Follow-up to Ellen Harmon's December 20, 1845, letter to Enoch Jacobs published in the Day-Star. This letter contains descriptions of her mid-February 1845 “Bridegroom” and October 1845 “time of trouble” visions. What follows is an unmodified transcription of the published text.1EGWLM 96.3

Letter from Sister Harmon.

Falmouth, Mass., Feb. 15, 1846.

Bro. Jacobs:—

My vision which you published in the Day-Star²

Jan. 24, 1846, issue. See Lt 1, 1845 (Dec. 20).

was written under a deep sense of duty, to you, not expecting you would publish it. Had I for once thought it was to be spread before the many readers of your paper, I should have been more particular and stated some things which I left out. As the readers of the Day-Star have seen a part of what God has revealed to me, and as the part which I have not written is of vast importance to the Saints; I humbly request you to publish this also in your paper. God showed me the following, one year ago this month:—I saw a throne, and on it sat the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.^{3
This is Ellen Harmon's first known account of her second major vision, sometimes referred to as her “Bridegroom” vision. According to her July 13, 1847, letter to Joseph Bates, it was received in Exeter, Maine, during her first trip to eastern Maine in mid-February 1845.
See: Ellen G. White, Lt 3, 1847 (July 13).} I gazed on Jesus’ countenance and admired his lovely person. The Fathers person I could not behold for a cloud of glorious light covered him. I asked Jesus if his Father had a form like himself; He said he had, but I could not behold it; for, said he, if you should for once see the glory of his person, you would cease to exist.^{4
The vision's confirmation of the personality of God the Father and God the Son was in direct opposition to spiritualizing views gaining adherents among a small faction of post-1844 Millerites, eventually including Enoch Jacobs.
See: Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], pp. 72-74. Enoch Jacobs's transition to Shakerism and related spiritualized views is documented by Merlin Burt in “Sabbatarian Adventism From 1844 to 1849,” pp. 231-242.} Before the throne was the Advent people, the Church, and the world.^{5
I.e., the Millerites, the professed Christian churches, and unbelievers. The “praying company” next brought to view appears to represent those among them who are earnestly seeking for truth.} I saw a company bowed down before the throne, deeply interested while most of them stood up disinterested and careless. Those who were bowed before the throne would offer up their prayers and look to Jesus, then he would look to his Father and appeared to be pleading with him. Then a light came from the Father to his Son and from him to the praying company. Then I saw an exceeding bright light^{6
In Ellen White's first vision a “bright light” illumines the pathway of the Advent people, which an angel identified as the “Midnight Cry.” See Lt 1, 1845 (Dec. 20), note 6. This affirmation of the “Midnight Cry,” the proclamation during the summer and autumn of 1844 pointing to October 22, 1844, as the time of the Second Advent, was at odds with what was rapidly becoming the majority opinion in post-Disappointment Adventism, viz., that the October date was a mistaken calculation of no particular prophetic significance.} come from the Father to the Son and from the Son it waved over the people before the throne. But few would receive this great light. Many came out from under it and immediately resisted it. Others were careless and did not cherish the light and it moved off from them. Some cherished it and went and bowed down before the throne with the little praying company. This company all received the light, and rejoiced in it as their countenances shone with its glory. Then I saw the Father rise from the throne and in a flaming chariot go into the Holy of Holies within the vail, and did sit. There I saw thrones which I had not seen before. Then Jesus rose up from the throne, and most of those who were bowed down rose up with him. And I did not see one ray of light pass from Jesus to the careless multitude after he rose up, and they were left in perfect darkness.^{7
Cf. the description in Ellen White's first vision of those on the path who “rashly denied the light behind them,” resulting in its going out and leaving their feet “in perfect darkness” (Lt 1, 1845 [Dec. 20]).
This passage has been cited in partial support of the conclusion that this vision teaches the radical idea that the entire world, with the exception of the small Millerite group, was finally rejected by God. Note, however, the repeated qualifier made in this vision that it is those who are “careless,” who “resisted” and “did not cherish” light from God, who are left in darkness, not a blanket rejection of all non-Millerites. This “rejection” principle, which is found also in the first vision (Lt 1, 1845) but especially in this vision, undercuts the conclusion that these visions advocate the radical “shut door” standpoint (see Lt 1, 1845 [Dec. 20], note 7).} Those who rose up when Jesus did, kept their eyes fixed on him as he left the throne, and led them out a little way, then he raised his right arm and we heard his lovely voice saying, wait ye, I am going to my Father to receive the Kingdom. Keep your garments spotless and in a little while I will return from the wedding, and receive you to myself. And I saw a cloudy chariot with wheels like flaming fire. Angels were all about the chariot as it came where Jesus was; he stepped into it and was borne to the Holiest where the Father sat. Then I beheld Jesus as he was before the Father a great High Priest.^{8
