Messenger of the Lord

Kindness

Many were the occasions when Ellen White showed her deep interest in young people. For example, she met a new Adventist family at the Oregon camp meeting in late June, 1878. Their teenage daughter, Edith Donaldson, was eager for a Christian education at Battle Creek College. Mrs. White promptly suggested that Edith return with her to California and then on to Michigan. In a letter to her husband James, she manifested her kind heart. Describing Edith as a “girl of rare promise,” she wrote: “I want her to board at our house and receive all the attention she needs.” ⁵⁴ MOL 90.12

Ellen White received many letters from those who were suffering from disease or were mourning the death of loved ones. When the General Conference sent J. N. Andrews to Europe as the denomination’s first official missionary, they sent a man who had already lost his wife and two infant children to disease. He left America with Mary, his 12-year-old daughter, and Charles, age 16. Four years later, in 1878, Mary died of tuberculosis. Coupled with his wife’s early death and now Mary, Andrews felt that he was holding on to God “with a numb hand.” ⁵⁵ MOL 91.1