Angel Over Her Tent

11/21

Chapter 9—Sailing to Oregon

Much of the 1870’s the Whites spent in California, helping organize Seventh-day Adventist churches and a publishing plant there. In 1878 James White’s health—poor up to that time—improved enough for him to travel by train to Battle Creek, where he planned to undergo treatment at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. A heart condition prevented Mrs. White from going with him because she feared that the exhausting train rides might put an even greater strain on her heart. James and Ellen decided that she would travel instead to Oregon, which neither had visited before. The developing Adventist churches in the Northwest needed her instruction and encouragement, and a sea trip along the Pacific Coast seemed less exhausting than transcontinental train rides. In fact, she hoped to rest during the voyage and recover from the strain of the hard work she had been doing. AOT 71.1

Together with a woman traveling companion and J. N. Loughborough, Mrs. White booked passage on the coastal steamer Oregon, bound for Portland. On the morning of June 10 she could not leave her bed because of her heart trouble. Friends tried to keep her from sailing. They were afraid the trip might cost her her life. But in the afternoon she stood on the pitching deck of the Oregon as it nosed out into the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay. AOT 71.2

A strong wind arose, whipping the water into massive waves. Clinging to the railing, Mrs. White watched the waves—their tops lashed into foam—hurtle the steamer skyward, then plunge it into the yawning troughs between the mountains of water. The scuttling clouds, the rainbow-flecked spray, the immense loneliness of the solitary ship in the midst of a vast ocean, and the continual roar of wind and water awed her and reminded her of the tempestuous night the disciples spent on the Sea of Galilee. Steamships still carried sails then for emergency use, and as Mrs. White watched the masts stab and scribble invisible lines across the cloudy sky, she realized more strongly than ever that only God can control the oceans He made, and that only He can protect men from the great storms that rage over the seas. AOT 72.1

The other passengers disappeared into their cabins, seasick, but Mrs. White did not want to leave the deck. She knew that if she went inside where she could not keep her eyes on the horizon or distant waves, she would become seasick herself. Obtaining a reclining cane chair and blankets from the steward, she rested and watched night swallow the stormy Pacific. AOT 72.2

Captain Conner, an officer noted for his consideration of his passengers, made rounds on deck later in the evening and found her still sitting in the chair. Windblown spray made the night damp and chill. Because he thought it too cool for her to remain outside, Conner suggested that she go to her cabin. AOT 72.3

Knowing that two women already lay groaning from the misery of seasickness in her stuffy cabin, she told him that she would rather remain on deck. No matter how damp, the air was at least pure. Since she seemed determined, the captain told her that she would not have to occupy her stateroom if she didn’t want to. “I will see that you have a good place to sleep,” he remarked as he disappeared into the darkness in search of a stewardess. AOT 73.1

The stewardess helped Mrs. White to the ship’s upper room, where a crewman had laid a horsehair mattress on the floor. Short as the walk had been, Mrs. White still managed to fall prey to the dreaded motion sickness. Collapsing on the mattress, she lay there extremely sick from Sunday evening until Thursday morning. The only food she could swallow the whole time was some crackers and a few spoonfuls of broth. AOT 73.2

Four days after leaving San Francisco Bay, the Oregon crossed the sandbar at the mouth of the Columbia River and sailed into smoother water. The passengers gradually emerged from their cabins and strolled feebly about the main deck. They included several Protestant ministers planning to hold religious meetings in Portland. One of them, a man named Brown, learned that Mrs. White had passed out some religious tracts to several of the passengers. A few of the Adventist tracts came into his possession, and he discovered that one was a defense of the law of God. AOT 73.3

In the evening, while Mrs. White lay in her stateroom recovering from seasickness, she heard voices coming through the open porthole. Brown, having gathered a small collection of people about him on the upper deck, was misrepresenting the Seventh-day Adventist attitude toward the Ten Commandments. “It is impossible for any man to keep the law of God,” he argued. “No man ever has, and no one ever will.” Brown’s voice became louder, and his back stiffened as if he imagined himself behind a pulpit. “No man will ever get to heaven by keeping the law. Mrs. White—the woman who passed out these tracts among you—is all law. She believes that the law will save us, and in fact, that no one will be saved unless he does keep the law. Now I believe in Christ. He is my Saviour. Christ alone can save us. Without Him we cannot be saved.” AOT 74.1

Although she had heard similar charges made against Adventists before, Ellen White still shuddered. Some Seventh-day Adventists had gone too far in urging people to obey the Ten Commandments, since the Bible stated that obeying them would be a distinctive trait or characteristic of the true Christian church just before Christ’s second coming. But neither Mrs. White, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, nor the tract Mrs. White had passed out taught that the law could save anybody. Brown’s charge was false and unjust. AOT 74.2

Not wanting to let the minister’s claim go unanswered before his little group of listeners, Mrs. White rose from her bed and brushed her dress as smooth as possible. Opening the cabin door, she faced the surprised Brown. AOT 74.3

“That is a false statement,” she said. “Mrs. White has never held that position. If I may speak for myself and for my church, we have never taken the position that the law has the power to save a single person. The law tells a person that he has done wrong. It condemns him. But it has absolutely no power to forgive a sin, no matter how great or small the sin might be. If we sin, we need an advocate—a defender—before God, and that Advocate can be only Christ. The sinner gets into trouble with God because he breaks God’s law. Christ pleads in his behalf. The law cannot release the sinner from the results of his transgression, but Christ Himself pays the penalty the sinner owes because of his disobedience.” AOT 75.1

Without the law—the Ten Commandments—the sinner would not know that he had done wrong, she explained. It showed him that he needed a Saviour—someone who would make him right with God and the law. But the law could do nothing else in the way of saving him. It could only point out sin—never remove it. Christ alone could cover man’s sins when he came into the presence of God. Christ alone is man’s hope for eternal life. AOT 75.2

Turning to the minister, she said, “Please never again make the statement that instead of relying on Jesus Christ for salvation, we rely on the law of God. We have never written in support of such a theory nor taught anything like that. We believe that no person can be saved while continuing to sin, while you teach that someone can be saved and still knowingly break God’s law.” Embarrassed, Brown whispered to those beside him that he knew perfectly well what Mrs. White and Adventists believed. Overhearing him, she replied, “If you really know what we believe and teach, you must also know that you have misrepresented us. Never have we suggested, either in our sermons, or in our publications, that the law can save a sinner. On the contrary, Adventist speakers and ministers have repeated again and again that the Ten Commandments are powerless to save a man from the results of his wrong acts. In fact, we will speak on the topic at the approaching Adventist camp meeting at Salem. Please come and attend and learn what we do believe, for it is obvious that you are not acquainted with Seventh-day Adventist teachings.” AOT 75.3

Brown was typical of the kind of attackers Adventists often had to meet. Because the Seventh-day Adventist Church stressed the Ten Commandments—something few other churches did—ministers of other denominations assumed that obeying the Ten Commandments was the Adventists’ main and most important teaching. Many religious leaders accused Adventists of being religious legalists. But such charges often stemmed from ignorance because the critics did not know that the church also taught that man’s only hope of eternal life lay in Christ’s intervention before God the Father. Mrs. White managed to temporarily stop Brown’s false accusations, but unfortunately even today many still hold the same mistaken idea of what Adventists teach. AOT 76.1