July 19, [1857],1 The original/earliest copy of this letter gives the month and day but not the year. That the year is 1857 can be inferred from the correspondence between this vision and the vision entitled “Love One Another,” published in November 1857 in Testimony for the Church, No. 4. Both accounts state that the vision was given in Ulysses, Pennsylvania, and both deal with the issue of church trials in New York, with the church in Roosevelt, New York, given special mention. It is very likely that the two accounts refer to the same vision, although to different parts of it (see note 4 below). The published account is useful in that it gives the full date of the Ulysses vision, July 6, 1857, from which we conclude that Lt 8 is also written in 1857. See: Ellen G. White, Testimony for the Church, No. 4, pp. 13-18 (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, pp. 164-168).
Letter to Identity: “Brother Rhodes” is portrayed in this letter as a leader, working in New York (Roosevelt mentioned in particular) and with a tendency to severity in his relations to church members. There can be little doubt that Samuel W. Rhodes is being addressed, an itinerant preacher who was reproved by Ellen White for his harshness and severity on several occasions during the 1850s and beyond. Moreover, reports in the Review indicate that S. W. Rhodes's work was centered in New York during that period. On S. W. Rhodes's severity, see, for example, Ms 1, 1853 (June 2); Ms 6, 1854 (Feb. 19); Lt 16, 1859 (Oct. 28); Lt 5a, 1861 (Apr. 5). For his travels during 1857, see search term “Rhodes” in Words of the Pioneers.
Samuel W. Rhodes.2
Previously unpublished.
S. W. Rhodes temperamentally unsuited to oversee meetings dealing with church discipline. 1EGWLM 523.3
Dear Brother Rhodes: 1EGWLM 523.4
I have written to Brother Edson [Hiram Edson]3 Identity: Like S. W. Rhodes, the implication is that Edson is a church leader of some kind, based in New York. Even though several Edsons appear in the Review during the 1850s, only Hiram Edson is from New York and an active preacher. See: Search term “Edson” in Words of the Pioneers. No doubt the vision given at Ulysses, Pennsylvania, two weeks earlier on July 6, 1857, as mentioned in Ms 2, 1857 (July 24). The “general part” of that vision is recorded in Ms 2, 1857, and deals with the problems of church trials in New York, whereas this letter to S. W. Rhodes deals with the sensitive matter of Rhodes's own part in encouraging those trials and with the involvement of certain other named individuals. The letter to Edson that Ellen White had written (prior to July 19), giving a “general account” of the vision of July 6, is not in the White Estate archives. It was, however, probably close in content or identical to the account found in Ms 2, 1857, which bears the date July 24. Some months later, in November 1857, it was published (see note 1 above). Exactly which visions are referred to here is not known. By the time this letter was written we know of two documents (Ms 1, 1853 [June 2], and Ms 6, 1854 [Feb. 19]) that contain reproof for S. W. Rhodes, and a variety of documents, published and unpublished, containing admonition to the churches on different issues. Although S. W. Rhodes was an effective, hardworking traveling minister, he struggled with a harsh, overbearing temperament. A series of letters from Ellen White to Rhodes stretching over many years appealed to him on this issue, warning him of the dire influence of his severity on others. Rhodes, to his credit, several times confessed his weaknesses in the pages of the Review. See: Note 2 above; S. W. Rhodes, “Letter From Bro. Rhodes,” Review, Aug. 11, 1853, p. 55; “From Bro. Rhodes,” Review, Jan. 8, 1857, p. 78; “Resignation,” Review, Dec. 18, 1860, p. 40; “From Bro. Rhodes,” Review, Jan. 22, 1861, p. 78; “From Bro. Rhodes,” Review, Apr. 9, 1861, p. 167; “From Bro. Rhodes,” Review, May 6, 1862, p. 182; “Communication From Br. Rhodes,” Review, Dec. 3, 1867, p. 395. Amanda Westcott, in a letter to a friend, gives a somewhat unflattering description of Rhodes's management of a church trial in Roosevelt: “Last Friday they met at Bro. Chapel's for trial, Bro. Rhodes being chief man among them. They staid [sic] there all day talking, but doing little or no good.” See: Amanda Westcott to Mrs. Crawford, July 16, 1856. See: Note 13 below.
I saw that you move too strongly, make up your mind that things are so, and then move hurriedly, not studying the effect of these things afterward. Upon those things you must reform. You can comfort and strengthen the church with the gift God has given you, but you must move more patiently, throw off so much perplexity that you have. Your anxiety to see the church where they ought to be, has led you to try too hard to get them there. It has had the wrong effect in many cases. You have failed often. 1EGWLM 524.1
You have manifested selfish feelings in connection with Brother Treadwell [William Treadwell]9 Identity: That “Brother Treadwell” is William Treadwell is inferred from the fact that no other Treadwell is mentioned in the Review throughout this period. In addition, his address is given (in 1858) as “Gilbert's Mills, N.Y.,” which is just a few miles from Roosevelt, a town that is the focus of events in this letter. See: Search term “Treadwell” in Words of the Pioneers; Wm. Treadwell, “From Bro. Treadwell,” Review, Apr. 1, 1858, p. 158. Little is known of the details of the church trials in which Treadwell, Finch, and Chapel were involved.
Nearly every one I saw in Roosevelt [New York] has been wrong. Brother T. Finch [Truman P. Finch]11 Identity: The only “T. Finch” appearing in the Review during this period is Truman P. Finch, living in Roosevelt until sometime in 1857, when he moved to Michigan. This corresponds well with Ellen White's locating of Finch in Roosevelt and with her words “when he left…” See: Search term “Finch” in Words of the Pioneers; “Business Items,” Review, Apr. 16, 1857, p. 192. Identity: Although there are several Chapels in the Review during this period, L. R. Chapel is the likely person referred to here, since he lived in Palermo, New York, a town near Roosevelt. See: Search term “Chapel” in Words of the Pioneers. The problems of infighting and excessive church trials among members at Roosevelt continued despite Ellen White's appeals in July 1857. Two years later she noted that the same problems continued to “cleave to some like the leprosy” in that church. There seems to have been some improvement, however, at least in the eyes of James White, who reported from a conference held in Roosevelt in 1859 that “the brethren are recovering from their low state. … A rash, hasty, fitful spirit has had a blighting influence in Central New York, but it is being removed under the judicious labors of Brn. Wheeler and Edson.” It appears that the “good judgment” of Hiram Edson, mentioned earlier in this letter to Rhodes, may have played a part by 1859 towards restoring better relationships among the members. See: Ellen G. White, Lt 17, 1859 (Oct. 28); J. W. [James White], “Roosevelt, N. Y., Conference,” Review, Sept. 15, 1859, p. 132.
In love. 1EGWLM 525.2