In , at the age of twelve Ellen visited a Methodist camp with her family and this was where she decided to follow the path to Jesus. She started attending the Adventist meetings in Portland and believed that the return of Christ was eminent on 22nd October During her expedition to Orrington, she met James White who was an Adventist preacher. While working together a strong bond formed between the two of them which turned to marriage in The early years of their union were poverty filled and stressful but Ellen continued to struggle in her preaching along with trying to manage her family life.
The s were spent mostly in raising her children travelling, writing and personal struggle. An accident at the age of 9 ended Ellen's formal education. In the Harmons were deprived of fellowship in the Methodist Church because of their sympathies with the Millerite movement and its adventist views.
Next year Ellen began experiencing what she claimed were visions. Ellen played a key role in forming the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in the s and in developing its evangelistic outreach, working for the movement in the U. Invited to visit Australia by the Church's foreign mission board, she arrived in Sydney on 8 December with one of her four sons and a staff of four women. By this time Mrs White was generally regarded by Seventh-Day Adventists as possessing the prophetic gift and was firmly established as one of the Church's most influential members.
Only 5 ft 2 ins cm tall, she had strong features, compelling eyes and dark hair, severely parted in the middle. Her son William Clarence , a Seventh-Day Adventist minister, acted as her editorial assistant and publishing manager. He travelled extensively throughout the eastern states of Australia and in New Zealand, speaking at Church meetings. Workers in the Advent movement had no one but themselves to depend upon for financial support, so James White divided his time between preaching and earning a living in the forest, on the railroad, or in the hayfield.
A son, Henry, was born to the Whites on August 26, His presence brought joy and comfort to the young mother, but Ellen White soon found she must leave her child with trusted friends and continue her work in traveling and bearing the messages God had entrusted to her.
The year marked the appearance of Mrs. This early document and its Supplement are now found on pages of the book Early Writings. Money was scarce. Sickness and bereavement played their part in bringing distress and discouragement.
But there were brighter days ahead, and when in the Advent believers in Michigan invited the Whites to Battle Creek and promised to build a little printing house, the tide seemed to turn for the better. In November, , the Review and Herald Publishing Association, with the hand press and other printing equipment, was moved from rented quarters in Rochester, New York, to the newly erected building in Battle Creek, Michigan, so liberally provided by the Advent believers.
A few days after Elder and Mrs. White, and those associated with them in the publishing work, arrived at Battle Creek, a conference was held to consider plans for spreading the Advent message.
At the close of this general meeting a number of matters of importance to the church at large were revealed to Ellen White. These she wrote out and read to the Battle Creek church. The church members recognized that this message would benefit all the groups of believers, so they voted that it should be published.
In due time there came from the re-established press a page tract bearing the title, Testimony for the Church Testimonies, vol. The record of the next few years shows Elder and Mrs. White establishing the publishing work and church organization, and traveling here and there by train, wagon, and sleigh.
It is a record with discouraging features as attacks were directed against the work, and also one of great encouragement as the power of God brought victory into the lives of the Sabbathkeepers and success to the work of those who were leading out in advancing the Advent cause. At an Ohio funeral service held on a Sunday afternoon in March, , in the Lovett's Grove now Bowling Green public school, a vision of the ages-long conflict between Christ and His angels and Satan and his angels was given to Mrs.
Two days later Satan attempted to take her life, that she might not present to others what had been revealed to her. Sustained, however, by God in doing the work entrusted to her, she wrote out a description of the scenes that had been presented to her, and the page book Spiritual Gifts, volume 1, The Great Controversy Between Christ and His Angels and Satan and His Angels, was published in the summer of The volume was well received and highly prized because of its clear picture of the contending forces in the great conflict, touching high points of the struggle but dealing more fully with the closing scenes of this earth's history.
See Early Writings, pp. By the fall of the White family numbered six, with four boys ranging from a few weeks to 13 years of age. The youngest child, Herbert, however, lived only a few months, his death bringing the first break in the family circle. The culminating efforts to establish church and conference organizations, with the demands for much writing, traveling, and personal labor, occupied the early years of the s.
The climax was reached in the organization of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in May, Previous to this vision, little thought or time had been given to health matters, and several of the overtaxed ministers had been forced to become inactive because of sickness.
This revelation on June 6, , impressed upon the leaders in the newly organized church the importance of health reform.
In the months that followed, as the health message was seen to be a part of the message of Seventh-day Adventists, a health educational program was inaugurated. An introductory step in this effort was the publishing of six pamphlets of 64 pages each, entitled, Health, or How to Live, compiled by James and Ellen White.
An article from Mrs. White was included in each of the pamphlets. The importance of health reform was greatly impressed upon the early leaders of the church through the untimely death of Henry White at the age of 16, the severe illness of Elder James White, which forced him to cease work for three years, and through the sufferings of several other ministers.
