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

The Conference Proceeds

On Thursday morning at nine o'clock Ellen White was the speaker. Under the title of “In the Regions Beyond,” she reported little incidents in the development of the work in Australia, and what she saw in the South as she came to the session. She then went back to her memories of early days in the work of the church. 5BIO 87.5

Again she touched on the point of the need of a change in the management of things in the heart of the work. She called for economy, pointing out that from the light God had given to her “there must be a decided change in the management of things at the heart of the work.”—Ibid., 83. She spoke of the unworked fields around them, and recounted an incident that indicated God's guidance in their experience in starting the work in Oakland, California. 5BIO 87.6

We came to the place where we must have means, and we did not know what to do. My husband was sick and feeble, and very busy. I said, “Will you let me go to Battle Creek to try to raise some money for the work here?” 5BIO 88.1

“How can you go?” he said. “I am overwhelmed with responsibility. I cannot let you go.” “But God will take care of you,” I said. 5BIO 88.2

We held a meeting in an upper room of a house in Oakland where prayer was wont to be made. We knelt down to pray and while we were praying, the Spirit of God like a tidal wave filled the room, and it seemed that an angel was pointing across the Rocky Mountains to the churches in this part of America. Brother Tay, who is now sleeping in Jesus, rose from his knees, his face as white as death, and said, “I saw an angel pointing across the Rocky Mountains.” 5BIO 88.3

Then my husband said, “Well, Ellen, I shall have to let you go.” 5BIO 88.4

I did not wait for another word, but hurrying home, put a few gems [bread rolls] in a basket, and hastened to the cars. I made very little preparation, for I had just time to get to the cars.... I went alone.... I obtained means, and then returned to California to build up the work.—Ibid., 84. 5BIO 88.5

And then she brought the lesson home, explaining: 5BIO 88.6

I told the Lord that when I came to Battle Creek this time, I would ask you why you have withheld means from the work in Australia. The work there should have been pressed with tenfold greater strength than it has been, but we have been hindered on the right hand and on the left....

Why am I telling you this? Because we desire that at this meeting the work shall be so established that no such thing shall take place again. Two or three men, who have never seen the barren fields, where the workers have had to wrestle with all their might to advance an inch, should not control matters.”— Ibid. 5BIO 88.7

If Ellen White's voice had not been heard in a General Conference session for ten years, it was heard in this conference of 1901. She was asked to speak Sabbath morning, which she did. This was the most largely attended session thus far held by Seventh-day Adventists. In addition to the delegates, there were 1,500 visitors from all parts of the United States, and the comment was made, “All of these seem of one heart and mind to make this the greatest and best occasion of their lives.”— Ibid., 65. 5BIO 88.8

According to the General Conference Bulletin, that first Sabbath of the session, April 6, was a great day. “Sister White spoke in the Tabernacle at 11:00 A.M. to an overflowing house. Not only was every available seating space occupied but every foot of standing room was covered. There must have been 3,500 people or more present to listen to a stirring address upon the duty of tithe-paying.”—Ibid., 89. 5BIO 89.1

The Tabernacle was not capable of housing all who had come for the Sabbath meetings. “At the same hour W. W. Prescott spoke to about all who could be accommodated in the college chapel. His subject was the sanctuary and its service.”— Ibid. E. J. Waggoner spoke in the Review and Herald chapel to a good-sized audience on the “Temple of God.” At the Sanitarium a Sabbath-morning service was held with Elder J. O. Corliss as the speaker. The estimate was that approximately five thousand people worshiped that Sabbath morning in Battle Creek, “making [it] the largest Sabbath meeting ever held” in that city (Ibid., 89). 5BIO 89.2

At five-thirty Tuesday morning, April 9, Ellen White again gave the morning devotional study. Her topic was the need of missionary effort. She thanked the Lord that He was working in their midst and said that this could be so only when His people draw together. “There seems to be in this meeting an endeavor to press together. This is the word which for the last fifty years I have heard from the angelic host—press together, press together. Let us try to do this. When in the spirit of Jesus we try to press together, putting ourselves out of sight, we shall find that the Holy Spirit will come in, and the blessing of God will rest upon us.”—Ibid., 182. 5BIO 89.3

Her address was filled with appeals for attention to be given to needy fields of labor. She spoke of Europe and of New York City. And she came back to the theme that lay heavily upon her heart—the importance of a close binding together of the medical and evangelistic interests of the church. 5BIO 89.4

“Do not,” she urged, “longer divorce yourselves from the medical missionary work. Dr. Kellogg has been driven almost to despair as he has sought for some way in which he could bring the truth more prominently before the world. Let every minister of the gospel heed the words of Paul: ‘I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway.’” She urged that “God wants you to observe the strictest principles of temperance. He wants you to stand in a position of sacred nearness to Him, where you can ask and He will hear, where you know that He will always be with you.”—Ibid., 184. 5BIO 90.1

At three o'clock on Tuesday afternoon Dr. Kellogg took two hours to present the work of the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, stressing what was being done in Chicago. (The regular work of the General Conference in session was interspersed with the meetings of the various associations.) It was on this Tuesday, April 9, also, that the organization of the Southern Union Conference was completed, a constitution adopted, certain officers elected, and members of the executive committee named. This represented the first full-fledged union conference to be organized in the United States. It was the bellwether, and before the conference was to close two weeks later, there would be six union conferences in North America. 5BIO 90.2