Ellen G. White: The Early Years: 1827-1862 (vol. 1)

Vision at Roosevelt, New York

From Eagle Harbor the Whites made their way to Rochester and then to Roosevelt, New York. A conference was to be held in the house of worship there over the weekend of August 3 and 4. This was a difficult meeting. White reported that on Sabbath afternoon light began to break through, especially in a season of special prayer “for the afflicted and desponding among us, and for the return of the Holy Spirit to us as a people.” He reported: 1BIO 449.1

We had been assembled seven hours without taking food, and the interest of the occasion was such that no one appeared to be faint or weary. God heard the united prayers of His afflicted people, and His Spirit came down upon them. Mrs. White shared largely in this blessed refreshing, and was soon in vision, in which she had messages of comfort for the desponding and afflicted, and of correction for the wayward and erring.—Ibid., August 20, 1861 1BIO 449.2

In the vision she was shown, among other things, “in regard to church order, and the struggle of our nation, and its effect upon the cause” (Ibid., August 27, 1861). As they moved through the State and saw what was happening, James White was “stung with the thought that the balance of influence is either against, or silent upon, the subject of organization” (Ibid., September 3, 1861). He wrote: 1BIO 449.3

We seem to be wading through the influence of a stupid uncertainty upon the subject of organization. This is as might be expected from the circumstances connected with the introduction of the subject among us. Soon after we merely hinted at it about eighteen months since, an article appeared in the Review from one of the corresponding editors [R. F. Cottrell] well calculated to arouse the fears of many that Brother White was in favor of something dreadful. 1BIO 449.4

We were then in Iowa where we could not give an explanation of our mere suggestions, and have a plain statement go out in the same number of the Review. The poison took almost everywhere. When we completed our western tour and found time, we reviewed the subject, and set forth some of the necessities of organization. But only a portion of the brethren could then be reached. The cause suffered dreadfully. 1BIO 450.1

But if those who took the wrong side of the question had owned up when they saw the error and weakness of their position, if all who were convinced of the necessity of organization had spoken out freely, victory would have [been] turned, and the poison of antiorganization would have been at once removed. But our ministers were generally silent. Some exerted a strong influence against organization, while the influence of others fell indirectly through their silence into the wrong scale with dreadful weight, and many of our brethren, especially in the East, stood in doubt. 1BIO 450.2

The brethren in Pennsylvania voted down organization, and the cause in Ohio has been dreadfully shaken. It has suffered everywhere. If such ministers of experience as Brethren Ingraham, Andrews, and Wheeler could have spoken on the subject decidedly and in season, much might have been saved that has probably gone to ruin. There is everywhere someone to hold back. They have no valid reasons for so doing; still they hold back.—Ibid., August 27, 1861 1BIO 450.3

White then referred to the conference in Roosevelt. After a two-hour discussion on organization at which objections were removed, he called for a standing vote favoring organization. Pioneer worker Frederick Wheeler kept his seat. James White was devastated. He wrote, “A dreadful feeling of discouragement came over us that we have not yet been able to shake off,” and he asked, “What can we expect of the people when the ministers stand thus?” Only ten weeks before, Wheeler had written White that the members in New York State were “beginning to feel the necessity of more union, and a more perfect consecration to God and His cause” (Ibid., June 11, 1861). 1BIO 450.4

As James White bemoaned the situation, he pointed out that three years back as he dwelt on the subject of unity in the church he could point with pleasure to Seventh-day Adventists as being far advanced in “scriptural unity.” But now no one could deny that “instead of our being a united people, growing stronger, we are in many places but little better than broken fragments, still scattering and growing weaker.”—Ibid., August 27, 1861. Thinking of what this trip into the East revealed, he wrote: 1BIO 451.1

A few years since we could report success and additions to the ranks at every appointment on our eastern and western tours. Now these conference meetings are scenes of wearing labor to hold together and strengthen what remains. Some who have been expecting a time of shaking are in doubt whether it has commenced. May the Lord save us from a worse shaking than the present.—Ibid. 1BIO 451.2

The next week, September 3, White declared: 1BIO 451.3

We are done moving out in any enterprise connected with the cause until system can lie at the bottom of all our operations. Mrs. White and self have interested ourselves in behalf of the poor; but in the absence of systematic arrangements among us much care has come upon us, and at least three fourths of those whom we have been instrumental in helping became our enemies.

Now let others who choose push the battle in confusion, but we are making all preparations for a safe retreat till the army of Sabbathkeepers be organized, and the rebels against organization be purged out.—Ibid., September 3, 1861 1BIO 451.4