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

What is the Evidence?

At this meeting Ellen White challenged the men to look at the evidence that had been before them all down through the years as to the integrity of her work, and particularly since the Minneapolis meeting. She referred to the test Christ had given, “By their fruits ye shall know them,” and urged that candid consideration be given to the evidence. She declared: 3BIO 460.5

I am convinced that Satan saw that there was very much at stake here, and he did not want to lose his hold on our ministering brethren. And if the full victory comes, there will go forth from this meeting many ministers with an experience of the highest value.—Ibid. 3BIO 460.6

A second meeting of inquiry was held on the next Wednesday morning, with A. T. Jones present. He had not been with them the week before. Of this meeting she wrote: 3BIO 460.7

Brother Jones talked very plainly, yet tenderly in regard to their crediting hearsay and not, in brotherly love, taking the matter to the one talked about and asking him if the report were true. 3BIO 461.1

Willie, I talked as they had never heard me talk before.... The whole atmosphere has changed. There is now joy with Brother Dan Jones that I held to the point. He says he has made a fool of himself. Brother Eldridge says he feels subdued, like a whipped man, that all this maneuvering has been going on to meet obstacles that never had an existence.... 3BIO 461.2

Brother Dan Jones says it would have been lamentable [for the men] to leave Battle Creek without these two special meetings and the definite explanations made. He is a changed man. The Lord is at work. How Brother Smith will come out remains to be seen.—Letter 84, 1890. (Italics supplied.) 3BIO 461.3

When asked why the meetings at which explanations were given were not held earlier, Ellen White replied: 3BIO 461.4

The state of their impressions and feelings was of such a character that we could not reach them, for they had ears, but they were dull of hearing; hearts had they, but they were hard and unimpressible.—Ibid. 3BIO 461.5

A few days before the Bible school closed, Ellen White left to spend a weekend in Chicago. From there she went to Colorado, where Mary was now in rapidly failing health, then on to California to spend much of April and May. Following a camp meeting at Fresno, she divided her time between Oakland and St. Helena. 3BIO 461.6

Leaving California in early June, she stopped again in Colorado en route to Battle Creek. It was clear Mary would not live long. Tuberculosis had done its devastating work. Willie was with her. On Wednesday, June 18, Mary's life came to a close. She was 33 years of age and left a grieving husband three years her senior, and two daughters, 8 and 3 years of age. Her life had been a fruitful one, not only as a wife and mother but as a writer, editor, and publishing house worker. The funeral was held in the Battle Creek Tabernacle on Wednesday, June 25, and she was laid to rest in the White family plot in the Oak Hill Cemetery. 3BIO 461.7

Ellen White was exhausted and needed a period of relaxation. This she sought in mid-July in Petoskey, some two hundred miles to the north on Lake Michigan, a popular summer resort area. Several Adventist families resided there or were there for the summer. 3BIO 461.8

Soon she was planning for a few camp meetings and then a swing through the East and South, laboring in the newly organized Atlantic Conference and taking in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. The tour would also include work in Virginia and an appointment at Salamanca, New York, on the New York-Pennsylvania border. Ellen White's two-month stay in Petoskey extended to mid-September, and then she was back in Battle Creek for a month before starting on the three-month tour through the East and South. 3BIO 462.1