April 21, 1849, Milton, Massachusetts 1EGWLM 164.1
Letter to Identity: The letter is addressed to “Leonard Hastings, New Ipswich, N.H.” For “Elvira” as his wife's name, see W. [James White], “Our Tour East,” Advent Review, August 1850, p. 14, together with Elvira Hastings, “My Dear Brother and Sister,” Advent Review, August 1850, p. 15.
Leonard W. and Elvira Hastings.1
Portions of this letter are published in Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 1, p. 390; vol. 5, pp. 93, 94, 200.
News to close friends of recent travels. Account of vision of March 24, 1849: The Sabbath as a test. Satan's attempts through mesmerism, spiritualism, and false revivals to deceive God's people. 1EGWLM 164.3
Dear Brother and Sister Hastings:
I now sit down to write you a few lines and give you a little history of our journey and of the dealings of God with us since we left you.2 Although James and Ellen White had been corresponding with the Hastingses for about two years, it was during the visit here mentioned, in March 1849, that the two families first met in person. See: Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], pp. 112, 113. The Whites had returned to Topsham, Maine, via Boston and Dorchester. James adds the detail that the last 16 miles (26 kilometers) from North Yarmouth to Brunswick by stagecoach took three hours, during which they were “shook up and down … in snow banks and mud sloughs.” Ellen White was about five months pregnant at the time. See: James White to Leonard and Elvira Hastings, Mar. 22, 1849.
The first Sabbath we spent in Topsham, was a sweet, interesting time. It seems that Jesus Himself passed through our midst and shed His light and glory upon us. We all had a rich draught from the well of Bethlehem. The Spirit came upon me and I was taken off in vision. I saw many important things, some of which I will write you before I close this letter. I saw Brother Stowell [Lewis B. Stowell]4 Identity: Although there were a number of Stowell families in Paris, Maine, at this time, the only known Sabbatarian one was the family of Lewis B. Stowell. “Brother Stowell” could, strictly speaking, be one of Lewis's sons, such as Oswald (age 21), also a Sabbathkeeper, but it is more likely that “Brother Stowell” would be reserved for the father. See: Search term “Stowell” in Words of the Pioneers; William Berry Lapham, History of Paris, Maine, p. 738. See: Introductory article “The ‘Shut Door’ and Ellen White's Visions”; EGWEnc, s.v. “Shut Door.” The beginnings of the group of Sabbathkeeping Adventists in Paris, Maine, can be traced to 1845. See: Mrs. M. C. Stowell Crawford, “A Letter From a Veteran Worker,” Southern Watchman, Apr. 25, 1905, p. 278.
After we returned from Paris, we felt that it was time to make up our minds where to go and spend the summer. We were in much perplexity and trial to know how to decide. We had been expecting God to teach in such a way that we could not mistake duty, but we were disappointed and as we had no light to go elsewhere, concluded to go to New York. James wrote them when to come for us at Utica [New York] and I signed my name to the letter after he had signed his. Soon I began to feel distressed and burdened. It seemed that I should be driven to distraction. I found relief by weeping. When in my distress James was afraid I would die, and he threw the letter in the stove, as he told me afterward, then knelt down by my bedside and prayed God to roll off the burden, and I was relieved. The next morning I awoke perfectly free and clear, all my distress was gone, and I felt assured God would open the way before us. 1EGWLM 165.1
James went to the office and brought in a letter from Brother Belden [Albert Belden],7 Identity: Writing to Stephen T. Belden, son of Albert Belden, in 1904, Ellen White recalls the time that “the paper Present Truth was first published” (summer 1849). “We were then living at Rocky Hill, in your father's [Albert Belden's] house.” See: Ellen G. White, Lt 293, 1904 (Oct. 17); 1850 U.S. Federal Census, “Albert Belden,” Connecticut, Hartford County, Rocky Hill, p. 13.
We came to this place yesterday; found our dear Brother Nichols’ [Otis Nichols]8 Identity: The main clue to the identity of “Brother Nichols’” is that he lives in “this place,” i.e., Milton, Massachusetts (just south of Boston), as recorded at the top of the letter. The only Sabbatarian Nichols family living in that area during this period is that of Otis Nichols, of Dorchester, Massachusetts. It is uncertain why Ellen White implies here that Otis Nichols lives in Milton. Dorchester and Milton, however, were very close, if not adjacent to each other, so there may well be some natural reason Milton, and not Dorchester, is given as the address. See: Search term “Otis Nichols” in Words of the Pioneers. Identity: The fact that “Sister Temple” worked in Boston is helpful in establishing her identity. The only “Temple” living in Boston mentioned in the Review during this period is “E. Temple” or “Elizabeth Temple.” See: Search term “Temple” in Words of the Pioneers. Six weeks earlier, on March 8, 1849, Ellen White had anointed Elizabeth Temple, who was seriously ill. The Whites had returned eight days later and found her “at the wash-tub in the enjoyment of good health.” See: James White to Leonard and Elvira Hastings, Mar. 22, 1849; Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], pp. 109, 110, 113.
Keep up good courage, my dear Brother and Sister. I do want to hear from you very much, and should rejoice to have the privilege of being in your happy dwelling once more. How is your health, Sister Hastings? And how is your child, the babe?11 Ellen and James White's visit to the Hastingses the previous month had been in part occasioned by the “wretched state of health” of Elvira Hastings, together with the affliction of her 8-week-old baby, who “cried continually.” See: Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], p. 110.
I will now write you the vision God gave me on the Sabbath, the 24th of March.12 See: Ms 1, 1849 (Mar. 24)—a variant account of the same vision.
