Lack of appreciation of the ministry. Call for local churches to take responsibility for their own spiritual welfare and to release their ministers for more productive work in unentered areas.1EGWLM 517.6

I was shown some things concerning the preaching brethren.¹

The exact date of this vision is not known. The only vision from June 1857 mentioned in the sources is that of June 21, received while the Whites were in Buck's Bridge, New York.

See: J. W. [James White], “Eastern Tour,” Review, July 16, 1857, p. 88.

I saw their energies and strength were exhausted in laboring for a church that does not generally appreciate their labors. I saw that it would be better for the church to be thrown upon their own effort for a time. I saw they must be laborers. I saw that the principal part of Bro. Hutchins’ [Alfred S. Hutchins] and Bro. Sperry's [Charles W. Sperry]^{2
Identities: The fact that Hutchins and Sperry are “preaching brethren” (first line) makes it fairly certain that Ellen White is referring to Alfred S. Hutchins and Charles W. Sperry. These two preachers often worked together. Between 1853 and 1861 there are a dozen or so reports of their teaming up to give lecture series in Vermont, Canada, and New York. There is also some evidence that A. S. Hutchins and C. W. Sperry fit the description given in this paragraph of being “worn-out servants” and of “feeble strength.” See note 3 for details.
See: Search terms “Hutchins” and “Sperry” in Words of the Pioneers.} labor has been to keep the church together. They have taken the burden of the church upon themselves, to dig around it, labor and labor for them until the church would, after the brethren had gotten a little victory, enjoy it, but make scarcely any effort for it themselves. [Then] in a few weeks [they] are sleepy and need the same effort made for them again. They tire and exhaust the strength of the worn-out servants of God.^{3
When the Whites visited A. S. Hutchins and his wife in Vermont on June 9, 1857, they noted that they looked “pale, care-worn and much wasted in flesh and strength.” The Whites feared that “a lukewarm, worldly church had suffered them to bear burdens grievious to be borne” and that they had been “borne down by laboring in unnecessary trials in the church.” C. W. Sperry also sounded worn out in a letter to the Review editor three months earlier, where he spoke of his “incessant labor and poor health.”
See: J. W. [James White], “Eastern Tour,” Review, June 25, 1857, p. 61; C. W. Sperry, “From Bro. Sperry,” Review, Mar. 19, 1857, p. 158.} Again the servants of God plow through and get a little victory, [only] to be lost as easily as before. But when, with their own faith and wrestling with God, they obtain the victory, then it is lasting. They know then how much it costs, and they will preserve their consecration. I saw that so much of the efforts of these brethren should not be spent upon a world-loving and sleepy church. I saw that those who have not yet embraced the truth are anxious to hear, and these brethren should go where, at the present time, they can accomplish the most good^{4
At the end of May or early June 1857, a “Tent Committee” requested that Hutchins and Sperry leave their familiar but less fruitful areas of Vermont and vicinity and “go West,” to new states more open to the Sabbatarian message. Already by the end of July the Hutchins and Sperry families had moved to Michigan.
See: E. L. Barr, “Tent Meetings in New England,” Review, June 11, 1857, p. 48; A. S. Hutchins, “From Bro. Hutchins,” Review, July 30, 1857, p. 101.} with their feeble strength.1EGWLM 517.7

The church must arise. They do not half heed the message to the Laodicean church.⁵

A radically new understanding of the message to the Laodicean church of Revelation 3:15-19 had been signaled just nine months earlier, in October 1856, in an article by James White. Prior to that the lukewarm Laodicean church had been seen as applying to those Adventists who rejected the Sabbath, often called “nominal Adventists.” In his article of October 16, 1856, James White had instead boldly identified Sabbatarian Adventists with Laodicea and called them to repentance for their lukewarmness. At first this new message had led to repentance and revival but Ellen White later noted that after some months many members had “lost the effect of the message,” hence the reproof and appeal found in this June 1857 manuscript.

