Portions of this manuscript are published in S. T. Belden, G. W. Amadon, and William Hall, To Brother J. N. Andrews and Sister H. N. Smith (PH016), pp. 33-35; Arthur L. White, Messenger to the Remnant, p. 40.

Call for James White to cut down on his overwork, which was endangering his life.1EGWLM 454.3

I saw while at Paris [Maine]²

The vision can be dated to sometime between August 14 and August 23, 1855, when the Whites visited Paris, Maine, in the course of their 11-week tour to the East. A careful reading of James White's letter headed “Private” suggests that the vision took place on August 22, 1855.

See: Ellen G. White, Lt 2, 1855 (Aug.); James White to Abram A. Dodge, Aug. 20, 1855; idem, to “Dear Brother,” Aug. 24, 1855; idem, to “Dear Brother” (“Private”), [c. Aug. 24,] 1855.

that James's [James Springer White] health has been in a critical situation; that his anxiety of mind has been too much for him. When the present truth was first published, he had to put forth double energies and labor with but little encouragement, and from the first he has taken burdens upon him that were too much for his strength. The burdens were not equally borne. While he took much responsibility, some were not willing to take any, and those who shunned taking responsibilities and burdens did not realize his burdens and were not as interested in the cause as they should have been. There was a lack. James felt it and laid his shoulder under burdens that were too heavy.1EGWLM 454.4

He has thought he could deny himself of many things that were actually necessary to health and God would sustain him; that he could labor days without any rest. The labor has not only been days but nights too.³

James White's distress had come to a head some months earlier. In the February 20, 1855, issue of the Review he expressed himself forcefully: “The care of a large family, and of the Review, Instructor, and Tracts, has fallen principally on us. In this time we have traveled and labored in the churches about one third of the time. This amount of care and labor, together with protracted sickness and deaths in our family, has brought us very near the grave. … Our usual hours of confinement to our business in past time have been from 14 to 18 out of the 24.”

See: “The Office,” Review, Feb. 20, 1855, p. 182.

He has looked upon things in their wrong light; he has violated the laws of nature, and his health has suffered in consequence.1EGWLM 454.5

I saw by these extra efforts more souls would be saved, but it is these efforts that have undermined the constitution and taken away his strength. Regardless of his own interest and health, he has labored with interest for others and it has not been appreciated. His reward from many has been dissatisfaction, evil surmising, and jealousy. Those who should have helped him bear the burdens were a burden themselves by their unwise course. By care and incessant labor and overwhelming anxiety has the work gone on until now the present truth is clear, its evidence by the candid undoubted, and it is easy work now to carry on the paper to what it was a few years ago. The truth is now made so plain that all can see it and embrace it if they will, but it needed much labor to get it out clear as it is, and such hard labor will never have to be performed again to make the truth clear.⁴

For more detail on the difficulties and challenges faced by James White in establishing his publishing work, see biographies by Gerald Wheeler and Virgil Robinson. Gerald Wheeler, James White; Virgil Robinson, James White.

1EGWLM 455.1

I was pointed back to Paris⁵

Which of James White's many journeys is being described in this paragraph and the next? We are told that it was undertaken while the Whites were living in Paris (October 1850—June 1851), that James made sure that Andrews and Rhodes on their trip to Vermont traveled comfortably while he traveled uncomfortably, exposed to the cold, with resulting long-term consequences to his health. This sounds very much like James and Ellen's journey to New Hampshire and Vermont in January 1851, described by Ellen at some length in her autobiographical account Spiritual Gifts. The notes that follow confirm that this is the case.

See: Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], pp. 144-147.

when we were there and Brethren Andrews [John Nevins Andrews] and Rhodes [Samuel W. Rhodes]^{6
Identity: Notices in the Review make clear that “Brethren Andrews and Rhodes” were traveling preachers who had traveled together in eastern Maine during December 1850 and in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Canada East in January 1851. The only traveling preachers in that period with those surnames were John Nevins Andrews and Samuel W. Rhodes.
See: [Notice] Review, January 1851, p. 31; J. N. Andrews, “Conference at Melbourne, C. E.,” Review, January 1851, p. 38; search terms “Andrews” and “Rhodes” in Words of the Pioneers.} went to Vermont. James was all awake to the interest of the cause and the interest of Brethren Andrews and Rhodes that they should go comfortable, and neglected his own health.^{7
According to the Spiritual Gifts account and notices in the Review, the Whites lent their horse to Rhodes and Andrews in early January 1851 so that they could travel independently and in relative comfort on their preaching itinerary to Vermont and Canada East. This left the Whites without personal transport for their journey to New Hampshire and Vermont, also in January, and having to arrange transportation on an ad hoc basis as they went along. One of the low points of their trip was the three-day sleigh journey to Waterbury, Vermont. “There were three of us in an open sleigh, without a buffalo skin or even a horse-blanket to protect us from the cold.”
See: Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], p. 145.} He had been closely confined through the winter, his health and strength run down by lack of nourishing food^{8
James White later recalled that while boarding with the Andrews family in Paris, during the winter of 1850-1851, “I seldom ate anything beside potatoes and salt with a few spoonfuls of milk on them and corn bread.”
See: James White to E. P. Butler, Dec. 12, 1861.} and by constant labor. [He] required the greatest care and [needed] to journey comfortably, but he neglected his own health and trusted to get along any way and journeyed most uncomfortably and inconveniently, thinking if he sacrificed for others, God would take care of his health. He disregarded the laws of health, did not study his ease or comfort and was exposed to colds to save expense and help others; and the effects of colds taken upon that journey, and then the trials connected with the journey, have never yet been got rid of. The constitution became run down, disease fastened itself upon the lungs and its effects are still visible.1EGWLM 455.2