On two points in particular this passage presents an understanding of the wedding parable of Matthew 25 quite at odds with the established Millerite interpretation:
The coming of the Bridegroom to the marriage did not signify Christ's coming in glory to the earth to receive His waiting saints (the bride) at the close of the 2300 years, as the Millerites taught. Instead it signified the coming of Christ at that time to the Father in the Holy of Holies of the heavenly sanctuary, preparatory to the subsequent marriage.
The “marriage” of the parable indicated not Christ's reception of His church at the Second Coming but rather Christ's reception of “the Kingdom” from His Father prior to the Second Coming. Thus the “marriage” precedes the Second Coming. Biblical support for this sequence of events is alluded to in the words “in a little while I will return from the wedding, and receive you to myself,” a clear reference to the wedding parable of Luke 12, in which Christ's followers are admonished to be “like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding.”
The interpretation of the Matthew 25 marriage parable found in this vision represents one of several competing explanations for the Disappointment circulating among Adventists in the months following October 1844. It was first proposed in print in an extensive article by Apollos Hale and Joseph Turner a few weeks prior to the vision, in January 1845. This circumstance is probably what prompted Joseph Bates, two years later, to inquire whether Ellen Harmon had had “light on the Bridegroom's coming before” she saw it in vision. See notes on Lt 3, 1847 (July 13).
See: A. Hale and J. Turner, “Has Not the Savior Come as the Bridegroom?” Advent Mirror, January 1845. For an indication of the range of ideas circulating by February 1845 regarding what really happened on October 22, 1844, see I. E. Jones to William Miller, Feb. 15, 1845, in The Millerites and Early Adventists, sec. 5, reel 11.}^,^{9
The theologically significant statement that Jesus was a “great High Priest” was counter to mainline “shut door” thought that emerged by the summer of 1845 and was promoted by Joseph Turner and Samuel Snow. They argued that Jesus reigned as king and was no longer a priest. See introductory article “The ‘Shut Door’ and Ellen White's Visions.”
Although not explicitly stated, there is a strong suggestion here of a two-apartment heavenly sanctuary with Jesus transiting from the holy place to the Holy of Holies in 1844, a theme later to become prominent in Seventh-day Adventist theology. Unlike the theme of the coming of the Bridegroom mentioned earlier, the theme of Jesus coming to the Holy of Holies in 1844 is not known to have appeared in print prior to this vision (mid-February 1845). Probably not until the following month, March 1845, did O.R.L. Crosier and F. B. Hahn publish a similar view. There is some evidence, however, that similar ideas had oral circulation in certain places. Thus I. E. Jones, in a letter to William Miller on February 15, 1845, speaks of some persons in the Boston area who believed that on “the tenth of the 7th month … the Saviour then came out of the Holie [sic] of Holies … others, that he never entered the Holie of Holies till then” (emphasis in original).
See: O.R.L. Crosier and F. B. Hahn, reprint of early 1845 Day-Dawn issue published on last page of Ontario Messenger, Mar. 26, 1845; I. E. Jones to William Miller, Feb. 15, 1845, in The Millerites and Early Adventists.} On the hem of his garment was a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate. Then Jesus shewed me the difference between faith and feeling. And I saw those who rose up with Jesus send up their faith to Jesus in the Holiest, and praying, Father give us thy spirit. Then Jesus would breathe on them the Holy Ghost. In the breath was light, power and much love, joy and peace. Then I turned to look at the company who were still bowed before the throne. They did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan appeared to be by the throne trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne and pray, My Father give us thy spirit. Then Satan would breathe on them an unholy influence. In it there was light and much power, but no sweet love, joy and peace. Satan's object was to keep them deceived and to draw back and deceive God's children.^{10
The vision's depiction of Satan's efforts to keep this group deceived implies that the door of probation was still open for believers who had not by faith followed Jesus into the Holy of Holies. It would take more time for the full ramifications of this view to be understood. In a note to “Dear Brethren and Sisters,” Ellen White later responded to misrepresentations of her comments about Satan's appearing before God's throne, and her descriptions of the movements of God the Father.
See: E. G. White, “Dear Brethren and Sisters,” Review, Apr. 14, 1853, p. 192. Merlin D. Burt, “Ellen White and the Shut Door,” in “Ellen White and Current Issues” Symposium, vol. 1, pp. 82, 83.} I saw one after another leave the company who were praying to Jesus in the Holiest, go and join those before the throne and they at once received the unholy influence of Satan.1EGWLM 96.4

