This issue features pioneer J. N. Andrews, "the ablest man in our ranks".
In Defense of the Truth
Shortly before October 22, 1844, J. N. Andrews, a youthful but stalwart believer, began nearly 40 years in defense of Bible truth at a bridge in Paris, Maine. Had the Associated Press reported on Andrews' brave stand against a mob there, the news release might have read as follows:
Associated Press, Paris, ME, October 1, 1844, 19:30 EST (surmised day and time)
Persecution Retreats in the Face of Youth's Brave Stand
Today an inspiring scene was enacted at the bridge in Paris, Maine. Young John Nevins Andrews confronted and confounded an angry mob that threatened worshippers crossing the river to attend advent meetings. Andrews and an Advent Brother Davis approached the bridge, when a man from the mob, brandishing his horsewhip, inflicted several blows on Brother Davis.
Andrews, barely fourteen years of age, threw his arms about Davis and declared, "We are commanded to bear one another's burdens. If you whip Brother Davis, you must whip me also."[1]
Confounded and not wishing to whip a boy, the man drew back with the mob and let them pass. "It's too bad to whip a boy," he declared in admiration of the youth's courage and presence of mind.
This brave act reflects the spirit of Andrews' paternal ancestors who landed at Plymouth Rock eighteen years after the Mayflower. All but one male member of their family were massacred defending their homestead against Indians.
Andrews' grandfathers, David Andrews and John Nevins, defended the nation's freedom during the Revolutionary War. They would be proud of him today.[2]
This brave young man is remembered today for his valuable contributions in the early history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. What made him the man he was? What were his accomplishments?
Andrews was born July 22, 1829 and spent his childhood and youth quietly with his parents and brother, William, in Paris, Maine.
His spiritual training included faithful attendance at Methodist meetings. He recalls how impressed he was at five years of age when the preacher solemnly read Revelation 20:11, "I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away." John commented, "I have rarely read the passage without remembering that discourse."[3] When John learned to read, the Bible was one of his favorite books.
Though Andrews had to leave school at an early age, he continued studying on his own. Ellen White wrote, he "... was a self-educated man. I do not think he was in school a day after he was eleven years old."[4] His Uncle Charles' wife remarked in 1842, that John, was "... a perfect gentleman by nature, and a fine scholar."[5] W. A. Spicer believed that Andrews received from his formal schooling "the tools for study, ... [and] the open door pointed out. ..."[6] "His thirst for education was great, yet he could not spare the time nor the means to take a regular course,"[7] said White.
In January of 1843, Andrews became a Christian and accepted the Advent message. His family was soon caught up in the Millerite teaching of Christ's coming to cleanse the earth. When Christ failed to return to earth on October 22, 1844 as they believed, they, too, were deeply discouraged. In 1845, after reading Preble's treatise on the Sabbath, Andrews began observing the seventh-day Sabbath.
There were problems within the group at Paris, Maine. The believers split over the many doctrinal controversies that arose after 1844. By September, 1849, the group had not met for over a year for fear of being visited by fanatics like Joseph Turner, Jesse Stevens, F. T. Howland, and others.[8] Andrews was caught up in fanaticism led by the well-known fanatic, F. T. Howland. When James and Ellen White visited Paris, Maine on the 14th, a meeting was called. As was feared, F. T. Howland attended. Brother Stockbridge Howland, his face alight with the power of the Holy Spirit, confronted him, declaring, "You have torn the hearts of God's children and made them bleed. Leave the house, or God will smite you!"[9] The man fled in terror.
Pentecostal power descended upon the group. Ellen White reported, "Such a scene of confessing and pleading with God we have seldom witnessed."[10] Andrews was moved to exclaim, "I would exchange a thousand errors for one truth."[11] Mrs. White later commented regarding the 20-year-old, "The Lord was bringing out Brother Andrews to fit him for future usefulness, and was giving him an experience that would be of great value to him in his future labors ... teaching him that he should not be influenced by the experience of others, and to decide for himself concerning the work of God."[12]
Andrews first began writing in The Present Truth. In the fall of 1850, he was appointed to the publishing committee that supported editor, Elder James White. In the Review of May, 1851, a five-page commentary on the thirteenth chapter of Revelation was published by Andrews identifying for the first time the United States of America as the two-horned beast.
