Labors in Northern Italy

During the next few weeks Ellen White was to journey by rail over the magnificent Alps and labor in the Waldensian regions about Turin. This large city, like Milan, is situated in the “boot top” of the Italian peninsula. Her appointments in Italy were all concentrated here. She never had occasion to travel south to Florence, Rome, or Naples. All her speaking appointments were in the subalpine regions of Torre Pellice.EGWE 135.1

At Torre Pellice she learned of the problems in which A. C. and D. T. Bourdeau were involved. Daniel was the first of the Bourdeau brothers to work in Italy. His brother, A. C., followed him. Now A. C. Bourdeau was in need of help in northern Italy, and his brother, Daniel, who was launching an evangelistic program in Geneva, was also sadly in need of counsel and direction.EGWE 135.2

He was proposing to get out a handbill advertising himself as an American missionary and citing flattering remarks made about him in the past year in American newspapers. Ellen White tried to dissuade him. She told him that two extremes needed to be avoided. On the one hand, Americans should not be ashamed of their nationality and try to mimic the people among whom they lived, but on the other hand, she said, “I have been shown that we need to move with the greatest wisdom, that we shall not in anything create prejudice by giving the impression that Americans feel themselves superior to people of other nations.”—Letter 24, 1885. She also pointed out the folly of Bourdeau's representing himself as a “missionary”. This, she said, would create jealousy and suspicion and be regarded as “the worst kind of insult” (Manuscript 28, 1885).EGWE 135.3

Reduce the length of your sermons, she further counseled, for these wear out everybody, audience and preacher included.EGWE 136.1

The Bourdeau brothers were talented evangelists, zealous of good works, but they needed balance and wisdom, which the Lord provided through the Spirit of Prophecy. But more about this later.EGWE 136.2