BY A. G. DANIELLS
President of the General Conference
The announcement of the death of our greatly beloved sister in Christ, Mrs. E. G. White, will be received with sincere regret and deep sorrow by our people throughout the world. It does not come to us as a great surprise and shock, for we have been looking for it ever since the accident that befell her last February.
Only a very brief and imperfect sketch of Mrs. White's life and labors can be given at this time. Before her marriage to James White, her name was Ellen Gould Harmon. She was born in Gorham, Maine, Nov. 26, 1827.
Her parents, Robert and Eunice Harmon, came of good New England stock in the State of Maine. They were earnest, devoted members of the Methodist Church. While active in Christian service for the conversion of sinners, Mr. and Mrs. Harmon had the joy of seeing their family of eight children yield their hearts to Him who died for them, and dedicate their lives to his service.
Miss Harmon seemed to be endowed with a deeply religious nature. In early youth she experienced a keen realization of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. The righteousness of God as revealed in the gospel charmed her, and for it her whole heart and soul seemed to yearn.
To her the Bible was the word of the living God. She accepted Christ as her only Saviour, and consecrated her whole life to him.
In 1840, when but thirteen years of age, she attended a few meetings conducted by William Miller. His thrilling sermons on the second coming of Christ made a profound impression upon her mind. Thousands were deeply moved by Mr. Miller's preaching, and many turned from their lives of selfishness and sin to live only for their Lord and Saviour. The impressions made upon Miss Harmon's mind grew stronger and deeper, until at the age of sixteen she found full salvation in Christ. Of this experience she wrote:—
“Faith now took possession of my heart. I felt an inexpressible love for God, and had the witness of his Spirit that my sins were pardoned. My views of the Father were changed. I now looked upon him as a kind and tender parent, rather than a stern tyrant compelling men to blind obedience. My heart went out toward him in a deep, fervent love. Obedience to his will seemed joy. It was a pleasure to be in his service. No shadow clouded the light that revealed to me the perfect will of God. . . . My heart was so filled with love to God and the peace that passeth understanding, that I loved to meditate and pray.”
This experience proved to be deep and abiding. It marked the beginning of a life of great devotion to God, and of the greatest activity for the salvation of a lost world. She began at once to lead her young associates to the Saviour. Although she was repulsed by some, she ceased not to pray and labor for them until every one for whom her heart was burdened experienced the new life.
Taking the Bible as the supreme guide of her life, she became fully convinced by its teaching that the second coming of Christ was near at hand. On this point she never wavered; and believing it with her whole soul, she felt that the one supreme purpose for which every person should live was the consecration of every resource of a blameless life to the salvation of the lost.
This view led her to unceasing prayer for the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Her yearning for this divine Presence was answered beyond all that she had conceived. She prayed, as does every sincere Christian, for the gifts of the Spirit as set forth by the apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthian church,—the gift of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, etc.
Her life of full surrender, obedience, and increasing prayer for divine help was rewarded by the bestowal of the gift of prophecy, one of the choicest of all the gifts of the Spirit.
In December, 1844, she was given a revelation of the second coming of Christ. In this vision of the future she received a view of the glorious reward that awaits the redeemed, and the terrible fate that will come to all who refuse to serve their Lord and Master. Here she received her appointment as a messenger of God. She was commanded to give the message of light and salvation to others.
This was a great trial to her. She was but seventeen years old, small, frail, and retiring, but after the severest struggle she was given courage and strength to enter upon her life work. Then followed other revelations of light and duty. These brought added burdens and responsibilities. They also brought larger blessings to others, as well as the enlargement of her own life.
Aug. 30, 1846, Miss Harmon was married to James White, a native of Palmyra, Somerset Co., Maine. Mr. White was born Aug. 4, 1821, and was a “lineal descendant on his father's side of Peregrine White, born on the ‘Mayflower,’ in the harbor of Cape Cod, before the Pilgrims had made a home in the wilderness, to whom the court gave two hundred acres of land in consideration of his birth on board the ‘Mayflower.’”
About the time of their marriage they were both convinced that the fourth commandment of the decalogue enjoins the observance of the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath of Jehovah. From childhood they had been taught a wholesome reverence for the law of God. When they came to see the plain statement that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work,” they courageously took their stand for loyal obedience. Their teaching regarding the imminence of Christ's coming, and their observance of the seventh day Sabbath, led to the adoption of the denominational name—Seventh-day Adventists.4
The revelations given Mrs. White by the divine Spirit filled her with profound reverence for the Bible. To the close of her life she exalted this book above all others. To her it was the voice of God. In it are set forth the duties of the human race. Its teachings are to be accepted without alteration. Nothing must be added to or taken from its vital, fundamental truths. It alone reveals God's plan for the redemption of this lost world. Its gospel is the only power unto salvation. Christ is the only Saviour. Faith in Christ is the only way of salvation from sin, and the only way to obtain the righteousness of Christ.
ELDER JAMES WHITE, WHO DIED AUG. 6, 1881
Accepting these great fundamental truths, she accepted in their fullest degree and without modification every other feature of gospel truth—the presence of the Holy Spirit as Christ's representative on earth, the Lord's Supper as the memorial of his death, and baptism (immersion) as the memorial of his burial and resurrection. She recognized and emphasized the authority vested in the church by its sovereign Head; the principles of gospel order, organization, and administration set forth in the Scriptures. She was an earnest advocate of the brotherhood of man, leveling all national, racial, and class barriers, and teaching the doctrine of St. James, “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: but the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.”
From the earliest days of her thought and activity for her Lord, she never ceased to impress upon Christians the solemn obligation in behalf of home and foreign missions. In order that Christ's followers should be able to render the greatest service to mankind, she emphasized the importance of a practical Christian education,—an education that trains mind, body, and heart for the highest service. The cause of temperance reform—eating, drinking, etc.—and the use of rational remedies for restoration to health, found in Mrs. White an earnest advocate.
As we survey the whole field of gospel truth,—of man's relation to his Lord and his fellow men,—it must be seen that Mrs. White's life work has given these great fundamentals positive, constructive support. She has touched humanity at every vital point of need, and lifted it to a higher level.
For fully seventy years she gave her life in active service to the cause of God in behalf of sinful, suffering, sorrowing humanity. She traveled extensively through the United States from 1846 to 1885. Then she visited Europe, where she devoted two years to our work, which was at that time in a formative period. In 1891 she went to Australia, where she remained eight years, traveling about the colonies and devoting all her energies to the upbuilding of the work. Her labors there were of untold value to the cause of God in the Southern Pacific.
On returning to the United States in 1900, at the age of seventy-three, she seemed to feel that her duty to travel was done, and that she should devote the rest of her life to writing. Thus she toiled on until within a short time of her death, at the ripe age of almost eighty-eight years.
Now she is at rest. Her voice is silent; her pen is laid aside. But the mighty influence of that active, positive, forceful life will continue. That life was linked with the eternal; it was wrought in God. The message proclaimed and the work done have5
A Chosen Messenger at Rest
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left a monument that will never crumble nor perish. The many volumes she has left, dealing with every phase of human life, urging every reform necessary to the betterment of society as represented by the family, city, State, and nation, will continue to mold public sentiment and individual character. Their messages will be cherished more than they have been in the past. The cause to which her life was devoted, and which that life molded and advanced to such a great degree, will press forward
with greater force and rapidity than ever. We who are connected with it need entertain no fear except the fear of our own failure to do our part as faithfully and loyally as we should.