About four months since, I had a vision of events, all in the future.¹¹

There are good reasons to believe that this vision was given Ellen Harmon in October 1845 while on a visit to Carver, Massachusetts. According to James White, she received a vision at Carver, with similar content, in “the 7th month, 1845” of the Hebrew calendar, i.e., about October 1845. This harmonizes well with Ellen Harmon's statement that the vision was received “about four months since” the date of her letter, i.e., about mid-October 1845.

James White recalls in A Word to the “Little Flock” that both he and Ellen Harmon were surprised at the main thrust of this vision, viz., “that the saints must pass through the ‘time of Jacob's trouble,’” still future but preceding the Second Advent. James White credits this vision with disabusing him of his conviction that Christ would be coming “a few days” later, “at the 7th month, 1845.” While most Millerite expositors in 1843-1844 agreed that the “time of trouble” lay in the future, they believed that it would take place after the Advent, not before. The next eschatological event was the Second Advent, or, as Apollos Hale put it in 1843, “We have nothing to look for but the appearing of our Lord.” Furthermore, only the wicked would have to suffer the “time of trouble,” since the saints had already been delivered.

See: James White, ed., A Word to the “Little Flock,” p. 22. For examples of Millerite expositors prior to 1844 who placed “the time of trouble” after the Second Coming, see A. Hale, Herald of the Bridegroom!, pp. 21, 29, 33; E. Jacobs, “Seventh Seal,” Midnight Cry, Oct. 26, 1843, p. 81.

And I saw the time of trouble,^{12
See: EGWEnc, s.v. “Time of Trouble.”} such as never was,—Jesus told me it was the time of Jacob's trouble, and that we should be delivered out of it by the voice of God. Just before we entered it, we all received the seal of the living God.^{13
The predictions made in this passage seem to go counter to a radical shut-door position. First, the assertion that the Second Advent should not be expected momentarily because it would be preceded by “the time of Jacob's trouble.” Second, it is significant that the sealing of the saints is also described as a future event. This would directly contradict the most radical shut-door doctrine, i.e., that since October 22, 1844, the saints were permanently sealed and safe.
See: Rolf J. Poehler, “‘… and the Door Was Shut,’” pp. 113, 134; EGWEnc, s.v. “Seal of God.”} Then I saw the four Angels cease to hold the four winds. And I saw famine, pestilence and sword, nation rose against nation, and the whole world was in confusion. Then we cried to God for deliverance day and night till we began to hear the bells on Jesus’ garment. And I saw Jesus rise up in the Holiest, and as he came out we heard the tinkling of bells, and knew our High Priest was coming out. Then we heard the voice of God which shook the heavens and earth, and gave the 144,000 the day and hour of Jesus’ coming.^{14
See: Lt 1, 1845 (Dec. 20), note 8.} Then the saints were free, united and full of the glory of God, for he had turned their captivity. And I saw a flaming cloud come where Jesus stood and he laid off his priestly garment and put on his kingly robe, took his place on the cloud which carried him to the east where it first appeared to the saints on earth, a small black cloud, which was the sign of the Son of Man. While the cloud was passing from the Holiest to the east which took a number of days, the Synagogue of Satan worshiped at the saints [sic] feet.^{15
See: Lt 1, 1845 (Dec. 20), note 13.}1EGWLM 99.1

Ellen G. Harmon.

Lt 1, 1845

Ms 1, 1846