Lt 13, 1859

January 5, 1859, Battle Creek, Michigan1EGWLM 664.1

Letter to
Friends [Joseph Perry Benedict family].¹

Identity: Although the original copy does not identify these “Friends,” the initial assumption would be that Ellen White is addressing the family of Joseph Perry Benedict, of Battle Creek. According to her diary (Ms 5, 1859), she “wrote to Brother Benedict's family” on January 5, with no mention of other letters written that day. This assumption is strengthened by the close parallel between the admonitions found in this letter and those specifically directed to members of the Joseph Benedict family in 1862 (see note in third paragraph). By 1859 Joseph Benedict was chronically ill and unable to work. James and Ellen White tried to help the poverty-stricken family with gifts of food and money and by occasionally employing Joseph's wife, Millie, and daughter Diantha (see Diantha Wilkinson [née Benedict]) in their home or at the Review office (see Mss 5 and 6, 1859 [entries for Jan. 5 and June 12]).

1EGWLM 664.2

Portions of this letter are published in Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 5, p. 291.

Admonition to the family members of Joseph P. Benedict for their low confidence in decisions made by the local church.1EGWLM 664.3

Dear Friends:

While in Rochester, N.Y., there were some things shown me concerning individuals at Battle Creek.²

Three months earlier, in October 1858, Ellen and James White, together with the Loughboroughs, had attended a “general conference” in Rochester, New York, in the course of a tour of the Eastern states. J. N. Loughborough mentions that Ellen White was given a vision in Rochester.

See: J. T. Orton, “Appointment for Western New York,” Review, Sept. 23, 1858, p. 144; J. N. Loughborough, Rise and Progress of the Seventh-day Adventists, p. 220.

I saw that all was not right with you. There is not that solemnity and watchfulness in your family which becomes those who are looking for their Lord.1EGWLM 664.4

I saw that the third angel is leading out a people and fitting them for translation. They are to be purified through obeying the truth. I saw that a work must be done in your family before God can be well pleased with you. You are not right. Your ways are not pleasing to God. God is leading out a people and all heaven is interested to unite this people together and draw them away from the world. I saw that you possess a dissatisfied feeling with the church and your sympathy runs out after those that it should not.1EGWLM 664.5

Instead of pressing with the church and having confidence in the church, you have too much confidence in your opinion and judgment. If there is a disaffected one who complains of the church, you too often sympathize with him, and instead of checking the complainer, receive what he says and get up a tried, dissatisfied feeling and speak of the wrongs (as you consider them) of the church. If any case of dissatisfaction arises you take the wrong side and unite with the complainer.³

It appears that even after this admonition some members of the Benedict family continued to “unite with the complainer” against decisions of the local church. Three years later, in 1862, Ellen White pointed out that the problem still persisted with the mother and eldest daughter. “If one is sharply reproved and censured for his wrong course … Sister Benedict and Diantha would attach the highest importance to the feelings of such. … It is made of greater account than all the moves and actions of the church.”

See: Ellen G. White, Ms 6, 1862 (c. 1862).

Here you show your lack of confidence in the church, and this course causes the church to lose confidence in you. You feel like drawing off from the church, and the church feels it and they lose confidence in you.1EGWLM 664.6

You are not willing to confide in the judgment of the church, but prefer to rely upon your own judgment and opinion. This is wrong. If all in the church should take this course, the utmost confusion would reign in the church. When you take a humble position, and are willing to be counseled, advised, and corrected by those of sound judgment and experience in the church, then the church will feel it, will know it, and you will be united with them. Your hearts will be one, your experience one, and a healthy, wholesome influence will be felt in your family.1EGWLM 665.1

When you are baptized with the third angel's message, the soul-purifying truth for this time will make a separation between you and the world that you have never yet experienced. You will see then those who are wrong in their true character, and your sympathy will be more fully with God's peculiar people whom He is purifying unto Himself.1EGWLM 665.2

Please excuse this hastily written line. Overlook the poor writing. Different ones have broken in upon me. Have written a few lines at a time.1EGWLM 665.3

In love.1EGWLM 665.4