Over My Shoulder

Chapter 6—A New Prophet?

One Sabbath morning Elder Alonzo T. Jones preached a startling sermon from the pulpit of the Tabernacle church. We all gave him our full attention. OMS 46.1

A new prophet! A new prophet among us? That is what he was saying. Her name was Anna Phillips. She had been given several visions, Elder Jones told us, and some of her friends had been copying them and sending them out to the people. Those who received the material said that they sounded very much like the visions of Ellen G. White. Elder Jones had some of Anna Phillips’ writings with him at the desk and was reading from them. He also had some of Mrs. White’s testimonies. They lay side by side. OMS 46.2

After asking how we could know whether or not the messages were from heaven he spoke of the Shepherd and His sheep. “The true sheep follow the Shepherd because they know His voice,” he stated. OMS 46.3

He read from Mrs. White’s testimonies, then asked, “Do you hear the voice?” Answering himself, he said, “Yes, we hear the voice.” Next he read from the visions of Anna Phillips and repeated the question and the answer, “Do you hear the voice? Yes, we hear the voice; it is the same voice.” OMS 46.4

Elder Jones reasoned that because Anna Phillips’ visions sounded so much like the testimonies of Ellen White, they must be from the same source. By their similarity we could know that her visions were also the voice of God speaking to us, but through a different messenger. OMS 46.5

When the meeting closed, the building did not empty as quickly as usual. No one seemed inclined to hurry home to dinner. People stood talking in the aisles and vestry, and on the sidewalks and lawns little groups conversed earnestly. OMS 46.6

“Do you think Elder Jones is right?” some asked. “We have confidence in him; yet he might be wrong. This just might be one of the devil’s counterfeits. We wonder what Sister White would say about this?” Others said, “Let us pray that God will send light.” OMS 46.7

None of the folks in our house had ever heard of Anna Phillips, but she was known to some of the church leaders as a godly, devoted young woman and an earnest Christian. Yet these leaders felt that the church should wait for stronger evidence before accepting her as a prophet. OMS 47.1

In the Tabernacle congregation that Sabbath morning sat a college student by the name of W. M. Adams. He has left an interesting firsthand account of the remarkable manner in which the prayers for light were answered the very next day. He wrote: OMS 47.2

“On Sunday morning I went to the Review and Herald office and purchased a postal card. I had just stepped to the writing board when Elder Jones came in. OMS 47.3

“‘Any mail?’ he inquired in his characteristic way. I watched, and saw a long envelope bearing the return address of Mrs. E. G. White. I was immediately interested, for I recalled his sermon the day before concerning Anna Phillips. I stood and closely watched him as he sat down on a bench and began to read. I saw that he was deeply affected, for tears began to flow freely. He read on. OMS 47.4

“Presently, Elder A. O. Tait came in, and Elder Jones said, ‘Oscar, come here. Sit down. You heard me preach that sermon yesterday?’ OMS 47.5

“‘Yes,’ replied Elder Tait. OMS 47.6

“‘Well, read this,’ he said, as he handed him the testimony he had just received from Sister White. OMS 47.7

“Here is a part of what Elder Tait read.... OMS 47.8

‘Elder A. T. Jones

‘Dear Brother:

‘I have a message for you. Did you suppose that God has commissioned you to take the burden of presenting the visions of Anna Phillips, reading them in public, and uniting them with the testimonies the Lord has been pleased to give me? No, the Lord has not laid upon you this burden. He has not given you this work to do.... OMS 47.9

‘How is it, my brother, that you have taken up these communications, and presented them before the people, weaving them in with the testimonies God has given Sister White? Where is your evidence that these are of God? You cannot be too careful how you hear, how you receive, how you believe.’ OMS 47.10

“‘Who told Sister White a month ago,’ said Elder Jones, ‘that I was going to preach that sermon about Anna Phillips as a prophetess?’ OMS 48.1

“‘Ah, you know, Alonzo, you know,’ declared Elder Tait, in his calm, yet firm way. OMS 48.2

“‘Yes, I do know. God knew what I would do, and He impressed Sister White a month before I preached the sermon to send the testimony that I am wrong. Look at that date, “March 15, 1894.” I am wrong.’ OMS 48.3

“The next Sabbath Elder Jones read part of the testimony sent him fully thirty days prior to the date he preached his sermon, mailed from Melbourne, Australia. It reproved him for his position taken concerning Anna Phillips’ testimonies. He said, ‘I am wrong, and I confess it. Now I am right.’ That ended the matter.” OMS 48.4

This incident was later published in the columns of the The Review and Herald, July 7, 1949. OMS 48.5

Anna Phillips did not intentionally seek to deceive the church. She was sincere in sending out her visions. In them was the manifestation of supernatural power. But she did not recognize their source. God saved her and also all the church from deception by sending them the warning message to keep them from being deceived in the days to follow. OMS 48.6

In another letter written about that time, Grandma expressed sorrow that the writings of Anna Phillips had been grasped and scattered broadcast “with so little test and proving.” She further wrote: “Woven in them will be statements that will lead to extremes, and to wrong actions on the part of those who accept them.... Movements will be made that bear not the divine credentials, doubts will be cast upon the true work of the Spirit of prophecy. And the testimonies that God sends to the people will bear the stigma of these false utterances.” OMS 48.7

