W. W. Prescott was a leader in the early Seventh-day Adventist educational work. He was president of Battle Creek College (Battle Creek, Michigan) from 1885 to 1894. During those years the message of righteousness by faith was made prominent at the Minneapolis General Conference Session in 1888. Here is a description from a biographical overview of Prescott regarding the effect of that message.
The influence of the Minneapolis Conference in 1888 reached the college. Ellen White worked diligently that the message the Lord had given at Minneapolis would be heard at Battle Creek. Some six weeks after the conference session, the week of Prayer planned for the church in Battle Creek December 15-22 ended up lasting one month. Ellen White described that in these "revival services ... the principle topic dwelt upon was justification by faith."[1]
On Thursday, December 20, Ellen White wrote in her diary, "I spoke to the college students. The Lord gave me the word which seemed to reach hearts. Professor Prescott arose and attempted to speak, but his heart was too full. There he stood five minutes in complete silence, weeping. When he did speak he said, 'I am glad I am a Christian.' He made very pointed remarks. His heart seemed to be broken by the Spirit of the Lord. ..."[2] Prescott's response to the Spirit's moving is heart warming.
Speaking further of the Scriptural light the Lord had given through brothers Jones and Waggoner, Ellen White wrote on March 10, 1890, "I am much pleased to learn that Professor Prescott is giving the same lessons in his class to the students that Brother Waggoner has been giving. He is presenting the covenants."[3]
Later that year, Ellen White described the "wonderful" December 27 Sabbath meeting. "Nearly the whole congregation presented themselves for prayers, and among them, Brethren Prescott and Smith. The Extra in the Review and Herald [Dec. 23, 1890] was read, and the testimony of all was that the power of God attended the reading of the article. They said that this made a deep impression. ... Professor Prescott made a confession dating back to Minneapolis, and this made a deep impression. He wept much. Elder Smith said that testimony meant him; said that he felt that it was addressed to him, but he stopped there and went no further. But both placed themselves as there repentant, seeking the Lord. Well, they said they had never had such a meeting in Battle Creek, and yet the work must be carried on, for it was just begun. ..."[4]
The message continued to do its work against stiff opposition. Both A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner were finally allowed to lecture at Battle Creek College. Prescott, gradually seeing more and more light in the Christ-centered message, worked hard as a peace-maker and consensus builder between the opposing parties. After Ellen White was exiled to Australia in 1891, her writings on the message kept the Spirit's appeal before the church. In the November 22, 1892 Review and Herald, she wrote, "The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth. For it is the work of every one to whom the message of warning has come, to lift up Jesus, to present him to the world as revealed in types, as shadowed in symbols, as manifested in the revelations of the prophets, as unveiled in the lessons given to his disciples and in the wonderful miracles wrought for the sons of men."[5]
The effect of this article on the college, along with other timely testimonies from Ellen White, led to a vigorous revival. The rest of the school term was disrupted by long chapels, seasons of prayer and confession, and times of testimonies. Prescott, in reading a letter from Ellen White to the students, was moved to tears, and confessed again his previous resistance to the message. Sadly, Uriah Smith viewed the events as "excitement". Thus the spiritual consensus the church greatly needed was never experienced.[6]
Gilbert M. Valentine in his biography of Prescott The Shaping of Adventism, noted that after Minneapolis, Prescott, in his own words, came to see the church doctrines as "simply the gospel of Christ rightly understood" which "grow out of a belief in Jesus Christ as a living personal Saviour." This led him to change his method of teaching church beliefs. Instead of striving "to prove the doctrines," he "started in the simplest way presenting Christ." At the camp meeting at Armadale (a suburb of Melbourne), several Americans gave discourses, "but it was Prescott who dominated the meetings. ... According to those present, it was the Christ-centered content of his sermons that pulled in the crowds in everincreasing numbers." Valentine observed that "Australia in the 1890's was still largely untouched by the Gospel message of 1888. Prescott's message stirred not only the minds but the hearts of the people."
