Lt 10, 1856

[Circa January 1856],¹

The original/earliest copy bears no place or date of writing. However, there are strong indications that this letter was written some time after the conference held in Battle Creek, Michigan, November 1855, as argued in note 5 below. Exactly how long after the conference is not known, but its similarities with Lt 2a, 1856, written on January 24, 1856, suggest that it was written about the same time, i.e., about January 1856.

n.p.1EGWLM 482.7

Letter to
David Henry Lamson.²

Identity: In 1953 Mary E. Lamson donated this letter to the White Estate archives with the explanation that “the enclosed is a letter written by Mrs. E. G. White to my father, David H. Lamson, enclosed with a letter written to him by George Amadon.”

See: Mary E. Lamson to E. G. White Estate, Nov. 8, 1953.

1EGWLM 482.8

Previously unpublished.1EGWLM 482.9

Encouragement and concern for 21-year-old David Lamson, whose faith may have been waning.1EGWLM 483.1

Dear Brother:

George [George Washington Amadon]³

Identity: See note 2.

has requested me to write a few lines in his letter. All are at meeting and so I will improve a few moments now.1EGWLM 483.2

Let me inquire, brother, How are you? Does the present truth look as precious to you as it used to? Or have you lost your first love and has your interest decreased? As you are separated from those of like precious faith, the need of double watchfulness and prayer I suppose you realize.⁴

Little is known about David Lamson's earliest contacts with Sabbatarian Adventism except that he witnessed Ellen White in vision on June 26, 1854, in Rochester, New York. Several of his cousins were baptized in 1853 in nearby Clarkson, New York, and it is possible that David also was baptized on that occasion, although the Review account does not include names. When he was about 20 years old (c. 1855) he left New York and moved to Walton Township in Michigan, where he is listed in the 1860 census as “farmer.” This move, it seems, is the occasion for Ellen White's concern for young David Lamson, that he had moved to an area with few, if any, persons of his faith around.

See: J. N. Loughborough, The Great Second Advent Movement, pp. 207, 208; idem, “Clarkson Meeting,” Review, Sept. 27, 1853, p. 96; obituary: “David Henry Lamson,” Review, Oct. 26, 1897, p. 687; 1860 U.S. Federal Census, “David H. Lamson,” Michigan, Eaton County, Walton, p. 70.

David, you have enjoyed the sweet salvation of God. Do you enjoy this now? Are you awake to the charms of the present truth? Do you see new beauty and glory in His Word? Is Jesus your own dear Saviour, your buckler and shield, your front guard and rereward? Is His praise in your heart and upon your lips? If it is not, awake, awake, stir thyself; arouse the drowsy energies of your soul. Christ is coming—precious news! It is always new. We rejoice in it. It cheers us in gloom and darkness. Almost home! Precious sound! Our home here is a sorrowful one but Jesus has gone to prepare for us a holy and happy home, and sorrow will never be known there.1EGWLM 483.3

The Lord has wrought for us in a signal manner. He has heard prayer for my husband and myself. We have often visited the throne of grace. We have earnestly wrestled with God for healing power. Morning, noon, and night we have felt the sweet blessing of God. It has distilled upon us like the dew. We have known here what sweet victory and salvation was since the conference. Our meetings here increase in interest every Sabbath.⁵

The events alluded to in this paragraph and the language she uses to describe them sound very similar to Ellen White's accounts elsewhere of the conference held at Battle Creek on November 16-19, 1855, and of events before and after the conference. The literary parallels are too striking to be coincidental.

See: “The Conference,” Review, Dec. 4, 1855, p. 75. Note parallels in content between Lt 10, 1856 (Jan.), Lt 2a, 1856 (Jan. 24), and Ellen White's account of the 1855 Battle Creek conference in Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], pp. 199-203.

I sincerely wish you could attend meeting with us here upon the Sabbath.6

Since David Lamson lived only about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Battle Creek, in Walton, Eaton County, Michigan, it would not be difficult for him to attend Sabbath services in Battle Creek, at least occasionally.

See: Obituary: “Elizabeth Louise Lamson,” Review, Aug. 19, 1926, p. 22; 1860 U.S. Federal Census, “David H. Lamson,” Michigan, Eaton County, Walton, p. 70.

The windows of heaven are often opened and blessings from God are poured upon us. We feel deeply our weakness, our own unworthiness, but the lovingkindness of God to so unworthy a creature as myself has not changed. His love often warms my heart and calls forth from me grateful acknowledgments of the same. I will not hold my peace. The praise of God is in my heart and upon my lips.1EGWLM 483.4

Dear brother, do not yield one particle of the truth. Stand stiffly for the truth and then the truth will make you free. There is a rich fullness in Jesus, a supply for each, for all. Oh come, David, come to salvation's Fountain and drink, that your soul may revive and flourish.1EGWLM 484.1

Oh, why do we die for bread or starve in a foreign land? Our Father's house has rich supplies, and bounteous are His hands. Jesus is precious. Let us live close to His bleeding side, and let us not shrink at trials. If you think you have many trials, I would say, Remember Calvary. Remember the King of glory in the garden sweating as it were great drops of blood. Next, see Him condemned, mocked at, spit upon, and then hung upon Calvary's cross, the nails driven through His tender hands and feet. Hear Him cry in the agony of His soul, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” All this untold agony, all this unrealized suffering was for you and me, for our sins, and if we have trials let us remember Him that endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself. Oh, for the deep movings of the Spirit of God! I want to earnestly covet the purifying trials that will make me richer in glory.1EGWLM 484.2

Please write me just how you prosper. We all feel interested for you.1EGWLM 484.3

In love.1EGWLM 484.4