Grandma also sounded a warning for all future time. “There will be those who claim to have visions. When God gives you clear evidence that the vision is from Him, you may accept it, but do not accept it on any other evidence; for people are going to be led more and more astray in foreign countries and in America.” Anna Phillips accepted the correction given her through God’s established messenger and humbly confessed that she had been in error. She took up her former labors in the church, and continued working as a sincere and successful Bible instructor until shortly before her death. She died a loyal Seventh-day Adventist. OMS 48.8

General Conference sessions were always exciting times for those living in Battle Creek. On Sabbaths the great Tabernacle would be filled to capacity. Delegates were present from nearly all parts of the United States and from several European countries and Australia. The four hundred Battle Creek College students were usually there in a body, and the nurses and helpers from the Sanitarium would also attend as many meetings as their duties permitted. Though the congregation might be uncomfortably crowded at times, no one became tired or “counted heads” while missionaries told of the way in which the Advent message was advancing in many parts of the world. OMS 60.1

Our good missionary ship, the Pitcairn, had transported Bible teachers and ministers to a number of the Pacific islands, and from these centers the good news of Jesus’ soon coming was being carried to many other islands. Literature provided by the missionary societies was being sent through the mails, or tied in bundles and put on board ships bound for distant shores. Ship missionaries were busy in many ports. OMS 60.2

Evangelistic centers and Bible training schools had been established in some of the large cities of America. Colporteurs were carrying the good word from city to city. A beginning was being made in the Southern States, also in Hawaii and the West Indies. The denomination had two publishing houses, three colleges, and two sanitariums in the United States and some treatment rooms in Europe. OMS 60.3

Seventh-day Adventists were beginning to send missionaries to Africa and the Orient. Mission centers and companies of believers were multiplying in Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, France, England, and Denmark. National workers were being trained in these new areas. Gospel-filled tracts were being translated, published, and scattered by literature evangelists in many of the principal languages of Europe. God’s work of preparing a people to meet the King of kings was steadily moving forward in many parts of the world. OMS 60.4

Elder S. N. Haskell had been to Africa, India, China, and Japan, where he had baptized the first Seventh-day Adventist convert. There were two or three believers in Hong Kong, where Brother Abram LaRue was working alone, supporting himself by selling Adventist literature to English-speaking officers and crew on vessels that visited Hong Kong harbor. He had personally arranged and financed the translation and publication of the first piece of Adventist literature in the Chinese language. Now, with the assistance of a Christian gentleman whom he had met on his way to China, LaRue was circulating Adventist tracts and periodicals. OMS 60.5

Elder Haskell had brought back word from his world-circling tour that there were favorable opportunities in certain heathen lands for the opening of missions, if only workers could be found. He pleaded for Christian men and women who would dedicate their lives to the fulfilling of Christ’s commission to carry the gospel of salvation to every creature under heaven. Living in Battle Creek was a thrilling thing in those days, particularly while the General Conference sessions were in progress. OMS 61.1

The conference usually continued for a little more than two weeks, after which the delegates returned to their various fields of labor and life for the rest of us resumed its quiet round of study, work, and play. OMS 61.2

Once in a while Barnum’s wild animal show would visit the town. A mammoth tent was pitched and the townspeople were caught up in exciting entertainment for two or three days. Adventists were not supposed to attend these shows, which were often accompanied by unbecoming and immodest exhibitions. But we could and did watch the parade and follow it from street to street as long as we could keep within hearing distance of the calliope. OMS 61.3

One evening in early spring, a new kind of parade formed. It began where we heard a shout from down the street, “They’re coming! They’re coming!” We took our positions by the gate in front of our house just in time to see the first bicycle spin past. Then others followed, hundreds of them, two abreast. It was a beautiful sight—lights flashing, horns honking, the riders shouting back and forth as they tried to outdistance one another. As I remember, they were more than half an hour wheeling past our house. OMS 61.4

Not long after this a letter was received from Grandma White reproving the members of the Battle Creek church for their extravagant outlay of money for bicycles. She spoke of the “bicycle craze,” and of the money that was spent “to gratify an enthusiasm in this direction that might better ... have been invested in building houses of worship where they are greatly needed.” OMS 61.5

At that time the price of a new bicycle was $150, while the wage of a laborer was only one or two dollars a day. Thousands of dollars must have been invested in bicycles for the sole purpose of participating in the parade that we had watched from our gate. In the letter, Grandma said that these things were working counter to the message God had given His people to proclaim in order to arouse the world to the great event that is just before us. OMS 62.1

She further sounded a warning that anything that can be made to absorb means in meeting supposed wants in any direction, Satan will use with an intensity of purpose, that our people may be induced to spend their time and money. OMS 62.2

Several conscientious employees of the Review and Herald, who had purchased bicycles for the purpose of getting back and forth to their dinner at noon, promptly sold them and carried cold lunches. As the price rapidly dropped, and with the advice of wise counselors who assured them that bicycles were not only permissible but practical when used for the accomplishment of necessary labor, these conscientious souls purchased bicycles again. OMS 62.3