Loading...
Larger font
Smaller font
Copy
Print
Contents

The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

 - Contents
  • Results
  • Related
  • Featured
No results found for: "".
  • Weighted Relevancy
  • Content Sequence
  • Relevancy
  • Earliest First
  • Latest First
    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents

    Lt 1, 1855

    August 26, 1855, Topsham, Maine1EGWLM 451.4

    Letter to
    John Nevins Andrews.1

    Identity: That Ellen White is addressing John Nevins Andrews is evident primarily by the focus on an impending marriage to “Angeline.” J. N. Andrews married Angeline S. Stevens the following year, on October 29, 1856.

    See: Ron Graybill, “The Family Man,” in Harry Leonard, ed., J. N. Andrews: The Man and the Mission, p. 21.

    1EGWLM 451.5

    Portions of this letter are published in Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 9, pp. 313, 314.

    Concerning the wisdom of J. N. Andrews’ plans to marry Angeline Stevens.1EGWLM 451.6

    Dear Brother John:1EGWLM 451.7

    There were two things in the vision given me at Paris [Maine]2

    Ellen and James White had left Paris, Maine, three days earlier after spending nine days there (Aug. 14-23, 1854). While in Paris, Ellen received a vision, probably on August 22, concerning James's overwork and consequent ill health. Whether this August 22 vision also included the J. N. Andrews instruction given here or whether it was given in a separate vision during Ellen's visit to Paris is not known. For evidence that the Whites spent August 14-23 in Paris, see Ms 2, 1855 (Aug. 26), note 2, and Lt 2, 1855 (Aug.). On the August 22 vision, see James White to “Dear Brother” (“Private”), [c. Aug. 24,] 1855, and Ms 2, 1855 (Aug. 26).

    that I could not remember. Some things were perfectly lost to me while with you, or hid from me so that I could not speak them.3

    J. N. Andrews, because of continuing health problems, had moved back to his parents’ home in Paris by May 1855. Ellen White was thus able to meet him in person during this visit to Paris.

    See: “The Office,” Review, Feb. 20, 1855, p. 182; “Business,” Review, May 29, 1855, p. 240.

    While writing the other parts of the vision these things have unfolded to my mind.1EGWLM 451.8

    I told you that I saw you could not glorify God by taking the step you have contemplated, as you have glorified Him in your past life. Instead of having less care while engaged in the great work, as you approach the time of trouble your care will be doubled, your anxiety increased. In no way are you bettering your situation. Instead of marrying one that can take care of, and nurse you, it is just the opposite. I saw that in this thing your eye has not been single to the glory of God and the advancement of His cause. Since your return home you have been losing spiritual strength and energy. You have not, while engaged in this matter, grown in grace.1EGWLM 452.1

    I will now write the part hid from me while with you. I saw that you could do no better now than to marry Angeline [Angeline S. Stevens]; that after you have gone thus far it would be wronging Angeline to have it stop here. The best course you can now take is to move on, get married, and do what you can in the cause of God. Annie's disappointment cost her her life.4

    Identity: Ronald Graybill has argued convincingly that Ellen White is here referring to Annie Rebekah Smith, gifted poet and writer. Annie Smith came to Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1851 to assist James White with the Review as copy editor and moved with the publishing office to Rochester, New York, when it relocated there in 1852. Seen in their context, the words “Annie's disappointment” imply unrequited love, and Graybill argues that Annie Smith, possibly through a misunderstanding, thought that Andrews had a serious romantic interest in her, hopes that were subsequently dashed. Graybill endeavors to show that Annie's disappointed hopes left their trace in some of her poems and hymns.

    Certainly J. N. Andrews would have been in frequent contact with Annie Smith during her time at the Review. Throughout this period, in between extended preaching tours, Andrews lived in the vicinity of the Review office, first at Saratoga Springs and then in Rochester. While at Rochester, Andrews boarded for months at a time with the Whites, as did a number of Review staff, including Annie Smith.

