A term used in conjunction with the wagon trains of the westward expansion and settlement of the United States. An individual wagon could take part in a wagon train, so Ellen G. White framed a spiritual analogy with similar language, such as joining a “gospel wagon.” During the 1890s, as urban centers in America grew, there were conscious attempts to use “a horse-drawn wagon decorated to attract attention and moved into a city to be used as a platform from which to present the message.” These gospel wagons were used by a variety of Christian groups, most notably by Dr. *J. H. Kellogg in conjunction with the Chicago Mission that he started there. Around 1899, Ellen G. White warned against large sums of money being spent on a gospel wagon ministry. While this was a noble EGWD wagon, gospel.2
Physician and minister. After graduating from medical school in 1878, he briefly joined the staff of the *Battle Creek Sanitarium, but things did not work out. He then worked in ministry in Iowa. Ellen G. White rebuked him for his headstrong manners and inability to work well with others, which troubled his early ministry (4T 437—439). He moved to California, where he experienced a dramatic *conversion at the 1882 California camp meeting. He worked briefly at the Rural Health Retreat (later the St. Helena Sanitarium). By 1883, he switched to full-time ministerial work that included assisting his father, *J. H. Waggoner, in editing the Signs of the Times. *A. T. Jones joined the staff in 1885, and by mid-1886, they became coeditors. Waggoner is best known for his *revival message presented with Jones around the time of the *General Conference Session of 1888. Ellen G. White described the resistance to this message as the most difficult time period of her life. In the late 1890s, Waggoner was influenced by the *pantheism of Dr. *J. H. Kellogg. He subsequently apostatized from the denomination and left his wife to marry a nurse in England. EGWD Waggoner, Ellet Joseph.2
Minister, editor, and missionary. He was converted in 1851 and afterward was an itinerant evangelist. In 1878, he moved to California where he became the editor of Signs of the Times. Ellen G. White admonished both Waggoner and his wife, Mariette (1823—1908), due to their critical spirit. At various stages in their lives, both Mariette and Joseph experienced moral failings. After Joseph had an affair with Lottie Chittenden in California, he returned to Battle Creek, Michigan. Once EGWD Waggoner, Joseph Harvey.2
A group of ancient Christians from the Alps of northern Italy and southern France who coalesced during the medieval period. They are known for their preservation and translation of the *Bible. During the twelfth century, they became particularly well known under the reforms and leadership of Peter Waldo, a rich merchant from Lyon who adopted a strict life of simplicity and poverty. The Waldenses were excommunicated by Pope Lucius III in 1184 and faced a series of severe *persecutions. The narrative of the Waldensians occupies a prominent place in Ellen G. White’s history of the *great controversy conflict between Christ and Satan during the High Middle Ages (GC 65). See also Albigenses. EGWD Waldenses or Waldensians.2
A nineteenth-century term for a section of a prison or a jail (PP 408); also a hospital ward or a political division of a city. EGWD ward.2
Medical treatments utilizing hot and cold water as a natural remedy. EGWD water treatment.2
Weal means to be in a healthy, sound, or prosperous state. Woe means to suffer challenges, poor health, or adversity. Both terms come from an old English expression. Ellen G. White warned that one of the important lessons from Solomon’s life is “the power of influence for good or for ill.” She stated that each person exerts “an influence for weal or woe” (PK 85). Similarly, a proper *education “is bound up [with] life’s weal or woe” (Ed 234). EGWD weal or woe.2
Minister and revivalist; co-founder of the *Methodist movement that was a part of the transatlantic evangelical *revival. John and his brother Charles Wesley (1707—1788) were Armenians who believed in free will, as opposed to *John Calvin’s emphasis that only the elect are saved. It is difficult to overestimate the influence of Wesley and *Methodism in American religion. Methodism went from a modest movement in the mid-eighteenth century to the largest and most significant denomination in the first half of the nineteenth century. Ellen G. White grew up in a Methodist home with a strong Arminian focus. Many of her sensible values about *sanctification are a direct result of her Methodist understanding of the relationship between law and *grace. Despite the fact that Ellen and her family were disfellowshiped from the Chestnut Street *Methodist Church in Portland, Maine, for their *Second Advent views during the *Millerite revival, she appeared to have held a high regard for the core of Wesley’s theology, even though she was somewhat critical of American Methodism in general. See also Methodism. EGWD Wesley, John.2