I saw the commandments of God and shut door could not be separated. I saw [that] the time for the commandments of God to shine out to His people was when the door was opened in the inner apartment of the heavenly sanctuary in 1844. Then Jesus rose up and shut the door in the outer apartment and opened the door in the inner apartment and passed into the Most Holy Place, and the faith of Israel now reaches within the second veil where Jesus now stands by the ark. I saw that Jesus had shut the door in the Holy Place and no man can open it, and that He had opened the door in the Most Holy Place and no man can shut it; and that since Jesus had opened the door in the Most Holy Place the commandments have been shining out and God has been testing His people on the holy Sabbath.13 On the link between the Sabbath and the sanctuary, see Ms 1, 1849 (Mar. 24), note 4.
I saw that our adversaries had been trying to open the door in the outer apartment and to close the door in the inner apartment where the ark is, containing the two tables of stone on which are written the ten commandments by God's own finger.14 See: Ms 1, 1849 (Mar. 24), note 5. On this earliest extant warning by Ellen White regarding the claims of the Fox sisters of Hydesville, New York, see Ms 1, 1849 (Mar. 24), note 6.
I saw that Satan was working through agents in a number of ways. He was at work through ministers who had rejected God's truth and had been given over to strong delusions to believe a lie, that they might be damned.16 Paraphrase of 2 Thess. 2:11, 12: “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
I saw that some professed Adventists who had rejected present truth, while preaching, praying or in private conversation used mesmerism to gain adherents, and the people would rejoice, thinking it was the power of God; and even those that used it (mesmerism) themselves were so far in the darkness and deception of the devil that they thought it was the power of God given them to exercise.17 See: Ms 1, 1849 (Mar. 24), note 8.
I saw that some of the agents of the devil were affecting the bodies of those they could not deceive and draw from the present truth.18 See: EGWEnc, s.v. “Present Truth.” See: Ms 1, 1849 (Mar. 24), note 10.
I saw that Satan was at work in these ways to distract, draw away, and deceive God's people just now in this sealing time20 See: EGWEnc, s.v. “Seal of God.”
I saw that as God worked for His people, Satan would also work, and that the mysterious knocking and signs and wonders of Satan and false reformations would increase and spread. The reformations that were shown me were not reformations from error to truth, No, no, but from bad to worse, for those who professed a change of heart had only wrapt about them a religious cloak which covered up the iniquity of a vile heart so as to deceive God's people; but if their hearts could be seen they would appear as black as ever.21 For a study of early Sabbatarian Adventist attitudes to religious revivals, see P. Gerard Damsteegt, Foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission, pp. 184-186. See: Ms 1, 1849 (Mar. 24), note 13. Cf. Num. 13:33: “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak … : and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers.”
Glory be to God, we shall get the victory and enter the goodly land if we keep the commandments. Oh yes, and we shall have right to the tree of life, and drink of those streams that make glad the city of our God, and we shall behold the lovely face of Jesus and be made like Him. Lift up your heads and rejoice, your redemption is nigh. 1EGWLM 169.1
Arabella [Harriet Arabella Hastings],24 Identity: The appeal to Arabella “and the rest of the children” clearly indicates that Arabella was a daughter of Leonard and Elvira Hastings to whom the letter is addressed. Arabella was the oldest of the Hastings children, about 16 at the time. Her name is given as “Harriet A. Hastings” in her 1854 obituary. Ellen White, in her correspondence, sometimes referred to her as “Arabella” and sometimes as “Harriet” (cf. Lt 5, 1849 [Apr. 21], and Lt 10, 1850 [Mar. 18], with Lt 7, 1851 [July 27], and Lt 3, 1851 [Aug. 11]). Presumably the middle initial “A” stands for Arabella. (The 1850 U.S. Federal Census for the Leonard Hastings household lists a 17-year old “Hannah A. Hastings.” It is assumed here that this is an error and that “Hannah” should be “Harriet.”) See: Obituary: “Harriet A. Hastings,” Review, Sept. 5, 1854, p. 31; 1850 U.S. Federal Census, “Leonard Hastings,” New Hampshire, Hillsborough County, New Ipswich, p. 272.
E. G. White
Much love to Sister Gorham [Elizabeth Gorham];25 Identity: In several letters written to the Hastingses in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, Ellen White sent her warm greetings to “Sister Gorham.” A clue to her identity comes in a letter fragment from 1851, in which the writer (name unknown) says he “landed by cars at 10 a.m. at Mason Village. Found a Sister Goram [the spelling disparity is probably not significant], took dinner, and then walked five miles [eight kilometers] to Bro. Hastings, New Ipswich.” According to the 1850 census there was an Elizabeth Gorham living in Mason but no Gorham at all living in nearby New Ipswich. The probability that Ellen White is greeting Elizabeth Gorham of Mason is raised by the circumstance that the Review's only mentions of “Gorham” as a personal name during the 1850s are “E. Gorham,” “Elizabeth Gorham,” and “J. Gorham.” See: Ellen G. White, Lt 8, 1849 (May 29); Lt 18, 1850 (Jan. 11); Lt 10, 1850 (Mar. 18); Lt 28, 1850 (Nov. 27); Lt 3, 1851 (Aug. 11); Lt 7, 1851 (July 27); (writer unknown) to “the dear disciples of Jesus in Dartmouth,” Nov. 7, 1851; 1850 U.S. Federal Census, “Elizabeth Gorham,” New Hampshire, Hillsborough County, Mason, p. 299; search term “Gorham” in Words of the Pioneers. The identities of “Sister Eastman” and “Brother Gardner” have not been established.
In haste. 1EGWLM 170.1