Chapter 4—“Like Streams of Light”

The body that came in time to be known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church had in the beginning three leading persons, the founders. First of these was Joseph Bates. In early life a follower of the sea, he rose to be captain, supercargo, and part owner of merchant ships plying chiefly the South American trade; and he retired in his early thirties with what he regarded as a competent fortune, settling in his native town of New Bedford, Massachusetts. A few years later, caught up in the fervor of the Second Advent movement, he became one of its leaders, and in it he spent his entire fortune by 1844. Passing through the bitter disappointment, he kept his faith, and very soon added to it this tenet, that according to the fourth commandment the seventh day, not the first, is the Sabbath of the Lord. This faith he diligently and sacrificingly spread over a wide range of evangelistic travels, and soon gained a following. At this period he was twice the age of his two companions in labor, and was to them as a father.TSAL 32.1

Second was James White, native of Maine, a young and fervent minister in the 1844 movement, whose faith survived the disappointment, and launched him like another Paul upon a new and noted career. Strong, resourceful, tenacious, full of faith and spiritual urge, he became not only the exemplar of evangelistic zeal but the creator and molder of church enterprises—publishing, educational, and medical, and the great organizer of church polity.TSAL 32.2

Third was Ellen Harmon, who, uniting in marriage with James White in 1846, took the name, Mrs. Ellen G. White. Hers was a unique position. She never held elective office in the church, yet she was its guide. Her ordination was of God, not man, and in fulfillment of her mission she was the exemplar of the minister of Christ to her people and to the world. Beginning her public labors while still in her teens, this timid, self-effacing, and seemingly handicapped girl developed under the hand of God into a woman poised, penetrating, eloquent, persuasive, maternal, the mother of the church. Seventy years of service lay before her ere she should put her distaff down and lay aside the weaving of the fine linen of the saints. Despite the revelation made to her in her early vision, she could not know all that lay before; but humbly she put her hand in the hand of her Lord and took her first firm steps forward.TSAL 33.1

There was need, sore need, of authoritative leadership in that time of confusion which followed the disappointment. Factions and fractions of factions appeared in almost every place and company. There was no organization: the Advent believers, having been cast out of their churches, in general had decided, naturally if illogically, that human organization was of the devil; they would be amenable only to divine impulses. Lamentably, many of their impulses bore no mark of the divine. Some preached that they were in the millennium, some maintained that they should do no work, some loudly proclaimed that the door of mercy was shut and sinners could no more be converted. There were self-appointed lords many, and none was there to stay their course.TSAL 33.2

William Miller did not long survive; he died in 1849. The second most influential leader, Joshua V. Himes, with some loyal-hearted helpers, strove against the current to draw together the disintegrating body, but in vain. Parties formed, and he was spun around in the whirlpool, with less and less authority and influence.TSAL 34.1

What could a frail girl do in this maelstrom? We marvel as we see her dauntless head rising above the seething mass, speaking the word of the Lord as it was committed to her, facing disaffection, malice, falsehood, and duplicity with calm assurance that God was with her and would prevail. Her heart went out to the little ones, the children and the youth, and to the inconspicuous lay members who held tenaciously to their uncertain faith; these lambs she would protect from the wolves that sought to devour them. Others she welcomed who were stronger in faith, more independent in their thinking, and who gradually rallied to her support.TSAL 34.2

But besides the burden of her strenuous labors, she endured the infirmities that had come from her childhood accident. Emaciated and weakened, she was, many of her friends feared, marked for an early grave. But again and again she was strengthened, physically, mentally, and spiritually, by the grace of God; and in that blessed baptism of the Holy Spirit she lived and worked.TSAL 34.3

Not one of the three leaders had any wealth, and there was no organization to support their public labors or supply their daily needs. Joseph Bates had spent his all in the cause; for the daily bread of his family he depended upon the providence of God, which again and again in marked intervention supplied his needs. James White and his wife Ellen were penniless, except as he worked at common labor for a livelihood. A child was born to them in the late summer of 1847, their firstborn, named Henry Nichols White, in honor of a friend whose family had helped them spiritually and materially. Living in poverty, they were tempted to feel that their duty as well as necessity pointed to their maintaining a frugal and industrious life, slowly to build their fortunes. But the hand of God in affliction tore them away from this mundane plan and sent them together on faith into the field of Christian service.TSAL 34.4

Leaving their child in the tender care of devoted friends, they traveled into New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, as well as Maine, carrying a message of healing, comfort, enlightenment, inspiration. They were forwarded from place to place with little gifts—$5.00 here, $10 there, a helping hand now, a horse-and-buggy transportation there, occasional shelter and food.TSAL 35.1

Meanwhile, through all this they studied. Their hands reached out to brethren and sisters discovered by the way, some strong, some seeking support, but all being drawn into fellowship and Christian love. They found congenial helpers in laymen—Stockbridge Howland in Maine, Otis Nichols in Massachusetts, Albert Belden in Connecticut, Cyrus Farnsworth in New Hampshire, Ezra Butler in Vermont, Hiram Edson in New York. They joined forces with Joseph Bates as their doctrinal views came to coincide; they encouraged young and promising workers like John N. Andrews of Maine, George Holt of Connecticut, and John N. Loughborough of New York to enter the ministry.TSAL 35.2

A body of distinctive doctrines was being evolved through Bible study. The Sabbath, championed by Joseph Bates, was accepted by the Whites in the fall of 1846, shortly after their marriage. Sparked by an early message from Hiram Edson, to whom a shaft of heavenly light had come, the truth of the service of Christ, our High Priest, in the sanctuary in heaven was studied out, explaining the reason for the disappointment and opening new vistas of faith and courage. The application of the messages of the three angels of Revelation 14 to the second advent experience, dating from the’44 period on to the end, became clear. The doctrine of immortality only through Christ—the state of the dead, and the judgment—had been their common heritage from pre-disappointment days. More and more as they studied together, the body of their common faith began to take form, and they lived and prayed and rejoiced and suffered and triumphed together in the light of God.TSAL 36.1

In all this the Spirit of prophecy manifested in Ellen G. White was a constant steadier, corrector, and guide. Again and again messages from God through her steered the little company away from false doctrine, dangerous trends, vitiating weaknesses. But always these counsels stood foursquare upon the inspired Word of God, the Bible. Doctrines were evolved, not upon the authority of Ellen G. White, but from the study of the Sacred Scriptures; the Spirit of prophecy did but illuminate them and show their truth. Yet in those troublous times, with every wind of doctrine blowing, it was to the believers a guide and compass.TSAL 36.2

What gave the little band confidence in the gift bestowed upon this youthful messenger of God? A combination of things. Her blameless life, rising above calumny, spoke volumes. Her consecration, her complete absorption in her mission, reinforced their faith. The practical nature of her message was a strong argument. Her constant appeal to the Bible established her connection with the source of inspiration. But besides these evidences, for the extraordinary needs of the time, God set His seal upon her work by supernatural manifestations. The characteristic mental and physical states of the prophets in vision, a register assembled by Bible students, testified to the genuineness of her visions. ^{38Numbers 24:3, 4; Daniel 10:8-19.} These may be summarized in a recital of the phenomena of her open visions.TSAL 36.3

As the power of God came upon her, she uttered in thrilling tones, fading away as in distance, the thrice repeated shout, “GLORY, glory, glory!” She initially lost all strength, and then received an access of strength, manifested in such feats as holding a heavy family Bible aloft in one hand for some time, while turning the pages with her other hand to the texts she correctly quoted without seeing. ^{39Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts 2:78, 79.} In all this manifestation, no breath was discernible, even by the closest tests, though she spoke audibly. Her eyes were always open, with fixed but pleasant gaze as upon some distant object. What in vision she was viewing was declared only in short sentences, not always connected; but when she came out of vision she told or wrote out in clear form, but in her own words, what had been revealed to her. This in brief describes her state in vision. Its consonance with described states of various Bible prophets, together with the intrinsic value of her communications, was to that early company of believers convincing evidence of the motivating power of God. Moreover, the fulfillment within brief time of her shorter predictions, and on occasion the circumvention of obstructive schemes of opponents, were further proof of divine guidance.TSAL 37.1

As the years went on, these exhibitions of the open vision grew less frequent, until about 1884 they ceased. But not less really or frequently, thereafter, did she receive the commissions of God in visions and dreams. The heavenly communications came, as to many prophets before her, in private sessions in the night and in revelations to her mind while studying and writing.TSAL 38.1

Why this change? Because, in that early beginning time, there was necessity for a dramatic impression to be made upon the minds of believers and opponents alike; while with the authority established, the messages of God through her were received in full confidence. These exhibitions of her open vision were tested and tried many times by those who opposed as well as those who believed. And so, as Paul writes of the manifestation of the gift of prophecy: “If ... there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.” ^{401 Corinthians 14:24, 25.} The initial purpose of the open vision, the purpose of confirming her authority in the minds of believers, grew less needful as their faith increased. The open vision was not for a show to the curious; it was an initial step in the confirmation of the Spirit of prophecy. Its continuance would have inclined to become merely a spectacle; but the weight and wisdom of her testimony after the open vision ceased gave dignity to her office.TSAL 38.2

During the year 1848, a series of six “Sabbath conferences,” as they were called, was held by James and Ellen White and Joseph Bates, with various helpers, in New England and New York, culminating in November of that year in the meeting at Otis Nichols’ in Dorchester, Massachusetts. These conferences, gathering in the interested ones in the various sections, were effective in harmonizing and binding together the believers. The leaders also were learning methods of effective presentation.TSAL 38.3

It was apparent to them that they needed other means of visitation and ministry than their very occasional personal visits. At the fifth conference, held in Topsham, Maine, they discussed the possibility of issuing a periodical to set forth their faith and serve as a means of communication between believers. The efficacy of the press in carrying truth had been apparent since the invention of printing in the fifteenth century, and it was apparent to these earnest advocates of the Sabbath and Advent truths; but how to enlist its aid they did not know. For they were all without money, and they had no supporting organization; so in perplexity yet in hope they left the matter in the hands of God.TSAL 39.1

But at the meeting in Dorchester the next month, the subject was again under discussion, and again they knelt in united prayer that God would open the way. While they were praying, the power of God descended upon Mrs. White, and she was taken into vision. In this vision she seemed to be watching a light as of the sun, ascending in the east, like the angel in Revelation 7, and she greeted it with exclamations of wonder at its increasing power, exclamations jotted down at the time by Joseph Bates. “Out of weakness it has become strong! ... It rises, commencing from the rising of the sun.... O the power of those rays! It grows in strength.... The angels are holding the four winds.... The saints are not all sealed! ... Yea, publish the things thou hast seen and heard, and the blessing of God will attend.” “Look ye! That rising is in strength, and grows brighter and brighter!”TSAL 39.2

When she came out of vision she said to her husband: “I have a message for you. You must begin to print a little paper and send it out to the people. Let it be small at first; but as the people read, they will send you means with which to print, and it will be a success from the first. From this small beginning it was shown to me to be like streams of light that went clear round the world.”TSAL 40.1

James White believed, but still the way did not open. He looked for capital with which to begin, but it did not come. At last, seven months later, while they were residing with the Beldens at Rocky Hill, Connecticut, he determined to find again a job at manual labor to earn some money for the project. In this crisis his wife received another communication from heaven, in which he was directed not to seek money in this way, but to step out by faith, write and publish, and the money would come in.TSAL 40.2

Acting upon this counsel, he prepared copy for an eight-page paper and arranged with a printer in near-by Middletown to print it, with the promise of speedy payment. The paper contained a clear presentation of the Sabbath truth. “I hope,” he wrote in this first number, addressing the believers to whom he intended to send it, “that this little sheet will afford you comfort and strength. Love and duty have compelled me to send it out to you. I know you must be rooted and built up in the present truth, or you will not be able to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.” In consonance with this sentiment, he named the sheet Present Truth.TSAL 40.3

Several times, while the work was being done, James White walked the eight miles to Middletown and back for consultation; but on the day of publication he borrowed Belden’s horse and buggy to bring home the papers. “The precious printed sheets were brought into the house and laid on the floor, and then a little group of interested ones were gathered in, and we knelt around the papers, and with humble hearts and many tears besought the Lord to let His blessing rest upon these printed messengers of truth.” ^{41Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G. White, 129.}TSAL 41.1

The little company joined in folding the papers, and as many were wrapped and addressed as they had names of those who might be interested. Then James White put them in a carpetbag, and on foot carried them to the post office in Middletown. The periodical publication work of Seventh-day Adventists (as yet unnamed and unorganized) had begun. Though no subscription price was set, money did come in from recipients of the paper sufficient to meet the cost of the first four numbers, published in Middletown, and to sustain the workers in their travels. Peripatetic with its sponsors, Present Truth was published in three successive posts, until in 1851, in Paris, Maine, it was changed into the periodical Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, which has continued to the present day as the official church paper.TSAL 41.2

“Like streams of light that went clear round the world.” That prediction, made a hundred years ago to that poverty-stricken and feeble company, has been amply fulfilled. Today the candle gleam of that initial Present Truth has broadened and brightened and increased to an incandescent lighting of the globe. As one branch of a worldwide and comprehensive work, there are 43 denominational publishing houses, serving 197 language areas, with 342 periodicals and an annual sales intake of over $14,000,000 for books, pamphlets, and other permanent literature.TSAL 41.3

“Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.” ^{422 Chronicles 20:20.} “From this small beginning it was shown to me to be like streams of light that went clear round the world.”TSAL 42.1