A Rude Interruption

Ellen White had a reason for choosing to speak as she did that Sabbath afternoon. Some months earlier J. P. Malan, who operated a printing business in Torre Pellice, had accepted the Sabbath truth and with his wife attended the European Council held in Basel in September. They entered interestedly in the meetings held there, but shortly after their return home, influenced by friends and business associates, Mr. Malan had turned rather violently against Seventh-day Adventists. The situation was an awkward one, for he published a newspaper in Torre Pellice and owned the hall in which the believers met.3BIO 333.2

The first clash after Ellen White's arrival was in his refusal to print the notices of meetings at which she would speak. In her diary she described him as “an educated man” and his wife as an educated woman, able to “speak English and interpret or translate into German and French” (Manuscript 29, 1885). She wrote of the next confrontation:3BIO 333.3

Sabbath while I was speaking he came into the hall and began to take notes of what I was saying. While the Spirit of the Lord was upon me and I was speaking with great freedom and power, he jumped up and said he wished to speak and ask some questions. Should he lose his soul if he did not keep the Sabbath, or was it necessary for him to keep the Sabbath to be saved?—answer Yes or No.3BIO 333.4

I said, “This is an important question which could not be answered with Yes or No. Those who had clear light upon the binding claims of the law of God, and rejected that light and would not keep the Sabbath, would be judged according to the light given. Those who had not the light to refuse and reject, but lived up to all the light God had given them, would not be made accountable for the light that they never had.”—Ibid.3BIO 333.5

The confrontation was unpleasant; Malan was excited, gesticulating frantically, almost raving. Bourdeau endeavored to give Ellen White a running translation of what he was saying. Malan allowed little room for answers to his challenges, and the congregation began to disperse as though afraid. She wrote in her diary, “We felt sad for Sister Malan. She begged me to excuse her husband. Poor woman, she is in a trying place.”—Ibid.3BIO 334.1

After Sabbath the Adventists made another attempt to arrange for the printing of notices for the Sunday afternoon meeting, but Malan refused, and the meeting was poorly attended. While she was speaking, he appeared again, and there was a repetition of the Sabbath afternoon experience. She described the climax of the meeting:3BIO 334.2

We kept right on with our work as calmly as if an angry, half-frantic man was not acting before us as if possessed of the devil. He grasped his hat and flew out of the hall in a rage and gathered around himself several and talked to them like a madman. This was not a very encouraging beginning, but we will remain and see if the Lord has anything further for me to do.—Ibid.3BIO 334.3