UPON ELD. JAMES WHITE AND WIFE AT NAPA, CAL., MARCH 28, 1874.
While discussing the Sabbath question with Eld. Miles Grant at Napa, Cal., we had an intermission of the debate for three days, including Sabbath and Sunday, during which both parties were to hold religious services. In honor, both parties were bound not to attack the other during the intermission. But Sabbath afternoon we saw the following notice in the Napa Reporter:—
“REQUEST.—Elder Grant has been requested by respectable citizens to deliver a lecture, before his departure from our city, on what he knows about Latter-day Prophecies and Visions. Some rich developments may be expected, as the Seventh-day Adventists, his opponents, are said to be adherents to that faith. Mrs. White, from Battle Creek, Michigan, their great medium, is attending the debate, we are told.”
It is evident upon the face of it that either Eld. Grant wrote this notice himself or instructed the one who did write it. It was designed to give the impression that we were spiritualists, and that sister White was a spirit medium. By doing this, Eld. Grant hoped to prejudice the people against us, and close their ears to the arguments in the debate. Evidently he was willing to resort to anything, however dishonorable, to gain his end.
I attended his lecture. It was an exposé of modern spiritualism, showing that it was the work of devils, or demons, exactly what we teach. He stated that many persons on the start were deceived by the demons, because these spirits told them to pray, to believe the Bible, to be holy, &c. Having thus gained their confidence, next the spirits would lead them to doubt this passage, then that; then to reject Christ, and finally to reject the Bible and all. Here he stopped and gave opportunity for questions, several of which were asked. But as no one asked for what he wanted to bring out, he introduced it himself, viz., Mrs. White’s visions. In his sanctimonious statement, he said it was a great cross for him to do it; while the whole affair was evidently of his own getting up for the express purpose of making this attack upon sister White.
He said that Mrs. White was inspired by a demon, the same as all spirit mediums. In proof of this, he said that her visions contradicted facts, contradicted themselves, and contradicted the Bible. He admitted that she was honest, taught good morals, gave good advice, &c. But the object was to divide God’s children, to proselyte, to get up a false sect, as the Sabbath, and thus tear down God’s people. He then read a letter from Eld. J. C. Welcome, of Maine, stating that he (Welcome) knew Eld. White and Ellen Harmon (now Mrs. White) in 1844. That they were both wild fanatics, and that he had frequently seen Ellen in vision. He also read a letter from Israel Dammon, of Maine, stating that he had been acquainted with Eld. White and wife when Ellen had her first visions. At first he had confidence in them, but soon renounced them. Also Eld. Grant stated that sister White saw that Saturday was the Sabbath, and that she introduced it among Adventists, and that she saw the Lord would come in June, 1845, &c.
When he was through, I asked the privilege of making a few remarks. This he denied me. So at the close of his meeting I announced to reply to him the next evening at seven o’clock in Assembly Hall, and that Mrs. White would speak at 7:30 P. M. At the time appointed, several hundreds assembled at the Hall.
REPLY.
I replied briefly that Eld. Grant did not produce the facts which he said the visions contradicted; nor did he show that they contradicted themselves. He attempted to show that they contradicted the Bible; but it was only his view of the Bible which they contradict. As to his witnesses, it is no new thing for the innocent to be condemned by perjured witnesses. Such was the case with Christ, Matt. 26:59–61; with Stephen, Acts 6:12–14, and with Naboth, 1 Kings 21:1–16.
I stated that I was personally acquainted with Eld. Dammon, and knew him to be a notorious fanatic. While preaching, he would halloo, and jump about, even over the desk into the congregation. He was a leader of a band of fanatics in Maine in 1845 who held that the dead had arisen and gone up.
The visions condemned him for this fanaticism, which caused him to turn against them. He was associated with one Simeon Hall, who so disturbed my meetings to that degree that I had to have him arrested to keep the peace.
I am also acquainted with Eld. Welcome. He was with Eld. White in meetings only at one time—and that was for less than a week in 1844, at which time Eld. White baptized him. Was Eld. White such a fanatic as he claims? Then what must he have been to have chosen Eld. White to baptize him! But the fact is that Welcome’s statement is a base falsehood. He never saw sister White have a vision. She was never acquainted with him. And she had no vision till three months after the only meeting at which sister White and Eld. Welcome were both present. While in New Hampshire in 1868, I read a letter from Eld. Welcome acknowledging that he had never seen Mrs. White in vision, but only learned what he reported by hearsay.
From the very nature of the case it might be expected that falsehoods and slanders would be put in circulation against sister White, not only on account of her having visions, but for her plain testimony, and her cutting reproofs of sins. These have followed her more or less for the past twenty-nine years. And in giving a sketch of her life published in 1860, she states that she had nothing whatever to do with fanaticism in Maine, only to labor to correct it, which labor made the unfortunate subjects of it her enemies. The following testimony, signed by twenty-nine persons scattered in different parts of Maine, was given sixteen years ago, and published in 3000 copies of sister White’s life. Nineteen of these persons are now living.
FIRST TESTIMONY.
In view of the slanderous reports circulated by a few individuals against Bro. and Sr. White, we feel called upon to testify that we have been personally acquainted with them and their course since 1844, and therefore know that any statements that would represent them as being in any wise connected with, or countenancing in any degree, those fanatical abominations into which some in Maine and elsewhere were drawn during the years 1844–1846, are wicked and malicious falsehoods. We have never known them to be in the least infected with the spirit or works of fanaticism, but on the contrary, as the untiring and unflinching opposers of the same.
H. N. Smith, George Cobb,
S. B. Belden, Lewis B. Stowell,
Edward Andrews, Laura T. Stowell,
S. L. Andrews, Lewis O. Stowell,
A. S. Andrews, Marion C. Stowell,
Cyprian Stevens, Sarah H. Stowell,
Paulina Stevens, N. N. Lunt,
Stockbridge Howland, S. H. Lunt,
L. M. Howland, R. D. Waterman,
F. H. Howland, D. W. Wright,
R. D. Howland, Thomas Worcester,
M. A. Aderton, Lydia Bolton,
Almira T. Stevens, P. A. Gammon,
F. J. Stevens, Abram Barns,
S. W. Flanders.
Here is another testimony, given sixteen years ago, signed by one Methodist, three first-day Adventists, and four S. D. Adventists:—
SECOND TESTIMONY.
PORTLAND, ME., Aug. 10, 1858.
As unfavorable reports are in circulation against Eld. James White and wife, it is a pleasure to us to testify that we have been personally acquainted with them since 1844. They have had no sympathy with the no-work theory, voluntary humility, spiritualism, second advent and spiritual union not in accordance with the law of marriage, but ever raised their voices against these different forms of fanaticism which prevailed with some in New England.
N. N. Lunt, S. H. Lunt,
Jacob Mills, Thomas Worcester,
Dorcas Wright, Phebe A. Gammon,
Elizabeth Haines, Isaiah Libby.
Numerous other testimonies to the same effect may be seen in the back part of sister White’s book. Not less than ninety names are signed to these, among which are ministers, editors, authors, &c. This book has been widely scattered, and its statements remain uncontradicted.
The statement is not true that sister White did introduce the Sabbath. It is a fact that it was taught and observed by scores of Adventists a year before sister White embraced it, and that she received it from Bible evidence, and not from a vision. She kept it over one year before she saw anything about it in vision. It is also true that sister White has since 1844 opposed the setting of time for the Lord to come; and so have the S. D. Adventists as a people, as all their publications for a quarter of a century will show.
But Eld. Grant has been a leading spirit among the fanatical timeists, setting and preaching time after time as he had to publicly confess in his meeting above-mentioned, held in this city.
As questions were asked to draw out his true position as an Adventist, it was amusing to see him evade the point, and try to keep back his true colors. In answer to the inquiry whether he were an Adventist, he said he was a Christian. This is only a sample of his evasions. He is evidently a policy man. But about his time-setting, indeed, the false and fanatical time-movement of 1854 gave birth to the World’s Crisis, which has lived on time-setting much of the time since, and this, too, under the editorship of Eld. Grant. Please notice another of his fanatical vagaries. For years Eld. Grant’s hobby was that Louis Napoleon was the “personal antichrist, the destined monarch of the world.” But alas, Napoleon must die and die! What fanatical theory he will next hatch up, time will show.
As to dividing and proselyting, if it be true of the visions, it is equally true of Eld. Grant and his work. For years it has been his chief business to write, lecture, and debate, in favor of the doctrine of the sleep of the dead, the destruction of the wicked, and other doctrines. As he preaches these, and members of other churches embrace them, division necessarily follows. It has followed his labors. He makes it his business to proselyte from all other churches. He rejoices in reporting how many out of the Methodist church, and how many from the Baptist, &c., have embraced his views, come out, formed a new church, &c. How unjust, then, for him to raise this cry against sister White when he himself is doing the same thing! But he was not here in his true garb, nor to preach his own doctrine, but to tear us down, if possible. Hence he could use any argument to curry favor with other sects.
I have traveled and preached three years in Maine; have labored where sister White was born and had her first visions; also where Eld. White was raised; and have traveled and lectured where he lectured at the time referred to by Eld. Grant; have conversed with many who knew Bro. and sister White, and were familiar with their early lives and labors, and I found these reports to be malicious slanders without the least foundation in truth.
Furthermore, for most of the time during the twenty-five years past Eld. White has been the editor of our paper, the Advent Review and Herald of the Sabbath, now having a circulation of over thirteen thousand copies; is the editor of our health journal, The Health Reformer, one of the highest-toned health journals in America; is president of our Publishing Association located at Battle Creek, Mich., with a capital of about $100,000, running three steam presses, and employing some fifty hands daily; is one of the directors of the Health Institute, Battle Creek, Mich., which has a capital of some $50,000, and is treating from forty to eighty patients continually. Sister White has stood by her husband and greatly aided him in all this work. Eld. White and wife have lived in Battle Creek for nineteen years. I have lived there, and know that no persons are more highly esteemed there than they are. Any time that sister White will speak, she can have a crowded house, more than any other speaker.
At our annual State camp-meetings where thousands attend, the presence and labors of Bro. and sister White are always earnestly called for, and nowhere more urgently than in Maine. No more devoted, pious, believing people can be found than those who have thus enjoyed the teachings and example of sister White for the last twenty-seven years. If she be a medium of Satan to deceive men and women and lead them away from faith in God, Christ, and the Bible, it is about time such fruits began to appear!! How long does it take those who have begun to sip at the fountain of spiritualism to lose their faith in the Bible and in Christianity? A few weeks, or months, at most. “By their fruits ye shall know them.”
At the close of my remarks the spacious hall was crowded, and sister White followed with a discourse which held the large audience in almost breathless silence for more than one hour. Eld. Grant at the same hour had forty hearers at the Disciple chapel.