Valentine recorded the impressions of W. C. White and A. G. Daniells, Australian Conference president. White reported that Prescott's "theme from first to last and always is Christ." Daniells observed, "Preaching Jesus as Professor Prescott has done, seems to have completely disarmed the people of prejudice," causing the public image of Adventists to be "completely revolutionized."
One of the sermons Prescott presented, "The Law in Christ," was published in The Bible Echo, the Seventh-day Adventist Australian missionary journal. Valentine noted what happened when the manuscript was sent back to the United States.
During October 1895, Prescott sent the manuscript to the Battle Creek Publishing House, hoping that it would receive wider circulation. A Christo-centric presentation of the "law" and "justification by faith," the manuscript was based on Prescott's new understanding of the "law in Galatians." Two months later the Battle Creek committee informed Prescott that they would not publish the pamphlet. It contained "fundamental errors," they said. ... Mrs. White was not at all amused. Absolutely indignant at the book committee, she stated plainly that she had no confidence in them. ... She declared it was not for the men on the committee to "condemn or control" the productions of those whom God was using as "light-bearers to the world."[7]
Ron Duffield, in an early draft of his manuscript later published in part as The Return of the Latter Rain, recorded the Armadale event in these words.
Not long after arriving in Australia, Prescott took part in a three-week camp meeting in Armadale. This camp meeting ran from October 17 through November 11, 1895. Here Prescott took the heaviest responsibility in preaching, speaking over 31 times during the camp meeting. He presented all of his topics "as it is in Christ," including sermons on the Sabbath, the human and divine nature of Christ, and righteousness by faith. He also shared some of the same thoughts on Romans 5 that he had shared at the 1895 Ministerial Institute. Ellen White and her secretary, Maggie Hare, were present at the camp meeting and heard Prescott speak. Maggie Hare took Prescott's sermons down in shorthand so they could be printed as pamphlets for the Australian Tract Society to be used in canvassing. Seven of these sermons can be found in the Bible Echo; the rest of the sermons printed in tracts have not yet been released from the General Conference Archives.
The significance of Prescott's camp meeting sermons is seen when read in the light of Ellen White's response to them. Several of her letters written about this camp meeting have never been released from the White Estate. ...
No less than a dozen times, Ellen White wrote of the preaching of W. W. Prescott during that time in terms that described a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon him. What should we learn today from these events that happened long ago? Was God, by demonstrating it in Australia, showing the church what He wanted to accomplish at Battle Creek, but could not because of continued rejection? Is not God showing us today what He wants to do with each and every believer when the Holy Spirit is welcomed as a dear Guest? Prescott's work continued as he went from Armadale to Tasmania to help with another camp meeting. Ellen White's appraisal of the Tasmania camp meeting was the same: "The manifestation of the Holy Spirit has been seen in the discourses given, in the Bible lessons, in the education of workers, and with the believers. They never have had such privileges in hearing the riches of the truth presented in clear distinct lines."[8]
Following the camp meetings, Ellen White and her son, W. C. White, had a "long talk" with a couple of other evangelists who were planning a "prolonged pull and expected to work up an interest by presenting the prophecies." Along with the help of W. W. Prescott, Ellen White and W. C. White tried to show them that "another line of work was called for in these times."[9]
W. C. White wrote several letters to O. A. Olsen, requesting that Prescott stay and help in Australia. As they began planning for the 1896 camp meeting "campaign," W. C. White and the Conference Committee of Australia requested that the General Conference allow Prescott to lead out in these camp meetings. White suggested that "his presence would insure success." If Prescott could not stay, then their "first choice would be Bro. A. T. Jones."[10] The committee even went as far as to say that if Prescott or Jones' services could not be obtained it would "be better to postpone this expensive campaign for a year" until they might obtain "proper help"[11] Both requests were denied and neither Prescott nor Jones would take part in future campmeetings there.
It should be obvious from this brief look at the year of 1895, that God was not done in His effort to show the church His desire to pour out the latter rain. What could not be done in Battle Creek because of unbelief was demonstrated in Australia. But a church cannot move any faster than its leadership, and since Battle Creek was the heart of the work, influencing the whole denomination, God in His mercy kept step with them.[12]
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