In December, 1851, at twenty-one, Andrews worked as a traveling evangelist with Samuel Rhodes.[13] John N. Loughborough attended a series of conferences by Andrews in 1852 in Rochester, New York, where he learned and accepted Present Truth. In 1853, Andrews was ordained by Elder White.
During these first three years of labor, Andrews "conducted evangelistic meetings in 20 different localities in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Eastern Canada, and published 35 articles, totaling some 170,000 words."[14] Andrews was physically exhausted by 1855. He declared, "Had I understood the laws of life in the right use of food, and in the principles of hygiene generally, I could have gone longer than I did in the exhausting labor which I attempted to sustain. But, in less than five years, my voice was destroyed; my eyesight was considerably injured; I could not rest by day, and I could not sleep well at night. ..."[15] In 1859, after regaining his health enough to work, he returned again to an extremely fatiguing schedule. Nevertheless, "since 1864, when his attention was called to the subject of health reform," James White reported, "... his health has been improving."[16] Because of adopting health reform practices, he was relieved of "long-continued digestive distress, and catarrh and other ailments."[17]
Andrews' multiple contributions to the Adventist cause would fill several books. Practically any work that needed to be done, he at one time or another performed it.
• Editor of the Review? Yes, he was the third editor after James White and Uriah Smith, from 1859 to 1862.
• President of the General Conference? Yes, from May 14, 1867 to May 12, 1868.
• Foreign missionary? Yes, in 1874, he was the first missionary sent by the church to Europe. He and his family pioneered the work in Switzerland.
• Did he have anything to do with affirming the Sabbath's limits? Indeed, his research established the Biblical basis for sunset to sunset observance of the Sabbath.
• Tithing? His perceptive mind was behind the adoption of the principle known as "systematic benevolence" that called for the tithe to support the ministry.
• Publishing? Again, the answer is yes: in Switzerland, he published the Signs of the Times in French.
• How about noncombatant status for our youth? Andrews visited Washington, D.C., in 1864 and secured that special classification during the Civil War.
"Few men have left behind them a record of greater purity of life, or of more earnest effort for Christ and humanity. His indefatigable labors did more, perhaps, that any other man, to develop the Bible evidence of the views advocated by this people; and the debt of gratitude which we owe him should lead us to study earnestly the principles that he loved so well, and to emulate his noble example in a life of temperance and self-sacrifice, and of devotion to the good of others."[18]
A Gift to the World
John Nevins Andrews, His Work and its Value
by Ray Foster
The greatest contribution any man or woman can make in life is to improve the opportunities they have to the glory of God. When the individual uses his talents at the correct time and in a way to glorify God, a contribution from God is given to the world. The life and work of J. N. Andrews was such a gift of God.
Opportunity consists of talents and timing. God is the source of both. John Nevins Andrews' talents were a brilliant mind, and an ability with language. The timing of his life was that of the birth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a church designed to prepare a people for Christ's coming--a remnant people filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to demonstrate the Divine nature in fallen human flesh--a people fitted to give the warning gospel message from God to the final generation on earth.
Andrews systematized and clearly stated the foundation doctrines of the remnant church and became the first missionary sent by the church in America to a foreign land (Europe.) In J. N. Andrews: The Man and the Mission, 1985, in the chapter, "The Architect of Adventist Doctrines," Konrad Mueller has outlined Andrews' thought processes and arguments when clearly stating the central doctrines of the remnant church. Three central doctrines of Seventh-day Adventists, that Andrews clearly stated, are:
1) the gospel in the Sanctuary in relation to the 2300 days and the "great disappointment" of October 22, 1844, and the controversy between Christ and Satan;
2) the gospel in the three angels' messages;
3) and the gospel in the law of God.
What is so relevant about these great views of the Everlasting Gospel is their specific application to what the church faces today.
All need a knowledge for themselves of the position and work of their great High Priest. Otherwise it will be impossible for them to exercise the faith which is essential at this time or to occupy the position which God designs them to fill.--Great Controversy, p. 488.
In order to endure the trial before them, they must understand the will of God as revealed in His word; they can honor Him only as they have a right conception of His character, government, and purposes, and act in accordance with them.--Ibid., p. 593.
The reasons for the "great disappointment" of October 22, 1844, do not occupy our minds today as they did those who passed through that experience. Yet we live in the time of the culmination of the events that started on that specific date more than 150 years ago. Unless we understand and daily experience the cleansing of our hearts and minds which will be faithfully reflected in the "cleansing of the sanctuary" in heaven, we will not have understood the gospel nor experienced it. This will lead to an even greater "disappointment" for Jesus and for ourselves, from which there will be no possibility of recovery.
We live in the time of the fulfillment of the abomination of desolation which takes away the "daily." Andrews had a clear understanding of these symbols. His presentation of their meaning was clear, logical, and persuasive.
Andrews adopted Miller's view that the two desolations are paganism and papacy. Miller held that the only available clue to identify the "daily" is given in 2 Thess. 2:7, 8 ("the mystery of iniquity" ... will be taken "out of the way.") He considered "the man of sin" and the "wicked," to be popery. He posed the question: "What hinders popery from being revealed?" and answers, "paganism"; hence, "the daily" must mean paganism.--Mueller, p. 80.
Dan Rathers of CBS recently produced a documentary video, "Faith and Politics," that reveals the political conflict between the two dominant forces in our nation today. From the perspective our church pioneers had on the meaning of the "daily" and the "abomination that makes desolate" that takes the place of the "daily," it is apparent that this very phenomenon is going on before our eyes and is depicted in Rather's video. Soon all events predicted in Revelation 13 are to be completely fulfilled.
In the very recent past the astonished world saw the beginning of this change in power in the Soviet Union when the "daily" (atheistic communism) was replaced by the power of the Papacy. While the Papacy claims credit for the change, it is not yet fully apparent to all that it is indeed the Papacy itself that has taken the place of atheistic communism. This replacing of pagan power with papal is more apparent in history when pagan Rome was replaced by Papal Rome, and ushered in the era in world history known as "the dark ages" when the Papacy ruled Europe with an iron hand.
The Papal power was crushed at the time of the French Revolution. However, the "deadly wound" inflicted on the Papacy at that time is nearly fully healed. History is repeating itself in our present world affairs and atheistic forces are being replaced by Papal powers including her "daughters." These are the root issues behind the present political struggles we see in our world today.
Andrews correctly understood and defined the term "Babylon." Mueller commented,
What then is Babylon? He [Andrews] defines it as the symbol of a corrupt church. He further argues that if the virtuous woman of Revelation 12 has seed, her counterpart must also be assumed to have offspring. Consequently Babylon cannot be limited to a single ecclesiastical body, but is the sum of all corrupt churches, or the universal worldly church. One of its major characteristics is a spirit of intolerance leading often to persecution. Such a spirit, Andrews avers, is to be found in many churches, not excluding those in the U.S.A. Andrews recognizes hardly any difference between Protestants and Catholics ... claims and presumptions. "Romanists never can err, Protestants never do err."--Mueller, p. 92.
Andrews and the other church pioneers understood that the second angel's message had been given in the summer and autumn of 1844. They could not preach the third angel's message in its fullness because the image to the beast had not been fully formed nor the mark of the beast fully developed. We are living in the time of its complete formation. Are we understanding these things as clearly and as accurately as did the pioneers of our church?
The best way to understand and "give a reason for the hope that is within us" is to study the books of Daniel and Revelation in Scripture, the Spirit of Prophecy, especially the Great Controversy, and what Andrews and others of our pioneers wrote on these subjects in the light of what is taking place in the world around us today.[19] One good example is Andrews' The Sanctuary and the Twenty-Three Hundred Days, 2nd edition, published in Battle Creek, Michigan, 1872.
Andrews is perhaps best known for his monumental work, The History of the Sabbath. It is the everlasting gospel portrayed in the Law of God that is the "bigger picture" that motivated Andrews to write the history of the Sabbath. We are told that the Jews rejected Christ and the last generation of "Christians" reject the law of God. In both instances "He came to His own, and His own received Him not."
The great sin of the Jews was their rejection of Christ; the great sin of the Christian world would be their rejection of the law of God, the foundation of His government in heaven and earth. The precepts of Jehovah would be despised and set at nought. Millions in bondage to sin, slaves of Satan, doomed to suffer the second death, would refuse to listen to the words of truth in their day of visitation. Terrible blindness! Strange infatuation!--Great Controversy, p. 22.
Nevertheless, there is a remnant who will receive Jesus and, in His power, keep His law. To these He gives power to become the "sons of God." This is our destiny. This is our heritage. May we not be disobedient to the heavenly vision, but as did J. N. Andrews, let us dedicate our God-given talents to the task in this momentous time of the climax of all things relating to this earth and the everlasting gospel.
Andrews & His Family
Wholly Dedicated to the Lord
by Frances Foster
John Nevins Andrews' family was dedicated to Christ. This is noted in his childhood, youth, life ministry, and in the home he formed after his marriage.
Andrews grew up with a brother, William, two years younger than he. His faithful Christian parents took them to the Methodist meetings. Neither the boys nor their father were in good health. William was crippled, and unable to do much on their New England farm, and John felt a responsibility for helping his father all he could.
At 11 years, John quit school, but continued studying on his own. His Uncle Charles was willing to help him study law at the college of his choice, but when he understood the three angels' messages, he felt the Lord's call to make known the true Sabbath and the soon coming of the Lord.
In 1851, John began working for God, writing articles for the Review and Herald, holding meetings, and visiting adventists all over the northeast. So intent was he in his public ministry that less than five years later, in 1855, he was prostrated from overwork, poor food, and insufficient rest. To recover his health, he had to go home. Not long afterwards, with his family and others from Paris, he moved to Waukon, Iowa, where the soil promised better results than rocky New England. With the outdoor work and more rest, he began to regain his health and strength.
The following year the Cyprian Stevens family, also believers from Paris, moved to Waukon. Ellen White counseled John to marry Stevens' daughter, Angeline. "... after you had gone thus far, it would be wronging Angeline to have it stop here,"[20] she advised. They were married October 29, 1856.
The Whites made a dangerous, winter trek to Waukon just several weeks after John and Angeline were married. At first they were received coldly, but finally a new spirit of love and forgiveness replaced the icy atmosphere. Ellen White hoped to call two preachers, Andrews and J. N. Loughborough back into the Lord's work. When he was physically able, Andrews did return to preaching and writing.
John and Angeline had four children, of which two survived infancy. The four children were:
Charles Melville: born October 5, 1857, just short of a year after they were married.
Mary Frances: born September 29, 1861.
Unnamed baby girl: born prematurely on September 5, 1863, after Angeline's bout with "fever and ague." She lived four days.
Carrie Matilda: born August 9, 1864. She died of dysentery at thirteen months.
Some believers at Waukon had lingering doubts about Ellen White's "visions." John and Angeline wrote in February, 1862, testifying of their confidence in the visions. In an encouraging letter written in June of 1862, Ellen White assured him, "God has accepted your efforts. Your testimony in New York has been acceptable to Him. ..."[21] Soon other family members, including John's father and Angeline's mother and sister, were also reconciled with the Whites on the same issue.
Mary and Charles were seventeen months and five years old in 1863, when Angeline moved to New York on the train. When they arrived, Mary did not recognize the strange person who was her father, and it took two days before she was willing to sit on his lap.
The Andrews family adopted the health message after seeing the results in their son. In 1864, Charles' crippled leg was healed after about 15 weeks of hydrotherapy treatments and a nutritious diet at "Our Home" in Danville, New York. The Andrews family determined to remove unhealthful foods from their diet and to use whole wheat flour and more fruits and vegetables, and to eat two meals a day.
