Untitled article by John Norton Loughborough

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 15, 1867

Remarkable Fulfillments of the Visions. No. 2.

By John Norton Loughborough

In the spring of 1853, about six months after I commenced to keep the Sabbath, it was arranged for me to take a trip into the West. Passing through Ohio, I visited Michigan at the following points. I met Bro. Cornell at his home in Plymouth, and we went to Tyrone, Locke, and Jackson. At Jackson we parted, he to go and meet Bro. and sister White in meeting, at Tyrone, in the eastern part of the State, while I went on to Battle Creek, Bedford, and Hastings, and spent some two weeks. The Sabbath that I was at Hastings, Bro. and sister White were at Tyrone. At this point sister White had a vision, in which were presented to her the Sabbath-keepers in the State of Michigan, and the different influences that were working upon them to hinder their advancement in the cause of Christ.

Much was pointed out in this vision of which the brethren knew she had never been informed, either by letter or word of mouth; and this gave them great confidence in her testimony. One of the most striking things shown I will mention here. It was a matter known to no one present except Bro. and sister Cornell, and they had but just learned the facts while visiting the place where the thing occurred. As Bro. and sister Cornell knew that sister White was about to visit the State, they supposed she might have a vision, and concluded that if one was given, perhaps these facts would be shown. So they agreed not to write, or say anything to any one about the affair, and see what would be shown in relation to it. No one else had written to Bro. or sister White a word concerning it, and they had no personal knowledge that any such state of things existed anywhere in the State, till it was shown in vision.

As before intimated, the place where the affair occurred which I am about to mention, was at a distance from the place of the above meeting, being on the opposite side of the State, and no one was there who knew of the matter, save Bro. and sister Cornell, and they were pledged to each other to keep it secret till after a vision should be given. Although I had traveled with Bro. Cornell some three weeks, he had never hinted anything of it, even to me.

In the vision at Tyrone, sister White saw that there was a woman traveling in the State—but the place was not shown her—with a man who was not her husband. While her husband, being duped with the idea that God had called his wife thus to preach, was laboring with his hands to support them in their pernicious course, the woman was pretending that God had called her and this young man to travel as missionaries among the Indians. She pretended to talk in tongues, and to talk the language of a tribe of Indians called the Highland Gaelic tribe. Sister White was shown that the woman was deceived in relation to this matter, that she did not talk their language, that she merely used a gibberish of words, and spoke no language at all. She was shown the church where this woman lived, and the different members; some sympathizing with the woman, and some questioning quite severely her course, but hardly having light or strength to take their stand against it. She saw that this woman and young man had broken the seventh commandment while they were making such loud pretensions of being called of God to labor as missionaries in teaching the fourth commandment. She saw even what words the woman would use when she was reproved; that she would put on a sanctimonious look and say, “God knows my heart.”

This case was all written by sister White in the week between the meeting at Tyrone and the one held the following Sabbath at Jackson. This meeting was the week after my meeting at Hastings, and I was present. When I came to the house of Bro. Cyrenius Smith, in Jackson, Bro. and sister White and Bro. and sister Cornell were there. Bro. Cornell met me at the door, and we went into a grove near the house before I saw Bro. and sister White. He said to me that sister White had had a vision, and he told me the particulars, especially what was shown about the woman. He told me that sister White had written the vision out, and that he wished I would get a copy of it. Said that it was an exact description of the woman; that he knew the woman and her course; that Bro. and sister White had an appointment where she lived, but that they themselves did not know her place of residence, and would keep asking him if he knew, and he would evade a definite answer by telling them that if there was such a woman in the State they would probably find her, as they had appointments in every prominent place in the State.

I agreed with Bro. Cornell that we would say nothing to them about it, save that I would get a copy of the vision, and we would watch to see how the thing came out. So I went into the house, and after a few minutes’ conversation, I obtained the vision and wrote a copy of it, which I now have.

After the meeting at Jackson, Bro. and sister White, Bro. Cornell, and myself, visited Battle Creek, Bedford, and Hastings, before coming to Vergennes, Mich., the place to which this part of the vision applied. At Bedford, sister White said, “This is not the place where that woman is, but I have seen these,” and went on to point out the wrongs, particularly in one family where there were two sets of children, and the step-parents were not taking the right course. At Hastings she also had a word of testimony to bear to some, but said, “These are not the ones connected with that case.” We drove on to Vergennes, arriving there about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. We called first on a Bro. W., formerly a Christian preacher, whose house was some three miles from the place where the meetings were to be held. He lived in a log house near the road, and there was a large apple tree near by it. Bro. White, Bro. Cornell and myself, stopped under the tree, while sister White went into the house. We could hear every word which was said in the house. The conversation was all concerning her being wearied with her journey, the distance she had come that day, and such like conversation. We had stopped under the tree to make some arrangements about the order of meetings, who should preach, and what subjects should be introduced, &c. Presently she came out of the house, and said, speaking to her husband, “James, we have got to the church where that woman lives.” He said, “How do you know?” “Why,” said she, “I have seen the man and woman in the house in vision, connected with this case; and the man thinks the woman I saw is right, but his wife thinks she is wrong.” How did she know this? Not a word had been exchanged between them concerning the matter. Bro. Cornell soon had opportunity to whisper to me, and said that was the position Mr. W. and wife held relative to the said woman, exactly.