See: J. W. [James White], “The Seven Churches,” Review, Oct. 16, 1856, pp. 189, 192; P. Gerard Damsteegt, Foundations of the Seventh-day Adventist Message and Mission, pp. 244-248; Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], p. 224; EGWEnc, s.v. “Laodicean Message.”

There are those in the church who love this world better than they love Jesus. They love their treasures here better than they love heaven or eternal life, and with their earthly treasure they will perish. The True Witness now speaks to a lukewarm church, Be zealous and repent; but they scarcely hear or heed the message. A few are afflicting their souls. A few are heeding the counsel of the True Witness. Unless the church speedily arouses they will go into darkness, be ensnared and overcome by the enemy.1EGWLM 518.1

I saw we are in the investigative judgment.⁶

This is the earliest known use by Ellen White of the term “investigative judgment.” The term, if not the concept itself, was new among Sabbatarian Adventists, having first appeared six months earlier in the Review in presentations by Elon Everts and James White.

See: E. Everts, “Communication From Bro. Everts,” Review, Jan. 1, 1857, p. 72; J. W. [James White], “The Judgment,” Review, Jan. 29, 1857, p. 100. For a brief survey of the developing understanding of the pre-Advent or investigative judgment up to 1857, see Paul A. Gordon, The Sanctuary, 1844, and the Pioneers; SDAE, s.v. “Investigative Judgment”; EGWEnc, s.v. “Investigative Judgment.”

Soon judgment will be pronounced on our works and our actions which are passing in review before God. A solemn, awful period! Who realize this great work? I saw that those who do not now appreciate, study, and dearly prize the Word of God, spoken by His servants, will have cause to mourn bitterly hereafter.1EGWLM 519.1

I saw that the Lord in judgment will, at the close of time, walk through the earth; the fearful plagues will begin to fall. Then those who have despised God's Word, those who have lightly esteemed it, shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not find it. A famine is in the land for hearing the Word.⁷

Cf. Amos 8:11, 12.

The ministers of God will have done their last work, offered their last prayers, shed their last bitter tear for a rebellious church and an ungodly people. Their last solemn warning has been given.1EGWLM 519.2

Oh, then how quickly would houses and lands, dollars that have been miserly hoarded and cherished and tightly grasped, be given for some consolation by those who have professed the truth and have not lived it out, for the way of salvation to be explained or to hear a hopeful word, or a prayer, or an exhortation from their ministers. But no, they must hunger and thirst on in vain; their thirst will never be quenched, no consolation can they get; their cases are decided and eternally fixed. It is a fearful, awful time. There can much be done now to bring in those jewels who are hid beneath the rubbish, who will highly prize the truth as it falls from the lips of God's servants.1EGWLM 519.3

I was shown that many of the church have at this time of peril more care for their farm and their cattle than they have for the servants of God, or the truth which they preach; their labors are so common among them that the laborers are not considered worthy of their hire. His strength must be exhausted, his life embittered by scarcely a well day, must spend and be spent, and yet the church asleep as to these things.1EGWLM 519.4

But I saw that God was not asleep. Said the angel, “Jesus says, ‘I know thy works’; yes, selfish, professed Sabbathkeepers. God knows thy works. Ye covetous, world-loving Sabbathkeepers,” said the angel, “God knows thy works.” I saw that every privation the servants of God have endured are all written in the book, every tear is bottled up. Every pang of agony they have endured is recorded in the book. “I know thy works,” says the True Witness. All that has been done to help the servants of God is all recorded; all of it is written in the book. All the selfish withholding from God's servants are all written in the book. “All thy deeds,” said the angel, “are passing in review before God.”1EGWLM 519.5

I saw that the church now must afflict their souls. They must labor, they must agonize or go down. I saw it was best to leave the churches to work for themselves now, that they may feel their weakness while there is a chance for them to zealously repent and buy gold, white raiment, and eye salve, the treasures they must possess if they would have eternal life.1EGWLM 520.1

T3 Published

Lt 14, 1857