“We Have Been Eating of the Large Loaf”

Ellen White’s interest in the Negro was not limited to her interest in her son’s work, and her interest in her son’s work was not limited to matters of guidance and encouragement. She appealed to Adventist Church leaders and to all Adventists, not only for spiritual but also for economic and educational help. She wrote letters, manuscripts, and articles on the subject, and even planned a book.EGWCRR 88.1

Her interest in Edson White’s work extended to matters of finance and publicity, as well. She wrote in 1901:EGWCRR 88.2

At the different places which I have visited lately I have gathered some money for your work. I wish you would send me the amount you have received, so that if all has not been sent, I may write in regard to it. In every meeting we have attended there have been necessities that had to be met, and sometimes so many calls were made that I hardly dared to put in my plea. Nevertheless I have. I want to hear often just what progress you are making, and I will do my best to help you. I might hire money or perhaps

get the loan of some without interest. Keep me informed as to your work. ^{1Ellen G. White, Letter 62, 1901 (to James Edson White, June 26, 1901).}EGWCRR 89.1

Later she again related her fundraising activities:EGWCRR 89.2

I called for means here for the work in the South, and it seemed almost like stealing; for they are trying to gather means to establish a Sanitarium somewhere near Los Angeles .... It was on Sunday afternoon that I made an appeal for your work. Ninety dollars were raised ....

I told the people just a little of what you are trying to do in Nashville. I told them I felt perfectly free to call upon the trustees of the Lord’s money to help in that needy field. I asked them to be God’s helping hand by giving of their means to advance His work. I called upon believers and unbelievers to do something for Christ’s sake. We may get something from this appeal ....

The Lord give you all courage to work on in the Southern field. I call upon you all to have faith in God. I am sorry, so sorry that you have to be delayed in your work. There is plenty of money in the hands of the Lord’s stewards. ^{2Ellen G. White, Letter 113, 1901(to James Edson White, August 13, 1901).}

She was not satisfied with the amount of interest displayed by the leaders of the church toward Edson White’s work. When he faced the danger of having his work destroyed in 1898, she wrote:EGWCRR 89.3

I know that you are in a difficult and a most dangerous field, made thus because of the prejudice of the whites against the blacks, and because our brethren have not interested themselves personally in that field to decide how it should be worked. Our brethren do not yet have correct ideas, and they button up their coats over their hearts, hearts that should go out in sympathy and tenderness and encouragement to the laborers in that poor, destitute, neglected field ....

In the Southern field small churches are to be built. If they are burned, this act will stand as a witness against the men who oppose the work of God when the judgment shall sit and the books be opened, and every one judged according to the deeds written in the books. ^{3Ellen G. White, Letter 136, 1898 (to J. E. White, August 14, 1898).}

To the church leaders in Battle Creek and other places she had in 1895 appealed:EGWCRR 90.1

How much self-denial will our institutions manifest in binding about their imaginary wants? Will they continue to spread themselves and obtain more and still more conveniences for their better accommodation, while the means to be expended for the down-trodden colored race is so little and meager? ...

Men of ability are willing to work for a meager sum, two or three dollars a week to sustain their families; they have souls as precious as those of the men who because of their selfishness and covetousness received thirty dollars a week. Will those who have an abundance put their hands into their pockets, and out of their plentiful supplies impart something to furnish their neighbors with facilities? Will they make provision to help men to do the work they can do for a few dollars a week? Most earnest work should have been done many years ago. There might have been an altogether different presentation from what we now see ....

We have been eating of the large loaf, and have left the suffering, distressed people of the Southern regions starving for education, starving for spiritual advantages. By your actions you have said, Am I my brother’s keeper? ...

The colored people might have been helped with much better prospects of success years ago than now. The work is now tenfold harder than it would have been then. But who will continue to dishonor God by their indolence, by their neglect, by passing by on the other side?

Do not, I beseech you, look upon the hard field, groan a little, set two or three at work in one locality, a few in another, and provide them only enough for the bare necessities of life. Those who labor in the Southern field will have to stand amid the most discouraging, hopeless poverty. ^{4Ellen G. White, Letter 5, 1895 (to “My Brethren in Responsible Positions in America,” July 24, 1895)}

She pointed to prejudice as the very reason why more had not been done in the past to help the Negro:EGWCRR 91.1

In the past, some attempts have been made to present the truth to the colored people, but those among the white people who claim to believe the truth have wanted to build a high partition between themselves and the colored race. We have one Saviour, who died for the black man as well as for the white. Those who possess the spirit of Christ will have pity and love for all who know not the precious Saviour. They will labor to the utmost of their ability to wipe away the reproach of ignorance from white and black alike ....