After all this evidence that his brethren had of his interest in the cause, many looked over it all and the very ones he had helped were jealous and fault-finding; and in Brother Butler's [Ezra Pitt Butler]⁹

Identity: Until February 1853 the only “Butler” mentioned in the Review was Ezra P. Butler, of Waterbury, Vermont. That Ellen White is referring to E. P. Butler is confirmed by the fact that the Whites visited Waterbury in the course of the January 1851 journey here described.

See: Search term “Butler” in Words of the Pioneers.

house where he labored under many difficulties and had to wade through evil feelings of jealousy and unbelief, it cost him much. He labored far beyond his strength, and through other's wrong courses, he was left alone with but little, if any, sympathy. His friends were his enemies. Although they did not all realize it, it was so.^{10
This is a comment on the Whites’ visit to Waterbury (E. P. Butler residence), scheduled for January 18, 19, 1851. The parallel account in Spiritual Gifts throws further light on the “jealousy” and “fault-finding” found there. “Satan had tempted some of the brethren that we had too good a horse” and “jealousy was aroused that Bro. White was making money.” “Our spirits were crushed,” writes Ellen, “to receive such treatment from our brethren.”
See: Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], pp. 145, 146.}1EGWLM 456.1

These trials have done their work; but although all even now do not realize or understand the sufferings of mind caused by those trials, God has noticed them. Not one sorrowful pang will be passed by unnoticed. Disease has been making progress upon him,¹¹

During the winter of 1854-1855 Ellen White expressed the fear that James was contracting tuberculosis, the same disease that had recently taken the lives of his brother Nathaniel and sister Anna. Although James gained some relief during the spring of 1855, his condition again worsened, and Ellen later confessed that for months prior to their move to Battle Creek in November 1855 she “greatly feared” that her children might be left “without a father's care.”

See: Ibid., pp. 194-198; idem, “Communication From Sister White,” Review, Jan. 10, 1856, p. 118.

but God has answered prayer in his behalf and done that for him that no medicine could do. I saw the efforts made for the recovery of health were right, but God's power above all,^{12
The Whites clearly did not agree with members such as L. V. Masten, who rejected any medical intervention at all—even natural remedies—and wrote, “Let such as have no faith use them!” James White, feeling better for a time in the spring of 1855, attributed some of his improvement to various remedies. “Faith in God, cold water compresses, and bathing, Hough's syrups, rest, or, rather, usual hours of labor, walking, running, horse-back riding etc., are slowly raising me. I feel confident that God approves a portion at least of these remedies.”
See: James White to Abram A. Dodge, Mar. 11, 1855; L. V. Masten, “Faith,” Review, Oct. 4, 1853, p. 101.} said the angel. I saw that medicine could not cure him. God's power had sustained him and by still looking to the stronghold, he would obtain strength. I saw that he must lay aside his anxiety and care, for God is willing he should be relieved from such wearing labor and have rest in a measure^{13
With the move a few months later of the publishing house from Rochester, New York, to Battle Creek, Michigan, James White obtained some measure of relief. While White remained overall manager of the publishing work, Uriah Smith was appointed resident editor, and financial responsibility was vested in a publishing committee rather than being the personal responsibility of James White as before. In addition, with the move to Battle Creek, the Whites no longer had to run a lodging house for Review workers, as they had done in Rochester. Ellen White sums up the positive changes in Spiritual Gifts: “From the time we moved to Battle Creek, the Lord began to turn our captivity.”
See: Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], p. 203. For surveys of improvements for the Whites with the move to Battle Creek, see Arthur L. White, Ellen G. White: The Early Years, pp. 320, 321; Gerald Wheeler, James White, pp. 86, 87.} and attend more to the cultivation of the minds of our children; try to fit them for heaven, explain in an easy way to them, and in an understanding manner, the way of salvation.1EGWLM 456.2

I saw also that more time should be spent in devotion and care for our own souls; that our duty would not be as we travel to enter into individual trials and the burdens would not be laid upon us as they have been; that such mental trials and sufferings endured for others’ wrongs would be too much for his now broken-down health. God is lifting these burdens from us and James has not understood it; has feared he was displeasing God and that was why he did not feel the burdens, but in mercy God has been relieving from these burdens. He could now take all the anxiety and care upon him, labor with all his might and last a short time and go down to the grave; or he can now be relieved while he has some strength left, improve and last longer and his voice can be heard and he can have influence yet and do good.1EGWLM 457.1

Lt 1, 1855

Lt 2, 1855