Ellen G. White — Messenger to the Remnant

Divine Healing at Healdsburg

In 1883, as Mrs. White was speaking at the camp meeting in Healdsburg, California, bearing what she thought was her farewell message to the church, she was miraculously healed. For several weeks she had been critically ill, and was now failing rapidly, for all efforts to bring relief were ineffective. It seemed that her lifework was about to close. But she felt a great desire to meet just once more with the people gathered on the near-by campground. We will let her tell of this experience beginning with the time she reached the place of meeting: EGWMR 113.5

“A sofa had been brought onto the platform in the large tent. Here I lay down, thinking I would deliver my farewell address. My face was as the face of one dead, without a particle of color. EGWMR 113.6

“After a few testimonies had been borne, I asked Willie to help me to arise to my feet, and let me lean on him. There I stood, and began to tell the people that this was probably the last time they would ever hear my voice in camp meeting. But after speaking a few words, I felt the Spirit and power of God thrilling through every nerve of my body. Those who saw me said that the blood could be seen as it came to my lips and my forehead, and my flesh took on its natural appearance. EGWMR 113.7

“Mr. Montrose, in great surprise, remarked to one of his neighbors, ‘A miracle is being wrought in sight of this whole congregation!’ I could not understand why all were looking so intently at me, some even arising to their feet. The Spirit of the Lord had healed me. During the remainder of the camp meeting, I spoke several times.”—Manuscript 105, 1906. EGWMR 113.8

If we were to accompany Mrs. White to her various speaking appointments, we would see her in the Opera House at Salamanca, New York, on Sunday morning, in 1890; or standing before the ship’s passengers who gathered in the women’s cabin for an evening meeting as they made their way up the Mississippi River twenty years earlier. The meeting was arranged by one of the businessmen on board when it was learned that Mrs. White was a passenger on the boat. Again we would find her in the State penitentiary in Oregon, talking to the prisoners, or at the veterans’ home in Yountville, California, addressing the soldiers. EGWMR 113.9

Mrs. White’s work as a public speaker reached its peak in the camp meeting and temperance work of the seventies. As a revival speaker she was unsurpassed. As a temperance lecturer she reached her largest audiences. EGWMR 113.10

On June 28, 1877, Barnum’s circus came to Battle Creek, Michigan. The temperance forces, the leading citizens, and the church groups knew that on such an occasion many who were visiting the city would turn to the cheap eating houses and saloons for their meals. So plans were laid for a countermove. Under the auspices of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the large tent provided by the Michigan Conference was pitched to serve as a temperance restaurant. The patronage surpassed all expectations. Then Sunday evening, July 1, a temperance mass meeting was called. This was the climax of the concerted effort to make this occasion count for reform. Mrs. White herself gives an account of her part in this work: EGWMR 114.1

“By invitation of the committee of arrangements, Mayor Austin, W. H. Skinner, cashier of the First National Bank, and C. C. Peavey, I spoke in the mammoth tent Sunday evening, July 1, upon the subject of Christian temperance. God helped me that evening; and although I spoke ninety minutes, the crowd of fully five thousand persons listened in almost breathless silence.”—Testimonies for the Church 4:275. EGWMR 114.2

But this was not her first experience in meeting large audiences on the temperance question. The year before at the camp meeting held at Groveland, Massachusetts, she gave a temperance address. This was an era when Seventh-day Adventist camp meetings drew large crowds, and broad plans were laid for the meeting. A temporary railroad siding was built nearer the camp, and special trains were run to the campground on Sunday. Five hundred believers stayed on the site, but on Sunday 20,000 people poured onto the campground, coming by carriage, boat, and train from the surrounding cities. Both morning and afternoon Mrs. White spoke, and her subject was Christian temperance. “Every seat and all the standing room throughout the entire enclosure was full, some, following the example of Zacchaeus, climbed trees to get a sight of the speaker. Standing at the upper part of the campground, the eye swept over a living sea of humanity.”—Signs of the Times, September 14, 1876. EGWMR 114.3

The audience gave excellent attention, and Mrs. White spoke well. Although there was no amplifying system, all heard her clearly. Her speaking voice was excellent; in fact, on such occasions she could be heard a mile away. She brought into practice in her own experience the fundamental principles of proper breathing and voice culture so clearly set forth in her writings. EGWMR 114.4

Present on the Sunday afternoon at Groveland were officers of the Haverhill Reform Club. They requested her to speak at the Haverhill city hall the next evening. This she did, addressing eleven hundred people, striking intemperance at its very roots. EGWMR 114.5