6. James White

Neither horse, saddle, bridle, nor moneyPPP 36.1

In October, 1842, an Advent camp-meeting was held in Exeter, Me., which I attended. The meeting was large, tents numerous, preaching clear and powerful, and the singing of Second-Advent melodies possessed a power such as I had never before witnessed in sacred songs. My Second-Advent experience was greatly deepened at this meeting, and at its close I felt that I must immediately go out into the great harvest-field, and do what I could in sounding the warning. I therefore prepared three lectures, one to remove such objections as the time of the advent not to be known, and the temporal millennium, one on the signs of the times, and one on the prophecy of Daniel.PPP 36.2

I had neither horse, saddle, bridle, nor money, yet felt that I must go. I had used my past winter’s earnings in necessary clothing, in attending Second-Advent meetings, and in the purchase of books and the chart. But my father offered me the use of a horse for the winter, and Elder Polley gave me a saddle with both pads torn off, and several pieces of an old bridle. I gladly accepted these, and cheerfully placed the saddle on a beech log and nailed on the pads, fastened the pieces of the bridle together with malleable nails, folded my chart, with a few pamphlets on the subject of the advent, over my breast, snugly buttoned up in my coat, and left my father’s house [in Palmyra, Maine] on horseback. — White, Life Incidents, pp. 72, 73.PPP 36.3

One thousand souls convertedPPP 37.1

On a January morning, in 1843, James White mounted his horse and rode away on a preaching tour among total strangers, his light clothing giving him scant protection from the cold. . . .PPP 37.2

On April 2 [1843] James headed for home. The snow on the road was still very deep. Often he had to dismount and plunge into the drifts to relieve the horse as it struggled through the piled-up snow.PPP 37.3

On the fifth of April, James White rode his poor broken-down horse into the yard of his home in Palmyra. He had been gone for four [three] months. It was later reported at the next [Christian Connection] church conference that during those four [three] months a thousand souls had joined the church as a result of the work of 22-year-old James White!PPP 37.4

A few days after his arrival in Palmyra, James White was ordained as a minister of the Christian [Connection] Church.—Virgil Robinson, James White, 1976, pp. 23, 26.PPP 37.5