As we sat under the tree a few teams drove up, of those who lived a little distance from the place, who were coming in to attend the meeting, most of them supposing there might be a meeting that evening. As a load would drive up, sister White would tell us just what position each one occupied relative to the woman’s case. A load consisting of four persons came up. She told us the two on the front seat thought the woman was right, that the two on the back seat thought she was wrong. Another load all thought the woman wrong. So she would tell us how they all stood. Bro. Cornell and I were where we could whisper a word occasionally without their observing it, and he told me that he was acquainted with the whole of them, and that she had picked them out as to their position in the case of said woman, every one of them, exactly. Finally sister White said, “This must be the church, for about all who have come yet, I have seen in connection with this case.” “But,” said she, “I saw another man who is not present now. He has sandy whiskers, sandy complexion, and something peculiar about his eyes.”

Just then someone spoke and said, Bro. P. is coming. She looked up and said, “Oh! that is the man; he had spectacles on, is near sighted.” Query. How could she tell that a man whom she had never seen, only in vision, and who was then ten or twelve rods off, wore spectacles because he was near sighted? We concluded she must have had a nearer view of him in vision.

Nothing more, special, happened that evening. We tarried most of us at that house till the next morning. Had no meeting that night. Nothing was said concerning the woman, but other topics of conversation were introduced.

The next morning early, we went some three miles to the place of meeting. The brethren of this new country had made ample preparations for the congregation by seating a large new barn, both in the bay, on the floor, and over the stables; but had made no stand for the speakers. When we arrived at the barn, we took a new wagon box and turned it upside down, which served a very good purpose as a stand, as it was well bolted together. A common light stand was placed on one end of the box, and chairs were used for seats. At the time of which I am about to speak, Bro. White stood at one end of the stand preaching, Bro. Cornell sat next to him, I sat next to Bro. C., and Sr. White, as the seats were filled, sat in a rocking chair, at my left hand, on this temporary rostrum. Bro. White had been speaking about fifteen minutes, when three persons came in and took their seats,—a woman and two men, one, a young man; the other, an old man. The woman took her seat by the door, while the two men came directly opposite Bro. White, and sat down; the old man just behind the young man. Immediately after they had taken their seats, Sr. White whispered and asked me if Bro. Cornell knew the woman she had seen in vision. Instead of directly answering her question, I asked, “Why?” Said she, “That tall woman who just sat down by the door, on the corner seat, is the woman; and this young man with the green coat on, just in front of James, is the man that she is traveling with.” She said, “Ask Bro. Cornell if he knows them.” I turned to ask Bro. Cornell if he knew these persons, but before I could ask him, he eagerly whispered to me that they were the ones. I turned and told Sr. White that he knew them, and that they were the ones, which was the first time she had an intimation that Bro. C. knew the woman.

At the close of Bro. White’s discourse, Sr. White arose and told the people what the Lord had shown her concerning the condition of the church there, and especially the course of this woman, and the young man and her husband. The people knew that Sr. White came into the house from her stopping place, which was some three miles from their place of meeting, that the woman came some two miles from an opposite direction, and that they had never seen each other. In hearing her testimony, she pointed directly to this woman, told the congregation she was the one she meant; that it was the one who sat by the door. The man she was traveling with, was the one that had the green coat on, and sat directly before the stand, and that the old man sitting in the next seat behind him, was the husband of the woman. Sr. White told the people, too, what they had been doing. That these persons, while making great professions of holiness, had broken the seventh commandment. The people looked in astonishment. We, too, looked anxiously, to see what this Mrs. A. would say to so grave a charge. Sr. White had no sooner taken her seat than the said woman arose, put on a very sanctimonious look, and said, “God knows my heart,” and sat down.

Sr. White told the people what she had seen; that this woman did not talk any language when she pretended to talk with tongues. This man and woman neither said, or even intimated, that they were not guilty of the crimes charged to them. All she would say, when questioned, was, “God knows my heart.” But more of this in the sequel.

