This manuscript is published in entirety in S. T. Belden, G. W. Amadon, and William Hall, To Brother J. N. Andrews and Sister H. N. Smith (PH016), pp. 31, 32.1EGWLM 284.3

Counsel and reproof for the families of Edward Andrews and Cyprian Stevens.1EGWLM 284.4

I was shown that there had been but little carefulness to follow the pattern. I was shown that there was a link between Brethren Andrews’ and Stevens’ families [Edward Andrews and Cyprian Stevens]²

Identity: The mention of the unhealthy “link” between the Andrews and Stevens families letter and their doubts about the visions, finds an echo in a later letter in which Ellen White writes of the Andrews and Stevens families of Paris who “strengthened each other's hands in sympathizing and linking together,” and who “despised the visions.” The reference must be to the families of Edward Andrews and Cyprian Stevens, who lived in Paris, Maine, until the mid-1850s.

See: Ellen G. White, Lt 8, 1860 (June 11).

that would have to be broken. This link did not tend to make them strengthen each other in the most holy faith, or to cause one another to grow in grace, but it did tend, if they were wrong, to make them build one another up in that wrong and hide each other's faults that needed to be brought out and got rid of in order to have the approbation of God and His free, strengthening Spirit among them. This attachment that bound one to the other was not formed because each family was so holy and reflected the image of Jesus so fully.^{3
Further details regarding the nature of the “link” between the two families are given by Ellen White in later documents. During the period October 1850 to June 1851 when the Whites lived in Paris, Ellen had conveyed certain reproofs for members of the families, given in vision. James had reiterated and upheld the reproofs. The two families did not react positively, but reinforced each other's resentment. Nine years later, in 1860, their negative sentiments were unchanged. In the words of Ellen White: “When in Paris you strengthened each other's hands in sympathizing and linking together. … There was not deep searching of heart to confess wrongs and make thorough work by the two families. The same feelings exist with them now. They have despised reproof, despised the visions.” By the early 1860s, however, several members of the two families showed a change of heart. Letters of apology and confession are on file, including one from Pauline Stevens, who writes, “I can now see that our folks and Sr. Andrews did very wrong in talking over our grievances together.”
See: Ellen G. White, Lt 8, 1860 (June 11); P. R. Stevens to Ellen G. White, Jan. 27, 1862; Ron Graybill, “The Family Man,” in Harry Leonard, ed., J. N. Andrews: The Man and the Mission, pp. 16-18.}1EGWLM 284.5

If you stood more separate and had an eye single to the glory of God, you would be much stronger and God would be honored much more. I saw that you did not love Jesus as well as you loved each other, and you were more zealous to please each other than you were to please Jesus who died for you. I saw that if you studied more daily to glorify God and to have the abiding witness that your ways please Him, you would be strong and valiant in the truth and would carry a holy influence with you.1EGWLM 285.1

I saw that you have a knowledge of the truth and a form of godliness, but the power has been lacking. You have not had faith in God as you should have had, and when you have obtained the victory it has lasted you but a short time. I saw that we must have victory every day and come up steadily. I saw that our keeping house has discovered selfishness in your families,⁴

When Ellen and James White first went to Paris, Maine, they boarded with the Edward Andrews family, but after some time they “undertook to keep house to prevent utter starvation” as James expressed it. Apparently the Andrews and Stevens families were less than helpful in assisting the Whites in setting up their own household. Years later Pauline Stevens, daughter of Cyprian Stevens, expressed her regrets to Ellen White: “I should have been willing to let you have things to have assisted you in keeping house such as armchairs, looking glass …”

See: James White to E. P. Butler, Dec. 12, 1861; P. R. Stevens to Ellen G. White, Jan. 27, 1862.

and I saw that there has not been true faith in the visions—that some have doubted them and still have not true faith in them and if they remained where they were they would doubt them still more. I was shown the danger of doubting the visions. Had you believed the visions in time back, you would not have been left to go into the error you did.^{5
Ellen White writes elsewhere of the Andrews and Stevens families that “for years … [they had been] held in error, fanaticism and darkness.” While few details are known, Ellen White later recalled that Edward Andrews was at one time deeply involved in “no-work” fanaticism. “There is nothing that would have brought Brother Andrews out of his idea that they must not work, and that they would be supported by the outside people.” Andrews's sister-in-law, Persis Sibley Andrews Black, made a similar observation in a diary entry in March 1846 concerning “brother Edward [Andrews], who—poor deluded man—with his family still believe in the speedy coming of Christ … [and] have done no labor for more than two years and have lived in constant expectation that every day the world wo'd be consumed by fire.”
Marion Crawford (née Stowell), a member of the band of Sabbathkeepers in Paris in the 1840s recalled, in a letter written in 1908 to W. C. White, that Cyprian Stevens for a time practiced religious creeping. “One time at South Paris,” she wrote, “Cyprian Stevens got down in front of the stage coach full of passengers. It frightened the horses so it nearly upset the coach. The driver handed the lines to a man that sat beside him, jumped down with his whip, and gave Bro. Stevens the full benefit of it. One eye was badly swollen and his whole face was bruised as well as his body.”
See: Ellen G. White, Lt 8, 1860 (June 11); Ms 131a, 1906; Diary of Persis Sibley Andrews Black, as in Ron Graybill, “The Family Man,” p. 17; M. S. Crawford, to W. C. White, c. Oct. 9, 1908, “Extracts From Letter of M. S. Crawford to W. C. White.”} I saw that we must have vital godliness and heart holiness if we would be covered with the covering of Almighty God.1EGWLM 285.2

Lt 10, 1851

Ms 1, 1851