Angeline had a stroke on February 17, 1872. She seemed to be improving for a month, but on March 18, as John helped her into her coat, she fell unconscious to the floor. She died the following morning, at 48 years of age. In her eulogy, John wrote, " ... no unkind word ever passed between us, and no vexed feeling ever existed in our hearts."[22]
After Angeline died, John dedicated his life to guiding his children, who were just 14 and 11 years old, towards heaven, and to preaching Christ more urgently to those who were ready to perish. When a call came for a missionary to help the growing cause in Europe, he willingly agreed to go. He departed for Europe on September 15, 1874, taking with him Charles, almost seventeen, and Mary, almost thirteen.
Sister White strongly encouraged Andrews to remarry before starting for Europe. He needed someone to make a home for his family; someone to fill his emotional and physical needs, as well as help with the work when she was able. He did not take her advice. Seven months before he passed away, she wrote the following to him, saying, "I was shown that you made a mistake in starting for Europe without a companion. If you had, before starting, selected you a godly woman who could have been a mother to your children, you would have done a wise thing, and your usefulness would have been tenfold to what it has been."[23]
In Switzerland his children were his emotional support and helpers in the printing and publishing work which was his emphasis in Switzerland. He wrote of Charles in 1876, "He is perfectly steady and quiet and gives me no trouble. He is my companion by day and by night, and seems to prefer my company to that of any young person. ... I should not know [how] to live without him."[24]
In order to learn French more quickly, the family signed a pact to speak English only between five and six P.M., and for emergencies. Mary became proficient in French within two years, and was an excellent proof-reader.
Their diet was deficient in many ways, and with the poor sanitation and overwork, John developed pneumonia, and Mary, tuberculosis. In the fall of 1878, John went to the General Conference, taking Mary with him, in the hopes she could be healed at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. But even under Dr. J. H. Kellogg's able care, Mary passed away November 27, 1878. Charles wrote from Switzerland that he was confident they would see her again, if they remained faithful.
Mrs. White wrote from Texas: "We deeply sympathize with you in your great sorrow; but we sorrow not as those who have no hope. ... Mary, dear precious child, is at rest. ... Through faith's discerning eye, you may anticipate ... Mary with her Mother and other members of your family answering the call of the Life-giver and coming forth from their prison house triumphing over death. ..."[25]
After Mary's death, Andrews returned to Switzerland, but couldn't regain his health. "I seem to be having hold upon God with a numb hand,"[26] he said. We have reason to believe that if he had followed Mrs. White's advice, and married a suitable wife and mother to care for the family, neither Mary nor himself would have died so young. Sister White's counsel, to look at the broader picture, recognizing the long-term results of our actions, and following the divine counsels given, is valid for us today.
Andrews died of tuberculosis in 1883. Soon after this, Charles married Maria Anne Dietschy and returned to Battle Creek. He worked in the Review and Herald Publishing House all his life. Charles and Maria had three children. Harriet, who married Sanford Harlan, Art Director for Liberty magazine; John Nevins, who became a doctor and missionary to China and married Elder W. A. Spicer's daughter, Dorothy; and Edwin, who died in 1915 from a tragic lightning accident.[27]
J. N. Andrews' family was indeed wholly dedicated to the Lord, and has left an impact on the church and the world that we may only begin to comprehend in Heaven.
The Blessed Hope
John Nevins Andrews, Pioneer Foreign Missionary
There are numbers of men whom we count as pioneers in this cause, but three, Joseph Bates, James White, J. N. Andrews, were closely joined together in laying the first foundations. It was these three men of the first days whom one of our early hymns described.[28]
The first stanza refers to Joseph Bates. The next stanza describes James White. The third stanza was written of the youngest of the trio, J. N. Andrews.[29] Our pioneer foreign missionary, Andrews symbolizes thousands of others who have followed into the open doors of other lands.
"And there was one who left behind The cherished friends of early years. And honor, pleasure, wealth resigned, To tread the path bedewed with tears. Through trials deep and conflicts sore, Yet still a smile of joy he wore; I asked what buoyed his spirits up, 'O this!' said he--'the blessed hope.'" --Annie R. Smith--Adapted from Pioneers of the Advent Message, by W. A. Spicer, RHPA, 1941, pp. 202, 213, 214.
Notes: