Elder Daniells’ Concerns

Elder Daniells was weary from administrative conflicts and challenges. He pondered whether he should lay down the responsibilities of leadership and engage in another line of work, possibly in evangelism in some other part of the world field. But he was the man in the saddle. With other workers he made the trip from Battle Creek to Oakland in time for a week of presession meetings.WV 422.6

On several occasions Daniells related the experience that came to him at this time. He set apart Sabbath, March 21, preceding the General Conference session, as a day of special personal fasting and prayer. He felt he must know his duty. He went to one of the offices in the Pacific Press publishing house where he could spend the day in study, meditation, and prayer, longing for some omen that would give him courage to move into the session. Through the day and into the evening he remained there. As he knelt in a final prayer, the burden that he might get into true relationship with God's great work on earth rolled upon his heart.WV 422.7

In recounting the story just a few hours before his death, he said, “I struggled unto death, crying aloud, and I nearly reproached the Lord for not giving me some sign, some evidence of my acceptance, and His support of me in the awful battle that was before us.” During this struggle he prostrated himself on the floor, clutching, as it were, at the floorboards as he agonized with God. All night he wrestled with the Lord. Then as the morning sun burst into the room, “as distinctly as if audibly spoken, the words burned into my mind as a message from heaven, ‘If you will stand by My servant until her sun sets in a bright sky, I will stand by you to the last hour of the conflict’” (AGD, The Abiding Gift of Prophecy, p. 367).WV 422.8

“I couldn't talk any more with God,” he said.”I was overcome. And although I have made mistakes, God has stood by me, and I have never repudiated that woman, nor questioned her loyalty, to my knowledge, from that night to this. Oh, that was a happy experience to me and it bound me up with the greatest character that has lived in this dispensation” (DF 312c, “Report of a Parting Interview Between AGD and WCW, March 20, 1935,” p. 5).WV 423.1

“Every doubt was removed,” he reported on another occasion. I knew that I must not run away from the work to which I had been called by my brethren, and that I must stand with them at my post of duty. I was deeply impressed that I must be as true as the needle to the pole to the counsels of the Spirit of Prophecy, that I must stand loyally by the Lord's servant, upholding her hands, and leading this denomination to recognize and appreciate her heaven-sent gift.... I then made my solemn promise to the Lord that I would be true to His cause, that I would do all in my power to prevent anything from arising in this denomination to dim the glory of the priceless gift and of the Lord's servant who had exercised this gift for so many years (AGD, The Abiding Gift of Prophecy, p. 367).WV 423.2

The experience, Elder Daniells said, “marked the beginning of an important era of wholehearted acceptance of the Spirit of Prophecy” (Ibid., 366).WV 423.3

Near the time for the opening of the session Ellen White put into the hands of the delegates and others some of the testimonies that touched on many of the points at issue. The 96-page pamphlet presenting Selections From the Testimonies for the Church for the Study of Those Attending the General Conference in Oakland, California, March 27, 1903 was printed by the Pacific Press. A wide range of topics was represented in this pamphlet. There was special emphasis on the fires in Battle Creek, debt liquidation, and her vision of the 1901 session concerning “what might have been”; there were various items dealing with the churches, consolidation of the publishing work, the work in the South, the Southern Publishing Association, and the use of the Morning Star. It closed with references to the work at home and abroad.WV 423.4