The Great Visions of Ellen G. White

Opposition of Sargent and Robbins

On Ellen and Sarah’s second visit to Massachusetts they again stayed in the home of Otis Nichols, an Adventist lithographer of Dorchester (then nine miles from downtown Boston, today a part of south Boston). Ex-Millerites, Nichols and his wife were among the first to accept Bates’s teaching on the seventh-day Sabbath; they began to observe it in 1845. GVEGW 28.6

The Nicholses were happy to provide both hospitality and transportation, for they ardently believed from the start that Ellen’s visions were from the Lord; they also were a principal source of emotional support to the young prophetess. ³¹ GVEGW 28.7

Just as Paul wrote gratefully of Onesiphorous, who “oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain” (2 Timothy 1:16), Ellen expressed heartfelt appreciation for this family who “were ever ready with words of encouragement to comfort me ... and often their prayers ascended to heaven in my behalf.” ³² GVEGW 29.1

Nor were they ashamed of Ellen’s “chain”—the “slings and arrows” of her “outraged” critics! GVEGW 29.2

One morning after Ellen and Sarah had taken up residence, two self-styled leaders of an extremist group based in Boston (but with adherents as far afield as Randolph, 13 miles south) called at the Nichols’ home to see Otis. The message of these fanatics may perhaps be best summed up as: (1) it is a sin to labor; (2) Christians should now sell all their property and give alms; (3) the church has now entered into the jubilee period, and even the land should rest; (4) the poor must be supported without labor on their part; (5) Ellen Harmon and her visions are directly of the devil. ³³ GVEGW 29.3

There appears to be some evidence that Sargent and Robbins once supported Ellen’s prophetic gift, as had Joseph Turner; but all turned against her when her visions exposed the unbiblical nature of their respective teachings and practices. ³⁴ GVEGW 29.4

Upon this occasion Sargent and Robbins had come, ostensibly, to seek a favor of Nichols, and apparently to remain overnight. But when Otis informed them that Ellen Harmon was inside the house and invited them in to become acquainted with her, they suddenly remembered pressing business elsewhere. They said they must leave immediately. ³⁵ GVEGW 29.5

Before parting, however, Robbins solemnly declared that Ellen’s visions were of the devil. How could he be so sure? Nichols inquired. Because, according to Robbins, he “always felt a blessing” whenever he declared they were of Satan! Nichols retorted that this kind of subjective test was unsafe. For himself, he accepted Ellen’s gift as from the Lord on the basis of the objective evidence of the fruitage that they had already borne in those who had accepted them. GVEGW 29.6

To preserve appearances, it was mutually decided that Ellen would come to Boston the very next Sabbath to present personally her views before the followers of Sargent and Robbins; then each could make his or her final determination as to the merits of her experience. ³⁶ GVEGW 29.7

But on the evening preceding the Sabbath Ellen was taken off in vision during family prayers. “I was shown,” she later wrote, “that we must not go into Boston, but in an opposite direction to Randolph; that the Lord had a work for us to do there.” ³⁷ GVEGW 30.1

Somewhat aggrieved, Nichols objected; he had given his word that he would produce Ellen at the meeting in Boston the next day. If they failed to appear as promised, her credibility—and his—would be seriously compromised. “I do not understand it,” he fumed. GVEGW 30.2

“The Lord showed me that we would understand it when we got there,” a confident Ellen responded. Then she elaborated upon what the angel had revealed: GVEGW 30.3

1. Sargent and Robbins were hypocrites; they had no intention whatever of being in Boston on the Sabbath in question, and there would be no meeting there for her to attend. GVEGW 30.4

2. Instead, Sargent and Robbins would themselves go south to Randolph, to meet with a large company there, many of whom sympathized with these fanatical teachers in their opposition to Ellen Harmon’s visions. (Boston was nine miles north of Dorchester, where Ellen was staying; Randolph was four miles south.) GVEGW 30.5

3. Ellen and the Nicholses were to go to Randolph to confront and confound her critics at a meeting in the home of a Mr. Thayer. GVEGW 30.6

4. While in their midst, God would give Ellen a message calculated to convince any honest and unprejudiced among them that her work was truly of God and not of Satan. ³⁸ GVEGW 30.7