January 21, 1856, Battle Creek, Michigan 1EGWLM 471.4
Letter to Identity: Harriet's close relationship to Uriah, her stay in Rochester, and her relationship to Roxana are the chief features of this letter, which help to identify her as Harriet Newall Stevens. Harriet married Uriah Smith the following year, 1857, and had worked in the office of the Review and Herald in Rochester, New York, together with Roxanna Bacheller in 1854 and 1855. See: Obituary: “Harriet Smith,” Review, Mar. 30, 1911, p. 23; obituary: “Roxanna Cornell,” Review, Dec. 10, 1895, p. 799.
Harriet Newall Stevens.1
Previously unpublished. 1EGWLM 471.6
Concern for negative influence of Harriet Stevens on Uriah Smith, Roxanna Bacheller, and Harriet Hastings. 1EGWLM 471.7
Dear Sister Harriet:
I received your letter in due time2 This letter is not in the White Estate archives. In a rare letter to Ellen White from her mother written six weeks earlier, Eunice Gould Harmon tells of her visit with her husband to their son John B. Harmon, living in Bellevue Town, Iowa. Despite John's efforts to make his parents comfortable, Eunice had no wish to stay for long. She declared: “the far West fever will never move me!” Ellen's only other brother, Robert, had died three years earlier on February 5, 1853. See: Eunice Harmon to Ellen White, Dec. 10, [1855]; obituary: “He Sleeps in Jesus,” Review, Apr. 14, 1853, p. 192.
I am now a cripple. Fell four weeks ago today, laming myself. I injured my ankle bone considerably. I am confined to my crutches, but have reason to praise God that my limb is not broken. I know that the care of the angels was over me, or I should now be suffering with a broken limb. 1EGWLM 472.1
There are some things I have seen in vision concerning you [that] I must write. I wrote it to Uriah [Uriah Smith]4 Identity: See note 1 above. Harriet Stevens, 23, from Paris, Maine, had spent up to a year during 1854/1855 assisting at the publishing house in Rochester, New York. During this time a relationship developed between Uriah Smith and Harriet that eventually led to their marriage two years later. Although Harriet was a person of literary talent, the visions of Ellen White pointed to her lack of spiritual “consecration.” Perhaps in part for this reason Harriet did not continue her employment at the Review for more than a year after the press was moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, in November 1855. The contents of the vision recounted in Lt 8 would act as a caution to Uriah as he contemplated a continuing relationship with Harriet.
Dear Brother Uriah, in my last vision I saw particularly the position you occupy, that it was pleasing to God for you to stand as you do in regard to the paper,6 Uriah Smith had been appointed resident editor of the Review just a few weeks earlier, in November 1855, at age 23. See: Joseph Bates, Uriah Smith, “Business Proceedings at the Conference at Battle Creek, Mich.,” Review, Dec. 4, 1855, p. 76.
I saw some things that were a detriment to you or a hindrance. I was shown the communication from Harriet to you was like so many clogs to you. They lack the savor. If Harriet was baptized with the Spirit of God, if she was devoted to Him, then her letters would have a good influence, and if she enjoyed salvation, her letters would breathe it. Harriet has a good talent, but the sweet, humble, devoted, childlike spirit is lacking, and without this all that talent is no more than the talent of any of the world. She lacks consecration. She lacks religion. God will not accept the thoughts of her mind unless they run in the channel of salvation, purified and refined by His Spirit. 1EGWLM 472.4
Unless there is a work done for Harriet, she cannot be saved. A form will be of no advantage to her. If Harriet would spend a portion of her time in praying to God that she spends in writing letters, it would be much more for her benefit and the benefit of others. I saw that multitudinous letters void of the Spirit of God, sent abroad, are a curse to God's cause and a curse [to] the one that writes them. 1EGWLM 472.5
I saw that God had a higher, holier calling and work for you. That you should not spend your precious time in answering such letters. I saw that no station on earth is more important than [the one that] those occupy that are at the head of the paper, and write for it, and expressly who have to do with it. God has placed you there. It is an important work. Brother Uriah, you must be consecrated to God in order to fill your place and exert a holy influence. I knew not at first what to do with the vision but concluded to send it [to] you, Uriah, and also to Harriet. 1EGWLM 472.6
Here is a vision written to Roxana [Roxanna Bacheller].7 Identity: The letter identifies Roxana as coming from Vermont, with “Warren and your mother” and that she had been employed at “the office” at Rochester. The reference is clearly to Roxanna Bacheller, who came from Panton, Vermont, together with her mother and brother in 1852, and worked at the Review and Herald office in Rochester, New York. “Roxana” is also spelled “Roxanna” in other sources, e.g., Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], p. 304 and obituary: “Roxanna Cornell,” Review, Dec. 10, 1895, p. 799.
