Related Orally, but not Written Out for a Full Year

We are inclined today to think of the accounts of Ellen White’s first visions as we now have them, emerging in a tangible record immediately or in close proximity to the time they were given to her. Such was not the case.EGWSDQ 16.5

As we trace the record we are confronted with the fact that Ellen Harmon did not write her account of the first vision until December 20, 1845, a full year after it was given to her. This she did in a letter to Enoch Jacobs, editor of the Day Star. At the time of the vision and for some months following it, she could not hold her hand steady enough to write. But as noted above, she almost immediately told the vision to a sizable company of believers in Portland, Maine. The vision changed their thinking. They acknowledged the 7th month experience to be of God. Shortly after this at Poland, Maine, Ellen was asked to tell the vision to a company of believers in the Advent, there. Otis Nichols in a letter to William Miller dated April 20, 1846, makes reference to this:EGWSDQ 16.6

When she came to speak, her voice was nearly gone, but God fulfilled His Word: gave her strength of body and a clear, loud, audible voice to talk nearly two hours with tremendous power and effect on the people.EGWSDQ 17.1