Ellen G. White: The Early Elmshaven Years: 1900-1905 (vol. 5)

The Messages Reach Dr. Kellogg

Sunday evening, April 26, Jones had occasion to present the testimonies Ellen White had placed in his hands to the Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association leaders. Their reaction, as Jones recounted to Ellen White, was of spontaneous agreement and confession. As that meeting closed, he walked with Kellogg toward his home, chatting about the situation. Approaching the Kellogg residence, Jones sensed that the time had come to present Ellen White's personal testimony to him. He mentioned the letter, and Kellogg invited him in. Again Jones pictures Kellogg as willing and eager to accept every line: 5BIO 267.2

I am happy to say that from the beginning to the end there was in the doctor no sign of any irritation or impatience with anything that was said; but a quiet, considerate readiness to look fairly and candidly at every statement, and to receive it for just what it said.... I am sure that I never saw a brother accept a testimony any more thoroughly than did he.—A. T. Jones to EGW, April 29, 1903. 5BIO 267.3

In her letter to Kellogg, the messenger of the Lord explained that three times after sleepless nights, she had been ready to address the delegates at the 1903 General Conference regarding the doctor and the points at issue, but she was restrained because her words might be misunderstood. Now she must speak: 5BIO 268.1

“What can I say that will in any way affect you?” she asked. “In some respects you have been pursuing a strange course during the last two years. This cannot continue.” 5BIO 268.2

She mentioned the General Conference of 1901 and said: 5BIO 268.3

If at that meeting you had fallen on the Rock and been broken, you would since that time have had a much deeper spiritual experience. But since that conference things have continually been occurring that show your mind is far from being free from evil....

I greatly desire that your soul shall be saved. You should no longer feel that your individual judgment is to be the criterion by which others are to be guided in carrying forward the medical missionary work.... 5BIO 268.4

Does not the sweeping away of the Sanitarium by fire mean much to you? Such a manifest token of God's displeasure should lead you to most earnest self-examination.... Study to find out why this punishment has come. Allow not this rebuke to pass by unheeded, lest it be followed by still sterner punishment.—Letter 55, 1903. 5BIO 268.5

She pleaded with the doctor to repent: 5BIO 268.6

Pray for yourself, in the name of Christ. Pray earnestly, fervently, sincerely. I hope that your life may be spared, and that you may give yourself wholly to repentance. Come to the Lord, and surrender all to Him. You must, or you will be taken captive by the enemy.

I cannot but write these words, for One of the highest authority has made this appeal to you.—Ibid. 5BIO 268.7

The next afternoon, Monday, April 27, Kellogg appeared before the General Conference Committee. He made a frank admission that he had been wrong in some of his positions, he acknowledged the divine Source of Ellen White's writings, and he asked for unity. The committee responded wholeheartedly with apologies and confessions. As Jones put it, “There was a breaking down all around. With tears of contrition and joy, brethren embraced one another in Christian love.”—A. T. Jones to EGW, April 29, 1903. 5BIO 268.8

The doctor and the General Conference leaders went directly to the Tabernacle, where a session of the Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association was in progress, and told everyone about the new-found harmony. The next day, Tuesday, Kellogg and Daniells sent a joint telegram to Ellen White: “Peace established according to Ephesians 2:14-22.” 5BIO 269.1

In a letter to W. C. White, Elder Daniells describes the experience and its aftermath: 5BIO 269.2

Personally, I received very much help. Complete reconciliation to the doctor was established in my heart, and I told him so. This seemed to affect him very much.... When our meeting was over, peace reigned in all our hearts, and it seemed like a beautiful calm that follows a terrific storm. The medical convention was in progress at the Tabernacle, and we all went over and told them what God had done for us. 5BIO 269.3

I need not tell you that there was great rejoicing. The doctor and I thought it would be a privilege for us to send a message to your mother. In establishing this peace, neither party claims a victory; neither one was asked to compromise the principles of right for which we felt that we were standing.—AGD to WCW, April 29, 1903. 5BIO 269.4

A little later, after she had received letters from both Daniells and Kellogg reporting the reconciliation, she wrote: 5BIO 269.5

I received your letter, also one from Elder Daniells. It made my heart very thankful to know that our brethren are doing all they possibly can to come into unity. May the Lord lead them on step by step.—Letter 80, 1903. 5BIO 269.6

But the harmony was short-lived. Her period of rejoicing was soon cut short by a vision of which she wrote in a letter to Willie: 5BIO 269.7

After I received the letter in regard to the excellent meeting of confession and unity that had been held in Battle Creek, I was writing in my diary, and was about to record my thankfulness I felt over the fact that there was a change, when my hand was arrested, and there came to me the words: “Write it not. No change for the better has taken place. The doctor is ensnared in a net of specious deception. He is presenting as precious the things that are turning souls from the truth into ... forbidden paths.—Letter 172, 1903. 5BIO 270.1

She wrote in the same vein to Dr. Kellogg, and said: 5BIO 270.2

Your case, my brother John, weighs heavily on my soul. You are presented to me as one who has been making strange paths for his feet, exerting an influence that leads others out of the right way.—Letter 181, 1903. 5BIO 270.3

Crisis days were to continue. These crises led church leaders to put their dependence wholly in God and to reach out for every bit of light the Lord might send through His messenger. 5BIO 270.4