Dear Sister Roxana. My mind is burdened and distressed. After the vision that was given me for you and Harriet, while you were at Rochester [New York], I begged and prayed that it might have its designed effect upon you and Harriet, but could see no effect of a change. In the last vision given me here at Battle Creek [Michigan], I saw that there had been no change. There had [been] no more consecration or devotion. I saw that the attachment manifested there in Rochester between your mother,8 Cynthia Bacheller, 1814-1883. See: Obituary: “Cynthia Bacheller,” Review, Jan. 15, 1884, p. 47; obituary: “Roxanna Cornell,” Review, Dec. 10, 1895, p. 799.
The work of serving God is an individual work and if this was fully realized by you and others of the young, and you would watch strictly over pride and correct wrongs in each other—pride, self-exaltation and a selfish spirit—God would be better pleased. But now the young have joined hands to take the thoughts and affection from Jesus and center them upon each other. They unite in frivolity and pride, and this misapplied affection is only a curse. It should first center in God, be tried, purified and refined by Him, then it will lead to a holy yearning of soul for others that are on the background, not to bundle together but to bring them near to the cross that the same love that animates and strengthens the heart of one may be felt by all. 1EGWLM 473.3
The inquiry will be made, What shall I do to be saved? It is not sinners alone that should make this inquiry, but if those that have named the name of Christ could get sight of their own hearts, their love to be like the world, the vanity and pride lurking in the heart, the cry would be raised, What shall I do to be saved? 1EGWLM 473.4
I saw that you were not the same Roxana now that you were before Harriet came to Rochester. The hope that you possess is not a saving hope. It cannot save you unless you let it purify you and you act it out. I was pointed back to last summer. I saw that your heart was not in the work of God. It was not knit with God's cause, but only as far as you received full compensation for your labor, so far was your interest. A selfish feeling possessed you to take from the treasury of God, by receiving pay more than your labor deserved, more than you actually earned. You did not realize that you were laboring in the cause of God and you were not willing to make extra efforts unless it was for your own self-advantage. God notices this. Such a principle is not pleasing to Him. Often in the office stories and other things have occupied your time; and your interest that should be fully in the work was not there. 1EGWLM 473.5
The gratitude that should fill your heart for the merciful dealings of God in bringing you from Vermont, and Warren [John Warren Bacheller] and your mother, all of you, being together and the way being opened before you to obtain a living, and the good health He has blessed you all with, has not called forth from you humility and gratitude. I saw that if God removed these blessings from you now, trials will arise that you have not anticipated that will bring anguish of soul [to] all. All of you, each one of you, have possessed selfishness and feelings of independence that did not become you. 1EGWLM 474.1
The union between you and Harriet was all wrong. Her influence has had a tendency to lead your mind directly from God, from your eternal interest. Your mind has been upon story books too much, and your reading these books together fills the mind with things not pertaining to your eternal interest. [In] vain reading and shutting the Spirit of God from you, you have lost your humility and have thought more of your appearance. Oh, you had better been studying your own hearts, how you should show yourselves approved unto God. 1EGWLM 474.2
Harriet, I have now written both visions, and I would ask you if you have not been reproved for these very things before in vision, and how could you set the example that you did to Roxana and read with her. Roxana is not the girl she was. Vanity fills her heart, and she has no appearance of a Christian about her. 1EGWLM 474.3
Last Sabbath she made a good move, came forward to the anxious seat for prayers. May the Lord have mercy upon the fatherless and widow is my earnest prayer. 1EGWLM 474.4
Sister Harriet, do you remember the vision about Brother Hastings’ [Leonard Hastings] family and the influence of your letters upon them, and your influence upon Arabella [Harriet Arabella Hastings]?9 Identity: The close association in this passage between Arabella and the Hastings family and the information regarding Arabella's early death clearly identify her as Arabella Hastings, who died at age 21 in 1854 and who was the oldest daughter of Leonard and Elmira Hastings. Ellen White in her correspondence sometimes referred to her as “Arabella” and sometimes as “Harriet” (cf. Lt 5, 1849 [Apr. 21], and Lt 10, 1850 [Mar. 18], with Lt 7, 1851 [July 27], and Lt 3, 1851 [Aug. 11]). In Arabella's 1854 obituary her name is given as “Harriet A. Hastings.” Presumably the middle initial stands for “Arabella.” See: Obituary: “Harriet A. Hastings,” Review, Sept. 5, 1854, p. 31. Arabella Hastings died on August 1, 1854, while on an extended visit to Harriet Stevens in Paris, Maine. See: Obituary: “Harriet A. Hastings,” Review, Sept. 5, 1854, p. 31.
Picture: Letter to Ellen White from her mother, Eunice Harmon, December 10, 1855 1EGWLM 476
Picture: 1EGWLM 477