Early in , responding to the instruction given to Ellen White on Christmas Day, Testimonies for the Church, vol. While the Whites were in and out of Battle Creek from to , Elder White's poor physical condition led them to move to a small farm near Greenville, Michigan.
Away from the pressing duties of church headquarters, Ellen White had opportunity to write, and she undertook the presentation of the conflict story as it had been shown to her more fully in further revelations. In , The Spirit of Prophecy, volume 1, was published, carrying the story from the fall of Lucifer in heaven to Solomon's time. Work with this series was broken off, and it was seven years before the next volume was issued.
The winter of found the pair in California in the interests of strengthening church projects on the Pacific Coast. This was the first of several extended western sojourns during the next seven years. An important vision was given to Ellen White on April 1, , while in the West, at which time there was opened up to her the marvelous way in which the denomination's work was to broaden and develop not only in the western States but overseas.
A few weeks later, tent meetings were opened in Oakland, California, and in connection with this public effort Elder White began the magazine Signs of the Times. In the fall of the Whites were back in Michigan, assisting with the Biblical Institute, leading out in Sabbath services, and taking a prominent part in the dedication of Battle Creek College on January 4, As Ellen White stood before the group who had gathered from a number of states to dedicate this, the denomination's first educational institution, she related what had been shown to her the day before in a vision.
The picture she presented of the international work that must be accomplished by Seventh-day Adventists impressed the assembled workers and believers with the importance and need of the college.
Among other things, she told of having been shown printing presses operating in other lands, and a well-organized work developing in vast world territories that Seventh-day Adventists up to that time had never thought of entering.
When the Whites visited the new health institution near St. Helena, California, early in , Ellen White exclaimed that she had seen those buildings and surroundings in the vision shown her of the broadening work on the West Coast.
This was the third Pacific Coast enterprise she had seen in the vision, the others being the Signs of the Times and the Pacific Press.
During the camp meeting season of the late s, Ellen White addressed many large audiences, the largest being the Sunday afternoon congregation at Groveland, Massachusetts, late in August, , at which time 20, people heard her speak on the broad aspect of Christian temperance.
Her travels and labors during this period took her east and west and into the Pacific Northwest. She wrote incessantly, attended General Conference sessions, filled speaking appointments at camp meetings and in churches, appeared before temperance groups, and even filled appointments in town squares and state prisons.
Elder White's failing health led to a trip into Texas for the winter of It was here that Arthur Daniells, who in later years served as president of the General Conference, and his wife, Mary, joined the White family, the youthful Arthur as Elder White's companion and nurse, and Mary as cook and housekeeper.
Soon Ellen White was again on the Pacific Coast, feeling keenly the loss of her companion, but earnestly engaged in writing the fourth and last volume of the Spirit of Prophecy series. The conflict story from the destruction of Jerusalem to the close of time was presented in this long-awaited volume. When it came from the press in , the book was well received. An illustrated edition for house-to-house sale was published, carrying the title The Great Controversy Between Christ and His Angels and Satan and His Angels, and within three years 50, copies were sold.
From Basel, Switzerland, then the headquarters of the church's European work, Mrs. Of particular interest to her were two trips to the Waldensian valleys in Italy, where she visited places she had seen in vision in connection with the Dark Ages and the Reformation. Both in Basel, Switzerland, and Christiana now Oslo , Norway, Ellen White recognized the printing presses as those shown her in the vision of January 3, , when she saw many presses operating in lands outside North America.
The counsel given by Ellen White to European church workers meant much in the establishment of right policies and plans.
In the following months she traveled and preached, seeking to unify the church on the doctrine of righteousness by faith. During this same period she worked on Patriarchs and Prophets, which appeared in the year Not long after her arrival Ellen White saw clearly the urgent need for an institution of learning in Australia, that Seventh-day Adventist youth might be educated in a Christian environment, and thus workers be trained for service at home and in the island fields.
In response to her many strong appeals, a Bible school was opened in the city of Melbourne, Australia, in The school operated in rented quarters for two years, but during this time earnest written and oral appeals from Mrs.
White pointed out that God's plan called for the school to be located in a rural environment. In order that the developing work in Australia might be properly administered, in the territory was organized into a union conference, the first union conference in Seventh-day Adventist history. One who had a part in the administrative work in the newly organized union conference was Elder A.
Daniells, who, with his wife, had been sent to New Zealand in as a missionary. His association with Mrs. White, and his adherence to her counsels as he met the growing administrative problems of the field, helped to prepare him for the greater work entrusted to him when, after the General Conference session of , he was chosen president of the General Conference.
In addition to her many interests in the local work of this pioneer field, Mrs. White found time to write thousands of pages of timely counsel that crossed the seas and guided denominational leaders. She also furnished articles weekly for the Review, Signs, and Instructor.
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