    Annie Smith also fits the description of Lt 1 in the fact of her tragic death from tuberculosis one month earlier, on July 26, 1855, at age 27. The assertion “Annie's disappointment cost her her life” may appear a very severe indictment against J. N. Andrews. Graybill suggests a milder interpretation: “It was probably justified even from a medical standpoint, since depression makes one so much more vulnerable to disease and since there was plenty of disease lurking in that house on Mount Hope Avenue [the White residence in Rochester]. James White's brother Nathaniel and sister Anna had already died of tuberculosis in those crowded quarters.”

    Although far less likely, there is a possibility that Ellen White is, in fact, referring to Anna White, sister of James White, rather than to Annie Smith. She calls Anna White “Annie” in at least two places in her writings. Anna White and her brother Nathaniel White came to live with the Whites in Rochester in 1852. Described as “very feeble” when she arrived, Anna became a Sabbathkeeper soon thereafter, her health improved, and by 1854 she had been given the editorship of The Youth's Instructor. However, illness set in again, and she succumbed to tuberculosis in November 1854, at age 25. J. N. Andrews conducted her funeral service.

    See: Ron Graybill, “The Life and Love of Annie Smith,” Adventist Heritage 2 (Summer 1975): 14-23; “Letters,” Review, Sept. 2, 1851, p. 24; “Conferences,” Review, Mar. 23, 1852, p. 112; J. N. Andrews et al, Defense of Eld. James White and Wife, p. 20; James White to E. P. Butler, Dec. 12, 1861; Ron Graybill, “The Family Man,” p. 20; Ellen G. White, Lt 95, 1886 (Feb. 16); Ms 89, 1899 (June 19); obituary: “Anna White,” Review, Dec. 12, 1854, p. 135.

    I saw that you were injudicious in her case, and it all grew out of a mistaken view you had of James [James Springer White]. You thought that he was harsh and impatient toward Paris friends, and you stepped right in between Annie and us; sympathized with her in everything. Your interest manifested for her was undue and uncalled for, and showed that you had a great lack of confidence in us.5

    The criticism in this paragraph and the next, that J. N. Andrews had unwisely sympathized with those who had been admonished and rebuked by the visions, is a recurring theme in subsequent letters from Ellen White to Andrews.

    See: Ellen G. White, Lt 8, 1860 (June 11); Lt 11, 1862 (Nov. 9).

    1EGWLM 452.2

    I saw that the impression upon the minds of friends in Paris is now and has been, yourself not excepted, that we made too much of the trials there; that they were not so faulty as we thought. This is not so. The things there have been shown in vision in their true light, and have not been exaggerated at all. Nothing have we held and nothing do we hold towards friends in Paris. No, no. I only relate the vision which refers to things that trouble or difficulties grew out of.6

    References in Ellen White's writings to resentment against the Whites by the Andrews and Stevens families of Paris, Maine, go back to 1851. The two families had not taken well to the leadership of the Whites during their stay in Paris in 1850-1851, in particular resenting the rebukes received through Ellen White's visions and from James White. For the next decade several members of the two families gave faint recognition to the visions and were critical of the leadership of James White. Even J. N. Andrews took part to some degree in this negative spirit.

    See: Ellen G. White, Ms 9, 1851 (1851), and Lt 8, 1860 (June 11). For surveys of the relationship of the Andrews and Stevens families to the Whites, see Gerald Wheeler, James White, pp. 101-109; Ron Graybill, “The Family Man,” pp. 16-18.

    1EGWLM 453.1

    I saw that now it would be better for you both to marry, but God had not designed it so. But the best course now, with the least evil results, is to go forward.1EGWLM 453.2

    You shall have the rest of the vision about different things. Will write you when I have time.7

    This letter, if written, is not in the White Estate archives.

    1EGWLM 453.3

    E. G. White

    Please read and return this to me at Rochester [New York], and I will send the whole together.1EGWLM 453.4

    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents