refrain our tears as we parted with them, not knowing that we should ever meet them again in this life, and not knowing to what they would be subjected in becoming established in their far-off new field of labor. I returned from the boat with many sad impressions."--Ibid.
London to Southampton
From London, Mrs. White, accompanied by Elder and Mrs. Ings, went to Southampton. She arrived there on Thursday, July 7, and took dinner with Sister S. Phipson at 130 Shirley Road. Mrs. Phipson served as a local agent for Seventh-day Adventist literature in Southampton. Mrs. White spoke several times to the church. On Sunday she took a pleasant side trip to the Isle of Wight. There, with Mrs. Phipson and the Ingses, she visited a Brother Sargent, a ship captain who had been keeping the Sabbath for five years. "The Isle of Wight is a beautiful place," she decided after a lunch of strawberries spread before her. And beyond could be seen the waters over which scores of ships passed to and from the open sea.
Later in the day Mr. Sargent took them across the bay in a rowboat to visit his children. And before she left the quaint and quite place, Ellen White took the opportunity to visit Osborne House, the queen's residence, and the little chapel connected with it:
"We saw the chair where she sits, with her family around her, in an alcove where she cannot be observed by the congregation not only for her own safety but that all eyes will not be attracted to her. This church is for the nobility and the king's household."--Ibid.
The Last Item in the Diaries
With her visit to the Isle of Wight, Mrs. White's European diaries end, and only sketchy information is available for the last three weeks of her stay in Britain. But on July 14, she was in Wellingborough, a small city of the Midlands near Kettering. Here she preached on the subject "A Peculiar People." In conclusion she said:
"There was a great excitement in London last week. The Queen was coming. All wanted to see their sovereign. But there is One greater than the Queen coming. 'The glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' Can we not get up an excitement on this subject? Jesus will bring the dead from their graves, and they shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. They shall enter into the city of God. There they shall see the gates open wide to receive them, and shall eat of the tree of life. There are angels there, who never fell. The saints of all ages are to be there, and take the kingdom, and it shall be theirs.... Is it not enough to cause gladness in our hearts?"--Manuscript 25, 1887.
The following week she visited in Grimsby, where she again busied herself with buying flannel and other fabrics to make clothes for her family. She also wrote several letters to one of the young workers in Basel who was drinking and smoking. He was a valuable German translator, but was about to lose his job because of his bad habits. As a result of reading prayerfully Ellen White's rather pointed testimonies, he confessed his errors. By the time Mrs. White left for the United States, reports indicated he was having a genuine reformation in his life and practice.
On Tuesday, August 2, we find Ellen White in Birkenhead, preaching her last sermon in Europe. She also spent a busy afternoon receiving visitors who had come to say a last good-by at George Drew's home at 12 the Woodlands, Clifton Park.
Her testimony as she bore it on hundreds of occasions in Europe is epitomized in her last message to the believers at Moss, Norway:
"We must take our journey through the world as pilgrims and strangers, clinging by living faith to the cross of Calvary. The blessing of God will rest upon every soul that makes a full consecration to Him. When we seek for God with all the heart we shall find Him. God is in earnest with us, and He wants us to make thorough work for eternity. He has poured out all heaven in one gift, and there is no reason why we should doubt His love. Look to Calvary. Christ died for you, and what greater evidence of God's love could you ask than that which has been given in the life and death and intercession of Jesus?
"God asks you to give Him your heart. Your powers, your talents, your affections, should all be surrendered to Him, that He may work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure, and fit you for eternal life. Accept the invitation of Christ. He bids you, 'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.' O that we might press toward the mark for the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus! What more can God do than He has done? Let us empty our souls of all enmity, all foolishness, and by living faith connect with Jesus. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Christ will pardon your transgressions, and receive you graciously."--The Review and Herald, May 5, 1891.