The Great Visions of Ellen G. White

Three Kinds of Problems

1. Physical problems: “My health was very poor,” ¹ she later recorded in her first autobiographical account. She suffered from an advanced, debilitating form of tuberculosis, which also adversely affected her heart. At night she could generally breathe only when propped up in bed into a near sitting position. And she frequently was forced to spit up blood. ² “My lungs and throat were very sore,” she continued; consequently “it was with the greatest difficulty that I could speak aloud.” Often she would begin her public presentations in a hoarse, raspy whisper, before the power of God would come upon her and give her miraculous (though often only temporary) healing. ³ GVEGW 25.3

She ventured forth on her first speaking assignment in late January 1845. At five feet two inches in height and weighing but 80 pounds, ⁴ the near-invalid prophetess was obliged to crouch in the bottom of a sleigh, with a heavy buffalo robe thrown over her for protection from the merciless elements of a harsh New England winter. Her audience was a group of neighbors gathered at a married sister’s home in Poland, Maine, some 30 miles from Portland. ⁵ GVEGW 25.4

2. Travel problems: “The idea of a [single, teenage] female traveling [unchaperoned] from place to place caused me to draw back,” she later admitted. ⁶ GVEGW 26.1

Thus, on a trip to Orrington, Maine (where she would, for the first time, meet the man who in 1846 was to become her husband), she went in the company of a “Bro. J” and his sister. ⁷ On a trip to New Hampshire her travel companions were a sister-in-law, Louisa Foss; a “Bro. Files and his wife“: and future fiance, James White. ⁸ On her first two trips south to Massachusetts Ellen was accompanied by her own sister, Sarah Harmon. ⁹ GVEGW 26.2

(Of Ellen’s seven brothers and sisters, only Sarah and Robert would follow her, along with their parents, in becoming Sabbath-keeping Adventists.) GVEGW 26.3

But even with the precaution of impeccable chaperonage, Ellen did not escape the gossip of slanderous tongues. Almost immediately she received a distressing letter from her mother, begging her to return forthwith to her Portland home, because of “false reports,” already in circulation, that sullied her reputation. “This,” Ellen commented, with simple naivete, “I had not expected.” ¹⁰ GVEGW 26.4

3. Professional problems: Among the most trying of her problems was the necessity of rebuking heretical teachings and fanatical practices, thereby suffering consequent personal attacks from extremist advocates. GVEGW 26.5

Some continued to set successive dates for the Second Coming. The failure of Christ to appear at the times prescribed served only to compound disappointment, thus weakening further the faith of those who supported these false predictions. ¹¹ GVEGW 26.6

Others, taking a different tack, said that the Second Coming was in reality “spiritual,” rather than a literal, personal appearing of our Saviour. ¹² GVEGW 26.7

Then there were those who “trusted every impression, and laid aside reason and judgment.” ¹³ For many in this “rank fanaticism,” this mindless blind following of “impressions and burdens ... led to corruption, instead of [to] purity and holiness.” ¹⁴ (The insidious and eventually adulterous practice of “spiritual wifery” was one such form of fanaticism!) ¹⁵ GVEGW 26.8

She also had to meet those who “seemed to think that religion consisted in making a noise [literally, as well as figuratively!]. They would talk in such a manner as to irritate unbelievers, and cause them to hate them, and then they would rejoice that they suffered persecution.” ¹⁶ GVEGW 27.1

Frequently Ellen was called to deal with those practicing hypnotism. In those days this phenomenon often went under such quaint labels as “animal magnetism,” ¹⁷ “spiritual magnetism,” ¹⁸ or “mesmerism” ¹⁹ (after Franz—or Friedrich—Anton Mesmer, 1734-1815, an Austrian physician who popularized the practice). ²⁰ GVEGW 27.2

Some blatantly accused Ellen of originating her visions through self-hypnosis, ²¹ while others averred that her fiance, James White, induced her trances by means of mesmerism. ²² GVEGW 27.3

Joseph Turner, an ex-Millerite preacher who led an extreme splinter group in Maine, ²³ boasted an expertise in mesmerism. He claimed not only that he could induce her hypnotically but also that he could prevent her from either having or telling a vision in his presence. Upon one occasion he himself attempted to put her into a trance by a bizarre performance: GVEGW 27.4

“I arose in the congregation,” Ellen wrote in her first autobiography. “My visions came up fresh before me, and I commenced relating them, when I felt a human influence being exerted against me. I looked at J. T. He had his hands up to his face, and was looking through his fingers, his eyes intently fixed upon me. His lips were compressed, and a groan now and then escaped him. In a moment I remembered the promise which the Lord had given me ... that if I was in danger of being affected by a human influence, to ask for another angel, who would be sent to protect me. I then raised my hands to heaven, and earnestly cried, Another angel, Father! another angel! I knew that my request was granted. I felt shielded by the strong Spirit of the Lord, and was borne above every earthly influence, and with freedom finished my testimony.” ²⁴ GVEGW 27.5

And, of course, spiritualism in its most unvarnished form had to be met, repeatedly. ²⁵ GVEGW 27.6

The strangest theological ideas were advocated by a lunatic fringe: some, for example, held that “there was no Holy Spirit, and that all the exercises that holy men of God [in Bible times] have experienced were only mesmerism or the deceptions of Satan.” ²⁶ GVEGW 27.7

Others took extreme views of certain scriptural passages “and refrained wholly from labor, and rejected all those who would not receive their views on this point, and some other things which they held to be religious duties.” ²⁷ GVEGW 28.1

A typical example was to be found in Paris, Maine, in an ex-Methodist preacher named Jesse Stevens. He was particularly influential because of his “zeal for the truth, and apparent holy living.” A strong advocate of the “no-work” view, he (as did many of his fellow leaders) vehemently denounced those who disagreed with his views. Ellen was given a special testimony for Stevens, but “he rejected every evidence which the Lord gave to convince him of his error, and was firm to take nothing back in his course. He followed impressions and went [on] weary journeys, walking great distances, where he would only receive abuse, and considered that he was suffering for Christ’s sake.” ²⁸ GVEGW 28.2

Thus were the early energies of the new teenage prophetess expended, a particularly difficult and traumatic task because of her acute sensitivity to the feelings of others. As she herself shared: GVEGW 28.3

“It was very crossing for me to relate to individuals what I had been shown concerning their wrongs. It caused me great distress to see others troubled or grieved. And when obligated to declare the messages, I often softened them down and related what I had seen as favorable for the individual as I could, and then would go by myself and weep in agony of spirit.... How could I relate the plain, cutting testimonies given me of God?” ²⁹ GVEGW 28.4

She summed up her mixed emotions, frustrations, and occasional feelings of despair in these words: “These were troublesome times. If we had not stood stiffly then, we should have made shipwreck of our faith. Some said we were stubborn; but we were obliged to set our faces as a flint, and turn not to the right hand nor to the left.” ³⁰ GVEGW 28.5