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

The Bible Held in Vision

It is also the large Bible held in vision in the Harmon home early in 1845. On that occasion, during family prayers, she stepped over to a bureau upon which this large volume rested, and picked it up. Placing it on her left hand, she easily held it at arm's length for an estimated half hour. During the vision she referred, in short exclamations, to the value of the Word of God. Although in frail health, she was in no way fatigued by the experience. 1BIO 92.3

The account of the experience has come down through the family from Robert and Eunice Harmon to James White, then William C. White. [In a letter written April 2, 1919, to an educator, Sarah Peck, W. C. White declared, “my folks told the story to me.”—DF 732a. Loughborough recounted the incident at the general conference of 1891 (The General Conference Bulletin, 1891, 145) and at the 1893 session (Ibid., 1893, 20)]. It was referred to by J. N. Loughborough, who reported that he got the story from Ellen's parents, her older sister Sarah, and others (GSAM, p. 236). Ellen White made no reference to the experience, for as she was in vision she had no direct knowledge of what took place. At the time of the event she weighed about eighty pounds. 1BIO 92.4