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

On to the British Mission

Only one more stop was before Ellen White; then she would be free to take ship for America. While in Stockholm, she had hoped to hear from Willie about the tickets for the passage, and now she was on the way to England. To her surprise, she found him there. From Christiania he had gone to London in place of Basel, as she had expected. 3BIO 371.1

The work of the church in England had grown slowly and the field still had the status of a mission, while on the continent it had attained the status of conferences. Ellen White's first appointment was for meetings Sabbath and Sunday at Kettering, some seventy or eighty miles north of London. She was there Thursday morning; although she found the weather excessively warm, she did some shopping with Mrs. Ings. The little church group worshiped in a good-sized hall, actually a building with metal sides and roof, which in the summer made it seem like an oven. Ellen White spoke there Sabbath morning and afternoon, and again Sunday afternoon. The Sunday meeting was attended by a good representation of the townspeople. 3BIO 371.2

Ellen White would not be leaving on the City of Rome for the States for a full month, and she was grateful for this time to visit the churches and companies of believers in England. She had hoped to do this on her visit the previous year, but unfavorable weather made it seem imprudent. Now plans were quickly made for a few days in London, where she could do some writing and some trading, and then to Southampton for three days. She went to the Isle of Wight to visit the family of a sea captain who had made considerable sacrifice in accepting the third angel's message. 3BIO 371.3

The records yield but meager information as to just how Ellen White spent much of the month. She devoted some days to work on The Great Controversy chapters. In mid-July she was at Wellingsborough, near Kettering, for two meetings. Ten days later she was at Grimsby, a hundred miles north, where she was able to get some much-needed rest before starting on her trip across the Atlantic. On July 20 she wrote from Grimsby to Willie and Mary in London: 3BIO 371.4

I am in good health, appetite good, strength good. We have the very best kind of living, and I am gaining my strength.—Letter 90, 1887. 3BIO 372.1

This was cheering news, considering that for more than a month she had been traveling from place to place by train and boat, carrying through meeting after meeting in weakness and with an upset stomach, and with very little food to sustain life. 3BIO 372.2