Our meetings closed and we went on our way; but the people were anxious to know still further about this woman’s course. After we were gone, the woman gave out an appointment for meeting, of course, being anxious to do something to redeem her character in the eyes of the people. Quite a large company of people assembled the next Sunday to hear what the woman would say. Some of her hearers told me what I am about to relate concerning her meeting. She did not, in her meeting, for an instant, deny what had been shown concerning her, but tried to go on as though nothing had happened. She was in the habit of talking in what she called tongues, in her meetings, and they were expecting she should talk with tongues again. It so happened that she had been speaking but a few minutes before an Indian of the very Highland Gaelic tribe passed the house, with his gun, hunting. Some of the congregation went out and told him there was a woman in the house going to talk in his language. He went in and sure enough she broke off in her discourse and commenced her “Kene keni, kene kenoo, kene kenee,” &c. The Indian sat with his eyes and mouth open, seeming to be in astonishment. After she stopped her Indian talk the Indian arose, gave a whoop! and ran out of the house. He picked up his gun and was hurrying away, when those who had called him in, went after him, and asked him, “What about it?” He said: “Very bad Indian, that! Very bad Indian!!” They asked him “Why?” He said, he did not know one word she had said. This, of course, demonstrated to the people, and to us, that the vision concerning this woman not talking the language of that Indian tribe, was correct. This ended the efforts of the woman at preaching and traveling with the young man in that neighborhood.

Circumstances have since transpired which prove still further the truthfulness of the testimony given in this case. A Bro. G. who lived in the place, who was not then a Sabbath keeper, attended the meeting in which the said vision was related, and this very circumstance and testimony concerning the course of the woman, awakened in him an interest which led him to investigate and embrace the present truth. He was ever after a full believer in the Gifts. But still, he thought if he could get a testimony from these persons, it would be a help in convincing others of the truth of the said testimony given. It so happened that about two years after the above-mentioned meeting, the tide of opposition was so strong against the young man, Mr. P., who had traveled with Mrs. A., that he concluded to leave the place. As he was about leaving, Bro. G. saw him one day, and said to him: “Mr. P., you are about to leave this neighborhood; before you leave, there is one question I would like to ask you. You recollect that vision Sister White had about you and Mrs. A.? I have ever believed those visions since the investigation I gave them at that time. You have reason to know whether they are true or not, especially the one which was given concerning you and Mrs. A. I do not ask for information to use against you, but I ask for my own benefit. The young man at first hung his head, and said nothing. The brother still pressed him to answer the question, and he at last said: “Mr. G., that vision concerning us was too true.”

About six years after the above circumstance, the Michigan tent was pitched in Greenville. A company were brought out on the truth, and Sabbath-meetings established among them, which were to be held at the house of Bro. M. As the brethren and sisters were assembling for one of the first of these meetings, this same Mrs. A., from Vergennes, came in, having located near Greenville. She introduced herself by name, and requested the privilege of preaching to the Sabbath-keepers in their meetings. Sister W., the mother-in-law of Bro. M., began to suspect that all was not right with the woman, and so began to question her. Said she, “I did n’t know that Seventh-day Adventists had women preachers. I know Sister White goes with her husband, but I did not know that they had women traveling as you seem to be. I have not seen your name or appointments in the Review, and I notice most of the preachers say something in the Review.” “Oh,” said Mrs. A., “My appointments are not in the paper, but then I talk sometimes.” But still, sister W. had fears that all was not straight, so she began to question her on different points of the truth, but the woman professed to believe all the present truth.

Finally she happened to think that all who were firm in the present truth, believed the visions of sister White, and she said, “Mrs. A., what do you think of the visions?” “Oh,” said Mrs. A., “I think sister White is an excellent woman; but perhaps I do not look upon those visions just as you do.” “Well,” said sister W., “what do you think of them?” “Oh,” said she, “I don’t wish to say anything against them, for fear I shall be found fighting against God.” Just at this time, Bro. Bates who had come into a remote part of the neighborhood the night before, came in with a brother, was introduced to different ones, and, finally, to Mrs. A. “Ah!” said he, “Mrs. A. is here is she?” “Why,” said sister W., “do you know Mrs. A.” “Yes,” said Bro. Bates, and he went on to tell about the vision, &c., concerning Mrs. A. Sister W. looked at the woman with astonishment, and said, “Is that so, Mrs. A.?” Said she in reply, “I told you, sister W., I did not wish to say anything against the visions for fear I should be found fighting against God.”

“Well,” said sister W., “if such a thing as that was shown about me, I should not fear to fight against it, if I knew it never had happened.” “Well,” said she, “I shall not say anything against the vision for fear I shall fight against God.” This, as all must see, was a virtual admission, on her part, of the truthfulness of the testimony.

So, to us, in this whole case, there is a striking proof as to the source from whence these visions proceed. Works of darkness were reproved and brought to light by the testimony, wrongs in the church corrected; and this is the characteristic of true gifts.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.