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

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Ellen White in Minneapolis in 1888

Arriving at Minneapolis Wednesday morning, October 10, at about ten o'clock, Ellen White, Willie, and Sara found that they were to be treated royally: 3BIO 389.7

We ...were pleasantly located in two good hired rooms, richly furnished with plush chairs and sofas. Willie's room was next to ours. But it did not look just in place to pile all our trunks and bundles in these nicely furnished rooms.... 3BIO 389.8

We decided to find other rooms, and we found rooms in the boardinghouse, hired for that purpose, and we have, Sara and I, one room, plainly furnished, but it has the blessing of a fireplace, which is of value, you well know, to me. Will has a chamber above with stove in his room. Two brethren sleep in a bed in the same room. Then they have a small room to do their writing in, and Willie is just as pleased with this as he can be.—Letter 81, 1888. 3BIO 390.1

The General Conference session was to be held in the newly constructed Minneapolis church, opening Wednesday evening, October 17. A ministerial institute was to precede the session by a full week. It was not till the date for the General Conference session was announced in the Review and Herald of August 7 that the plans for an institute had begun to develop. Butler wrote: “Leading brethren had suggested the holding of an institute to precede the General Conference the present year, and have presented many forcible reasons in its favor.”—The Review and Herald, August 28, 1888. A week later the Review announced the institute plans as definite. Butler added: 3BIO 390.2

We cannot pretend to say what will be the exact order of exercises, or what subjects will be especially considered.... A week's time spent in instruction on important features of church and conference work, and in calmly considering and carefully studying perplexing questions relating to the Scriptures, as well as in seeking God earnestly for heavenly wisdom, will most likely be of vast benefit.—Ibid., September 4, 1888 3BIO 390.3

It seems that W. C. White, one of the “leading brethren” who suggested the institute, had something more specific in mind. 3BIO 390.4

There was the question of the law in Galatians, which had been introduced at the session in 1886, and also the identity of the ten horns, or kingdoms, of the beast of Daniel 7. Views on these points, held by Signs of the Times editors E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones, were in conflict with the traditional views held quite generally, and particularly by Butler and Smith. White also had in mind the Sunday movement, duties of church officers, and the education of home and foreign laborers. 3BIO 390.5

In his report of the opening of the institute Smith listed: 3BIO 391.1

The subjects proposed to be considered in the hours for Biblical and historical study are, so far, a historical view of the ten kingdoms, the divinity of Christ, the healing of the deadly wound, justification by faith, how far we should go in trying to use the wisdom of the serpent, and predestination. Other subjects will doubtless be introduced.—The Review and Herald, October 16, 1888.

Concerning the first hours of the institute, he wrote: 3BIO 391.2

At seven-thirty last evening Elder Haskell made stirring remarks upon the work of the message in foreign lands. At 9:00 A.M. today [the eleventh] a Bible reading was held by A. T. Jones, on the advancement of the work of the third angel's message. The point brought out was that personal consecration must lie at the foundation of all our success in this work.—Ibid.