Messenger of the Lord

Camp Meeting Appeals

Ellen White’s camp meeting appeals, from coast to coast, became legendary. For example, in 1884, at the age of 56, she spoke at four camp meetings. Of the Jackson, Michigan, meeting, Uriah Smith, editor of the church paper, reported in the Review that on several occasions between 200 and 350 people responded to her appeals by going forward for prayers. “There was deep feeling and though no excitement or fanaticism, the manifest movings of the Spirit of God upon the heart,” Smith wrote. ²⁰ MOL 71.3

During her visit to England in 1885, Ellen White was invited to speak to an audience of 1,200 in the town hall at Grimsby. Her topic was “The Love of God.” Later she wrote: “I tried to present the precious things of God in such a way as to draw their minds from earth to heaven. But I could only warn and entreat, and hold up Jesus as the center of attraction, and a heaven of bliss as the eternal reward of the overcomer.” ²¹ MOL 71.4

In 1885, Cecilie Dahl, a Norwegian, translated for Mrs. White as they made a six-week tour of Germany and the Scandinavian countries. Miss Dahl was one of many that the speaker had led to the Lord. MOL 71.5

Ellen White was ever ready to share the truth about God and salvation, even when it required an aggressive response. On an ocean voyage up the coast from San Francisco to Portland, in June, 1878, she overheard a fellow-passenger, a minister, stating that “it was impossible for any man to keep the law of God; that man never did keep it, and never can keep it.... No man will get to heaven by keeping the law. Mrs. White is all law, law; she believes that we must be saved by the law, and no one can be saved unless they keep the law.” MOL 71.6

Feeling the injustice of the charge, Ellen White felt that the group listening to this minister should hear the necessary corrections. Finding an appropriate moment, she spoke to the minister: “That is a false statement. Mrs. White has never occupied that position.” MOL 71.7

She then developed the Bible story of the law as mirroring sin and Jesus as our pardoning Advocate. “Elder Brown, please never again make the misstatement that we do not rely on Jesus Christ for salvation, but trust in the law to be saved. We have never written one word to that effect, nor taught such a theory in any manner. We believe that no sinner can be saved in his sins (and sin is the transgression of the law), while you teach that the sinner may be saved while knowingly transgressing the law of God.” MOL 71.8

Recalling this incident for a Signs article, Ellen White referred to Christ’s words in His Sermon on the Mount: “Christ here shows the object of His mission: To show man by His example, that he could be entirely obedient to the moral law, and regulate his life by its precepts. That law was exalted and made honorable by Jesus Christ.” ²² MOL 72.1

Two days after her sixty-eighth birthday, in 1895, Ellen White was speaking to a camp meeting audience in Hobart, Tasmania, finishing one of her sermons with an altar call. A large share of the audience came forward. But she wasn’t satisfied. She was hunting souls. She left the platform, and went to the back seats where five young people sat. In her quiet way, she invited them to give their hearts to the Lord. All five did, and several other young people joined them, as they went forward in their decision to make Jesus their Master. ²³ MOL 72.2

Clear priorities. People can be judged by their “wants.” Ellen White reiterated often her “want list“: “I want to be like Him. I want to practice His virtues.” ²⁴ “I want to be among that number who shall have their names written in the book, who shall be delivered. I want the overcomer’s reward.” ²⁵ “I want my treasure in heaven.” ²⁶ “I want to be like Him; I want to be with Him through the ceaseless ages of eternity.” ²⁷ “I want to know more and more of God’s word and of His works.” ²⁸ “I want to have a home with the blessed, and I want you to have a home there.” ²⁹ MOL 72.3

Abiding trust. In her late eighties (not a common achievement in the early 1900s), Ellen White was still taking an active part in book development. She moved freely in her Elmshaven home, able to go unassisted up and down the stairs. Often she could be heard singing an old Advent hymn, “The Better Land,” penned by William H. Hyde, words that were composed after Hyde had heard her describe a vision given in the spring of 1845. She often lingered on the last part: “We’ll be there, we’ll be there in a little while,
We’ll join the pure and the blest;
We’ll have the palm, the robe, the crown,
And forever be at rest.” ³⁰ MOL 72.4

On February 13, Ellen White tripped in her hallway. X-rays revealed an “intracapsular fracture of the left femur at the junction of the head and the neck,” a most painful injury, especially without modern alleviating medication. When asked about pain, she said: “It is not so painful as it might be, but I cannot say that it is comfortable.” Weeks later, when she was asked again about her comfort, she replied: “A good day—in spots.” Her long habit of walking with the Lord was making all the difference. ³¹ MOL 72.5