See Health Reform Institute. EGWD W:stern Health Reform Institute.2
Grandson of Ellen G. White, third son of *W. C. White, and secretary of the *Ellen G. White Estate Inc. (1937—1978). After the death of his father, he assisted in relocating the unpublished writings of Ellen G. White and other historical materials in the *Elmshaven vault to the General Conference headquarters in Takoma Park, Maryland. In retirement, he wrote a six- volume biography of Ellen G. White’s life. EGWD White, Arthur Lacey.2
Visionary, church leader, and author. Ellen G. White was born EGWD White, Ellen Gould (Harmon).2
Organization that was set up at the request of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to honor the wishes of Ellen G. White to create an organization, led by a board originally composed of five trustees, to preserve and promulgate her writings after her death. EGWD White Estate, Ellen G., Inc.2
Oldest son of James and Ellen G. White. Henry was named after the family’s friend Henry Otis Nichols. He was born in Gorham, Maine, at a time when his parents were impoverished. Soon afterward the family moved in with Stockbridge and Louisa Howland. Ellen G. White, then nineteen years old, hoped to stay home more; but after a brief illness, she believed that God wanted her to travel and share the messages she received with the nascent Sabbatarian Adventist believers. For the first fi e years of his life, Henry lived with the Howland family. In 1863, after a period of spiritual renewal, Henry was baptized with a group of friends by his father, *James White, in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. Tragically, Henry died of pneumonia on December 8, 1863, after being treated with conventional *drugs. In Ellen G. White’s later years, she wished that at this early time she had known what she later did about *health reform: “If we had only known then what we know now, we could have saved Henry.” EGWD White, Henry Nichols.2
The oldest surviving son of James and Ellen G. White, minister, and missionary. EGWD White, James Edson.2
Minister, publisher, author, and a cofounder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He was ordained as a Christian Connexion minister and became an itinerant Millerite preacher in Maine. After the *Great Disappointment, he met Ellen G. Harmon, became convinced of the genuineness of her visions, and assisted her in her travels. In 1846, they were married. Together they actively participated in a series of *Sabbatarian Conferences from 1848 to 1850, out of which the core theological framework of the Seventh-day Adventist Church came together. In 1848, Ellen G. White encouraged James to start publishing, which led to the publication of the Present Truth (1849) and the *Advent Review (1850), which were combined into the Review and Herald. After a series of moves, they relocated by 1855 to Battle Creek, Michigan. Once there, James White was a dynamic powerhouse behind the development of the fledgling denomination, especially with regard to choosing a name (1860), the formation of a publishing association (1861), and the organization of a General Conference (1863), among many other various aspects. After 1855, he turned over the editorship of the Review and Herald to Uriah Smith but remained actively involved in its publication as well as helping to develop and promote a wide variety of other Adventist periodicals and entities. Of special note was his poor health that led him and his wife, Ellen, to seek treatment at James C. Jackson’s “Our Home on the Hillside” in Dansville, New York. He afterward was a strong supporter of the Health Reform Institute, which became the *Battle Creek Sanitarium. James White was also a strong supporter of early Adventist education, not the least of which was so that his own children could benefit from the training of people such as *Goodloe Harper Bell. Tragically, James White died from malaria in 1881, which Ellen White attributed at least in part to his consistent tendency to overwork. EGWD White, James Springer.2
Fourth and youngest son of James and Ellen G. White. He tragically developed *erysipelas. EGWD White, John Herbert.2
