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

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Back Home in Portland, Maine

Tuesday evening, September 9, Ellen White, accompanied by Mrs. McOmber, was in Portland for the Maine camp meeting already in progress. Wednesday, they drove twelve miles to Gorham to visit Ellen's sister, an invalid who had suffered from rheumatism for six years. Her sister was not well, but there was nothing Ellen could do but have prayer with her and leave her in God's hands. Afterward she visited some old landmarks. 3BIO 260.4

I visited localities of special interest in connection with my early life, among them the spot where I met with the accident that has made me a lifelong invalid.... I passed the spot where the house once stood where Jesus revealed himself to me in power, and I seemed to see His blessed face beaming upon me in divine love and gentleness. 3BIO 260.5

I also visited my early home, and the house where my first vision was given me; but railroad buildings have crowded out many dwellings that used to stand in this locality. In the chamber of the last-mentioned house, I once passed a night of anguish at the thought that I must go out and relate to others the things that God had presented before me.... 3BIO 261.1

I felt the deepest interest in the meeting in Portland, where my childhood and youth were passed. Some of my old schoolmates made themselves known to me on the ground. I also met a number of relatives who were my neighbors forty years ago. It afforded me great pleasure to meet and greet these old friends.—The Review and Herald, November 25, 1884. 3BIO 261.2

On Wednesday evening, September 10, she addressed the audience, and tells of her feelings: 3BIO 261.3

The Lord gave me strength to bear my testimony. What emotions filled my heart as I stood before the people of my native city! It was here that I received my first impressions in regard to the speedy, personal coming of our Lord. Here my father's family, including myself, were excluded from the Methodist Church for cherishing this blessed hope. I knew there were none in the congregation who had been active workers in the message of the first and second angels. And yet this city was favored with special light and privileges in the great movement of 1842-1844. A large company accepted the faith, and rejoiced in the glad tidings that Jesus was soon coming.—Ibid. 3BIO 261.4

In a letter to Mrs. Ings she wrote of the good attendance and of how “cousins and acquaintances came to the meeting.”—Letter 27, 1884. 3BIO 261.5

Uriah Smith was on the grounds, and she shared with him some of the page proofs, just received, for The Great Controversy. He was deeply moved in reading the chapter on “The Time of Trouble” and felt every sentence of it was needed. She too was thrilled in rereading it. Bearing in mind the problems Smith had faced a year before, in his relationship to the manifestation of the Spirit of Prophecy, she wrote: “We are so glad that Elder Smith is with us again. Elder Haskell says he preaches as he never has done before.”—Letter 59, 1884. 3BIO 261.6