Ellen G. White: The Lonely Years: 1876-1891 (vol. 3)

The Battle Creek Church, Uriah Smith, and the Testimonies

Particularly painful to her was the stance taken by Review editor Uriah Smith in connection with the deteriorating Battle Creek College situation. 3BIO 196.1

Smith's children attending the school sided with the liberal element, which was critical of Bell; evidently Smith's sympathies tended in the same direction. During this period an occasional interchange of letters took place between him and Ellen White. In her testimonies relating to Battle Creek, the church, and the college, she had probed the matter and given counsel based on her insights into the conflict and the attitude of various individuals. One key to the problem came to light later by way of Smith's letter to her written August 10, 1882: 3BIO 196.2

The ground of my hesitancy to regard that part of your communication referring to the special school trouble as a “testimony” was the fact that I had always supposed that a testimony was based on a vision, and I did not understand that you had had any vision since the recent trouble in the college commenced; hence I did not see how there could be any “testimony,” in the common acceptation of that term, concerning these special matters. At the same time I said that if you should claim that it was a testimony, I would accept the situation; and so I do. 3BIO 196.3

Hiding behind this philosophy, Smith attributed what she wrote concerning school matters in her letters of reproof and counsel to reports Ellen White had received and to her own opinions. He overlooked the fact that God reveals His will to His prophets in diverse manners. Also overlooked was the fact that she wrote stern messages of rebuke only as she was led by the Spirit of God to do so. In the course of time this led Ellen White to make some very plain and revealing statements about her work. These were published first in a pamphlet of eighty-four pages, and in somewhat reduced form in Testimonies for the Church, volume 5. 3BIO 197.1

On March 28, 1882, she wrote a letter to Smith that opened: 3BIO 197.2

Dear Brother Smith:

Your letter was received in due time. While I was glad to hear from you, I was made sad as I read its contents. I had received similar letters from Sister Amadon, and from Brother Lockwood. But I have had no communications from Professor Bell or anyone who sustains him....

I am not surprised that such a state of things should exist in Battle Creek, but I am pained to find you, my much esteemed brother, involved in this matter, on the wrong side, with those whom I know God is not leading. Some of these persons are honest, but they are deceived. They have received their impressions from another source than the Spirit of God.—Letter 2a, 1882 (published in Testimony for the Battle Creek Church, 19, 20). 3BIO 197.3

Ellen White then reviewed the history of the declining course of the college and declared that she dare not longer remain silent. “I speak to you and to the church at Battle Creek.... You are responsible for the influence you have exerted upon the college. Peace has come, because the students have had their own way.”—Ibid. She continued: 3BIO 197.4

God has given us, as a people, warnings, reproofs, and cautions on the right hand and on the left, to lead us away from worldly customs and worldly policy. He requires us to be peculiar in faith and in character, to meet a standard far in advance of worldlings. Professor McLearn came among you, unacquainted with the Lord's dealings with us. Having newly come to the faith, he had almost everything to learn. Yet you have unhesitatingly placed your children under his guardianship, to be molded by his views and opinions. You have coincided with his judgment. You have sanctioned in him a spirit and course of action that have naught of Christ.—Ibid. (see also Ibid., 30). 3BIO 197.5

Professors and teachers have not understood the design of the college. We have put in means and thought and labor to make it what God would have it. The will and judgment of a man who is almost wholly ignorant of the way in which God has led us as a people should not have a controlling influence in that college. The Lord has repeatedly shown me that we should not pattern after the popular schools.—Ibid. (see also Ibid., 39, 40). 3BIO 198.1

At one point in this cutting testimony she declared: “A few weeks since, I was in a dream brought into one of your meetings for investigation. I heard testimonies borne by students against Professor Bell.”—Ibid. It was these painful insights imparted to her by divine revelation that brought such distress of soul. To get the matter before the Battle Creek church, for it was the church that was so deeply involved, she asked Uriah Smith to read the testimony to the church. This he hesitated to do, for he was not in agreement with its contents. 3BIO 198.2

On May 30, 1882, ignoring the tempest, Smith observed in the Review that the spring term at the college would close on June 15, and reported, “Everything has moved along pleasantly, and the students are well pleased with their advantages and advancement.” 3BIO 198.3

Not all saw it that way. Butler later reported that the school was clear out of hand. Ellen White, writing to the church in Battle Creek on June 20, came right to the point: 3BIO 198.4

Dear Brethren and Sisters in Battle Creek:

I understand that the testimony which I sent to Elder Smith [dated March 28; see Ibid., 19-41] with the request that it be read to the church was withheld from you for several weeks after it was received by him. Before sending that testimony my mind was so impressed by the Spirit of God that I had no rest day or night until I wrote to you. It was not a work that I would have chosen for myself.—Ibid., 41. 3BIO 198.5

She pointed out that Smith, as a leading officer in the church, was exercising his own judgment in the matter of following the counsel given him through the testimonies. In agony of soul she reviewed some history: 3BIO 199.1

When I went to Colorado, I was so burdened for you, that, in my weakness, I wrote [in September, 1881] many pages to be read at your camp meeting. Weak and trembling, I arose at three o'clock in the morning, to write to you. God was speaking through clay. But the document was entirely forgotten; the camp meeting passed, and it was not read until the General Conference. You might say that it was only a letter. Yes, it was a letter, but prompted by the Spirit of God, to bring before your minds things that had been shown me.... 3BIO 199.2

While visiting Healdsburg last winter, I was much in prayer, and burdened with anxiety and grief. But the Lord swept back the darkness at one time while I was in prayer, and a great light filled the room. An angel of God was by my side, and I seemed to be in Battle Creek. I was in your councils; I heard words uttered, I saw and heard things that, if God willed, I wish could be forever blotted from my memory. My soul was so wounded, I knew not what to do or what to say. Some things I cannot mention. I was bidden to let no one know in regard to this, for much was yet to be developed. 3BIO 199.3

I was told to gather up the light that had been given me, and let its rays shine forth to God's people. I have been doing this in articles in the papers.... Again, while in prayer, the Lord revealed Himself. I was once more in Battle Creek. I was in many houses. I heard your words around your tables, and was sick at heart, burdened, and disgusted. The particulars, I have no liberty now to relate. I hope never to be called to mention them. I had also several most striking dreams. 3BIO 199.4

After I wrote you the long letter which has been belittled by Elder Smith as merely an expression of my own opinion, while at the southern California camp meeting [Hanford, May 4-15], the Lord partially removed the restriction, and I write as I do. I dare not say more now, lest I go beyond what the Spirit of the Lord has permitted me.—Ibid., 49, 50. 3BIO 199.5

In the testimonies sent to Battle Creek, I have given you the light God has given to me. In no case have I given my own judgment or opinion. I have enough to write of what has been shown me, without falling back on my own opinions.—Ibid., 58. 3BIO 200.1

These few excerpts from letters written in the early months of 1882 give a glimpse of a crisis over the validity of the testimonies and Smith's involvement. So often in the case of personal testimonies that touched the course of action and the life of the individual, it was hard to see the matter in its true light. How true is the Scripture observation “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes.” 3BIO 200.2

Smith felt that he was misunderstood by Ellen White and that he was fully justified in the course of action he was taking. In this matter his experience of wavering over the Spirit of Prophecy was not unique, and he wrote of it some years later in a statement appearing in The Review and Herald, Extra, December, 1887. Under the heading, “Personal,” he introduces his statement: 3BIO 200.3

Considerable handle, I understand, is being made in some directions of the fact that the editor of the Review has been troubled over the question of the visions, has been unsound on that question, and at one time came very near giving them up. It strikes me that this is quite a small amount of capital to work up much of a trade on—“came very near giving them up”—but didn't! 3BIO 200.4

I also, at one time, came very near getting run over by the cars, and rolled into jelly; but I didn't, and so continue to this day. Some have met just such a catastrophe. The difference between them and myself is that they did, and I didn't. Some have given up the visions. The difference between them and myself is the same—they did, and I didn't. [See appendix for his full statement.] 3BIO 200.5

The crisis in Battle Creek in which the college figured is treated at some length in the opening chapters of Testimonies for the Church, volume 5. 3BIO 200.6

When these testimonies were written, typewriters and carbon paper had not come into common use. Each document had to be painstakingly copied by hand. If several copies were needed, it was a most forbidding task. The only alternative was to set the matter in type and run off copies on the press. In late June, Ellen White decided to return to Oakland and resort to this latter means of making a limited number of copies to be used in the Battle Creek situation. These were printed in a pamphlet of eighty-four pages, which was given the title Testimony for the Battle Creek Church. Because of its twenty-one-page central article, the pamphlet is at times referred to as “An Important Testimony.” It carries an introduction addressed “To the Reader,” stating, “The following pages contain instruction, warning, and admonition of special importance to the Battle Creek Church at the present crisis.” The promise was made that extracts would be published in the forthcoming Testimony, No. 31, then in preparation. This was eventually done, and appear in Testimonies, volume 5. 3BIO 201.1