Third son of James and Ellen G. White, minister, administrator, and editor. Born in Rochester, New York, he grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he attended the fledgling school started by *Goodloe H. Bell, and was baptized at the age of twelve. He started his denominational employment at the Pacific Press Publishing Association. He married Mary Kelsey in 1876, and together they prepared for missionary service by attending *Battle Creek College. He held a variety of responsible positions in the *church, such as being elected to the General Conference Executive Committee in 1883. After the death of his father in 1881, he worked closely with his mother to support her ministry until her death in 1915. He traveled with her both to Europe (1885-1887) and Australia (1891-1900). After Mary’s death in 1890, he married Ethel May Lacey in Tasmania (1895). After his mother’s death, he was responsible for managing her literary estate, the *Ellen G. White Estate Inc. EGWD White, William Clarence.2
Missionary and author. A Jew who converted to Roman Catholicism, he eventually became a *Protestant missionary under the influence of Edward Irving. Ellen G. White regarded his missionary travels in which he promulgated his convictions about the *Second Coming as a prophetic fulfillment of a worldwide Advent awakening. EGWD Wolff, Joseph.2
In *Victorian America, this was a frequent reference to female *virtue. Ellen G. White counseled that young girls “should be taught that the true charm of womanliness is not alone in beauty of form or feature” but “in patience, generosity, kindness, and a willingness to do and suffer for others. They should be taught . . . to trust in God and fear Him” (CG 140). See also manliness. EGWD womanliness.2
Regular or habitual (PK 342). EGWD wonted.2
Ellen G. White had a strong work ethic and believed that Christians should hold high, ethical work standards. At times she admonished some individuals for their laziness, and in other situations, people for workaholism. She often spoke of the “work of God” as God working through the ministry of the church, which today “extends over all the earth” (AA 337-338). EGWD work.2
Ellen G. White repeatedly urged “the impossibility of fallen man meriting anything by his own best good works.” For her, “salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone.” “If man cannot, by any of his good works, merit salvation, then it must be wholly of grace, received by man as a sinner because he receives and believes in Jesus. It is wholly a free gift” (3MR 420). But once a person is in a right relationship with God through justification by faith, “there is yet another work to be accomplished, and this is of a progressive nature. The soul is to be sanctified through the truth. And this also is accomplished through faith. For it is only by the grace of Christ, which we receive through faith, that the character can be transformed” (ST Nov. 3, 1890). These “good works” are the result of *sanctification and are “dependent on a power outside of ourselves” (COL 160). Thus Ellen G. White condemned human works of “creature merit” (3MR 420) but affirme “good works” of faith through the experience of sanctification. Her emphasis was always on Christ and His righteousness rather than human works: “The proud heart strives to earn salvation; but both our title to heaven [justification] and our fitness for it [sanctification] are found in the righteousness of Christ” (DA 300). EGWD works, human.2
As a noun, worsted is a fine, smooth yarn spun from combed long wool (e.g., a “worsted suit”). As a verb, it is used to describe someone who has been defeated, such as when *Martin Luther presented his case before the German princes. By his testimony, “the partisans of Rome had been worsted” (GC 161). EGWD worsted.2
Some individuals who, through no fault of their own, experience misfortune and thereby significant hardship and poverty. Ellen G. White repeatedly cared for and shared her own resources—financially or by providing food and clothes. She furthermore urged that each church should have “a fund to aid such worthy poor families who love God and keep His commandments” (CCh 284). EGWD worthy poor.2
Ellen G. White recognized the danger of distorting her writings and enunciated principles of interpretation in order to understand her writings in a healthy and balanced way. Such principles apply similarly to the *Bible and her writings, although she recognized that the Bible, as an act of *revelation, is the final *authority. Adventist scholars have recognized eight basic hermeneutical principles. See introductory essay “How to Interpret Ellen G. White’s Writings.” EGWD writings, interpretation of.2