The colored people have been neglected because the vexed question of how to build a wall of distinction between the whites and the blacks has been in agitation. Some have thought it the best way to reach the white people first, for if we should labor for the colored people we could do nothing for the white population. This is not the right position to assume. Christ’s followers are to learn all about the woes of the poor in their immediate vicinity and in their own country, be they white or black. The poor, friendless, untaught colored people need our assistance because they are ignorant and friendless. Those who have a dark, disagreeable life are the very ones whom we should bid to hope because Christ is their Saviour. God has jewels in the rough, and His true followers will find them. All who possess the spirit of Christ will have a tender, sympathetic heart, and an open, generous hand.

Those who press close to the bleeding side of Christ will have the spirit of Christ, and a nature that will be quickly responsive to His call. They will work to relieve the necessities of suffering humanity, as Christ worked, while, before the world fallen, the worlds unfallen, and all the heavenly host, He was representing the ways and works of God. In the life of Christ we see what a Christian can do in relieving the distressed, binding up their physical and spiritual wants. ^5Ibid

In a letter to Edson White, Ellen White also spoke of the moral obligations of Christians toward those who are educationally and economically deprived:

It was presented to me that God in His providence was measuring the temple and the worshippers therein. There are those who, in the providence of God, have been placed in positions where they have received many blessings. With self-denial and self-sacrifice these could do a good work, in imparting to the most needy and suffering ones, to those who have few blessings and but little encouragement. This is a work which God has laid upon every saint to do, and for the neglect of which they will be held accountable. The Lord marks the longing of many souls for privileges that they might become better informed and better clothed. The angels of the Lord are looking to see what testimony they can carry to the courts above of this suffering class. Oh, that those who have so many comforts of life would deny self, take up the cross, and follow Jesus.

Human beings in their suffering humanity are crying unto God, and their prayers are just as surely coming up before God as did the blood of Abel. Christ-like men will not employ their time in devising to profit self, and promote their own interest. God is not indifferent to the pressing need of white or black in any place, wherever they may be. Who is saying, “Be thou warmed, and be thou clothed and fed,” yet do nothing to relieve the situation? ^{6Ellen G. White, Letter 136, 1898 (to J. E. White and wife, August 14, 1898).}

In 1895 Ellen White’s interest in these matters led her to write a series of articles in the Review and Herald concerning the work in the South for Negroes. These were published in late 1895 and early 1896. ^{7These articles are reprinted in The Southern Work, 19-65} Later she even planned a book on the subject:EGWCRR 92.1

I realize that the first thing I ought to do is to prepare matter for the books that should be brought out; but there are other things that I must do. The attitude of some of my brethren in regard to the Southern field, and the reports that are being circulated—reports that I know to be untrue—make it necessary for me to take up this matter. I can no longer allow false impressions to be made, without saying what I know to be the truth. I shall publish in book form what I have written in regard to the work in the Southern field. I shall no longer handle this matter with the tips of my fingers. Our people shall have in book form the facts of the history of the work in the South. When this book is out, I shall know that I have done my part to undeceive minds. ^{8Ellen G. White, Letter 206, 1902 (to W. C. White, December 13, 1902).}

The book was never carried through to its final form. The work later prepared by Spalding ^{9Spalding, “Lights and Shades in the Black Belt.”} was an attempt to fulfill Ellen White’s desires in this line, but it was not finished until 1913, shortly before her death. Ellen White’s age and the press of other duties probably delayed its publication, and when she died the matter was not carried further. Nevertheless, her repeated testimonies to denominational leaders urging greater interest and activity in evangelism and education for Negroes were many during the period from 1891until her death.EGWCRR 93.1

It could be argued, of course, that her interest in this work was the interest of a mother in her son, not a concern for the advancement of the Negro race. But she not only promoted her son’s work; there are on file her letters to others, such as J. S. Washburn, concerning the work among Negroes.EGWCRR 93.2