Ellen G. White — Messenger to the Remnant

Labor for Unbelieving Relatives

In the summer of 1872 Elder and Mrs. White were in the mountains of Colorado for a period of relaxation and change. With them were several members of the family and Mary, a niece. Mary and her mother, one of Mrs. White’s older sisters, were not Seventh-day Adventists. From a diary entry we observe the tactful way in which Mrs. White sought to lead this girl into the light of the truth: EGWMR 119.6

“We arise this beautiful morning with some sense of the goodness and mercy of God to us. This is our first Sabbath among the mountains. James, Sister Hall, and myself took a blanket and walked out to the shelter of the fragrant evergreens, rolled up a stone for a seat, and I read a portion of my manuscript to my husband. EGWMR 119.7

“In the afternoon our niece, Mary, Willie, and I walked out and, seated beneath poplar trees, we read about sixty pages of Great Controversy, Spiritual Gifts. Mary was deeply interested. We were happy in the earnest manner she listened. We see no prejudice with her. We hope she will yet see and receive the truth. She is a pure, simple-hearted, yet intellectual girl. EGWMR 119.8

“We closed the Sabbath of the Lord with prayer. Mary united with us in prayer.”—Diary, July 27, 1872. EGWMR 119.9

Thus we see Mrs. White tactfully selecting reading which she hoped would awaken interest, and then eagerly watching the reaction. Through the years she sent the Review, the Instructor, the Signs of the Times, and the Watchman to her sisters and other relatives who were not in the message. She wrote letters of appeal, and did not forget to pray that God’s Spirit would strive with their hearts. But this was all she could do. For several years Mary assisted her as a copyist, but she failed to yield her heart fully to God and walk in the light. In an earnest appeal Mrs. White wrote to her five years after the experience in the mountains: EGWMR 119.10

“I have no wish to control you, no wish to urge our faith upon you, or to force you to believe. No man or woman will have eternal life unless they choose it.... with all the self-denial and cross-bearing that is involved in the Christian life.... God will test every one of us. He will give privileges and opportunities to all and a sufficient amount of evidence to balance the mind in the right direction, if they choose the truth. EGWMR 119.11

“God will work for you and make you an able instrument if you will yield your will and affections to His will and if you will become a child of obedience. But if you remain in resistance to the truth, God will remove His light from you and you will be left to take your own course and meet the result at last. I hope you will not say as your mother said to me in regard to breaking the Sabbath, she ‘would risk it.’ God forbid that you should dare to risk it and pursue a course of disobedience. You have tenfold more light in reference to the truth than your mother. I still have faith that she will accept the truth if you do not hedge up her way. I have written in love and have written because I dare not do otherwise.”—Letter 6, 1877. EGWMR 119.12

Neither this young woman nor her mother ever accepted the Sabbath truth. Mrs. White felt deeply concerning this. EGWMR 119.13