The Early Visions of Mrs. E. G. White
By George Ide Butler
When the beloved John would present the great facts of the gospel to the people, to lead them to believe in Christ, he spoke as follows: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life, (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John 1: 1-3. Probably about sixty-seven years before these words were written, Jesus Christ left this world to go to his Father. John was the last of the apostles to cease his work. We may well suppose that before his death there were those who doubted many of the facts of Christ’s life on earth. But John, a living witness, gives his actual, personal knowledge of the living Christ among men. He himself had heard Christ speak the words of life; his own eyes had seen him, and his own hands had “handled” him. Had he not laid his head on Jesus’ breast at the Last Supper? Had he not seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead after he had been in the grave four days, yea, till after decomposition had begun? John had perhaps the most personal knowledge of the Saviour of any of the twelve, and Jesus loved him most because he had partaken most of the Spirit of the Master. In writing this article about the early visions and labors of Sister White, we appeal to the same kind of facts. They are recorded by one, the oldest actual witness, who, thank the Lord, still lives among us and has been one of our most successful laborers. I did not accept the truth till a later period, and though I have personally known Sister White and have been in hundreds of public meetings with her, I never saw her in vision. Elder J. N. Loughborough has seen her have as many as fifty visions, and he was personally conversant with her early experiences. His excellent book, “Rise and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists” [“The Great Second Advent Movement” is the revised edition of this earlier work], written twenty-four years ago, is not being read as much as it deserves to be. Our history as a people is truly wonderful and exceedingly interesting. One great fact should be noticed: People by the hundreds and thousands are embracing the third angel’s message every year, and still there will be others who will receive it. How can these converts comprehend the real facts of the origin of this movement unless they are written out for their perusal? With this thought in mind this series of articles is being written for the REVIEW. No religious body has ever come upon the stage of action but that needed carefully to consider its rise and progress. The early days of a religious movement are, as a rule, its purest, most earnest, most self-sacrificing days. As the adherents become more numerous, pride, fashion, riches, and selfishness gradually increase. It is good for all to look back and consider well the lessons of their progress. Seventh-day Adventists especially will find it profitable to do this. In the very last part of 1844, after the great disappointment in October of that year, Sister White had her first vision. On page 92 of the book previously referred to, Elder Loughborough makes the following statements:— “Miss Harmon was at that time in a very critical condition of health. For a number of weeks she had scarcely been able to speak above a whisper. . . . Frequent spells of coughing and hemorrhages from the lungs had greatly reduced her physical strength. At the time she had her first vision, she was staying at the home of Mrs. Haines. It was in the morning, and they were engaged in family worship. There were five persons present, all sisters in the faith. Others had prayed, and Miss Harmon was praying in a whisper, when the power of God came down in a most wonderful manner, manifestly affecting all who were present, and in a moment she was lost to all that was transpiring around her—she was in vision. “In the next meeting she related to the believers in Portland what had been shown her. They had full confidence that it was from the Lord. There were about sixty at that time who indorsed it as the work of the Lord. There was a power that attended the vision, as well as the relation of it, that could emanate only from the Divine. A solemn sense of eternal interests was constantly upon her, and she seemed to be filled with an unspeakable awe that one so young and feeble as she should be chosen as an instrument10through whom the Lord would communicate light to his people. She stated that while in the vision, she seemed to be surrounded by radiant angels in the glorious courts of heaven, where all is joy and peace, and that it was a sad change to awaken to the unsatisfying realities of this mortal life. “The following brief synopsis of her first vision, as related to the believers in Portland, will give some idea of the character of all of them. She said:— “‘While praying, the power of God came upon me as I had never felt it before. I was surrounded with light, and was rising higher and higher from the earth. I turned to look for the advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me, ‘Look again, and look a little higher.’ At this I raised my eyes, and saw a straight and narrow path, cast up high above the world. On this path the advent people were traveling to the city, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the first end of the path, which an angel told me was the ‘midnight cry.’ This shone all along the path, and gave light for their feet, that they might not stumble. And if they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the city, they were safe. But soon some grew weary; they said the city was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising his glorious right arm, and from his arm there came a bright light, which waved over the advent people, and they shouted, Hallelujah! Others rashly denied the light behind them, and said that it was not God that had led them out so far. The light behind these went out, leaving their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and got their eyes off the mark, and lost sight of Jesus, and fell off the path down into the dark and wicked world below. Soon we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus’ coming. The living saints knew and understood the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder and an earthquake. When God spake the time, he poured on us the Holy Spirit, and our faces began to light up and shine with the glory of God, as Moses’ did when he came down from Mt. Sinai.’” Any one who knows the history of the advent movement and the conditions of the believers immediately after the great disappointment of 1844, will clearly discern that this vision, coming from the Lord, as the believers felt sure it did, would be the greatest possible encouragement to them. When the time passed, they were sorely perplexed. They were sure that the great prophetic period of Dan. 8: 14,—“Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,”—which began at the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, in 457 B. C., had terminated in 1844 A. D. There could be no possible doubt of that. They all believed that this earth was the sanctuary, and that its cleansing would be by the fires of the last day at the coming of Christ. But Christ did not come, and their hearts were filled with anguish. Their enemies were rejoicing over them. They were considered fanatics, fools, a terribly deluded people. That this old sin-cursed world is not and cannot be the sanctuary of the Lord, that that sanctuary is in heaven above, and that its cleansing will be the last work of our great High Priest in the great judgment day, just before he comes to gather his own dear people for an eternity of happiness, they had not learned then; but they did learn it soon after in the preaching of the third angel’s message, which is to go to all the world to prepare a people for the coming of Christ. The little flock of advent believers left in darkness at the passing of the time were disheartened and needed encouragement. And their Lord sent them comfort in a remarkable vision granted to a weak girl of seventeen years, given up to die by the physicians. In this vision God spoke through her to cheer this lonely band who had remained firm in the belief that God had been in this great advent movement and still had a care for his disappointed people. When the Lord showed that there was a divine pathway for the advent people to walk in to the city of God, and that Christ was with them, helping them to walk in it, no wonder they rejoiced.