Ellen G. White: The Later Elmshaven Years: 1905-1915 (vol. 6)

Steps Taken as the Crisis Deepened

Now, as the crisis deepened and Ellen White was sending warnings concerning the security of the Tabernacle, church leaders, local and general, saw that the time had come to appoint a pastor. The man chosen was a much-trusted young minister, M. N. Campbell. He was 32 years of age and had just been ordained. Elder Daniells told him that the assignment would be no easy job. Daniells had just talked to the trustees of the Tabernacle about safeguarding it, and he told Campbell that the trustees had told him to go on about his business. When Daniells asked Campbell to take the job in Battle Creek, Campbell replied: 6BIO 126.2

Elder Daniells, I'm ready to do anything in this world the General Conference asks me to do. If it's Battle Creek, all right, I'll go there.—DF 421c, M. N. Campbell, “Experiences With Ellen G. White,” p. 6. 6BIO 126.3

Upon this expression of his willingness to go, the local conference appointed him as pastor of the Battle Creek church. He moved there in November, 1906. In view of his commission, he was soon on the track of the trustees of the corporation that held the Tabernacle. 6BIO 126.4

His first discovery was that the charter had expired in 1892, fourteen years earlier, and the trustees had done nothing to renew it. He did his homework well, seeking legal advice and studying the steps that had to be taken to keep the Tabernacle. 6BIO 126.5

It was known that the men in control were very favorable to Dr. Kellogg and Elder Jones. The new pastor made friends with the trustees, meeting with them occasionally at the bank, where one was the cashier. He tried to gain their confidence. 6BIO 127.1

One day in early January he asked, “Why don't you men take steps to safeguard the Tabernacle and have it reincorporated?”— Ibid., 8, 9. They talked it over and decided to do just that. The date was set for the legal meeting. 6BIO 127.2

But the agreement did not hold for long. When Campbell arrived home, the telephone rang. The trustees said that if they were to go through with it, A. T. Jones must have the right to take part in the legal meeting. Campbell's reply was a decided No! Jones was not a member of the Battle Creek church, and he was not a man the church had confidence in. Other conditions were proposed that Campbell could not accept, and the trustees declared that the meeting they had agreed to would not be held. To this the young pastor responded, “I'm here to tell you, my brother, that that meeting will be held.” 6BIO 127.3

But Campbell did not know how it could be done, and he pondered the matter. A day or two later the minutes of a board meeting of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in which the ownership of the Tabernacle was discussed fell into his hands. The minutes made it clear that the trustees were trying to play into the hands of men at the Sanitarium. While the informer intended that Campbell should only read the minutes, he had them copied while the one who brought them stood by impatiently. 6BIO 127.4