Chapter Six—A Bridge of Ice

Brother and Sister White kept going farther and farther West to teach the truth. Brother Bates went before them, and so did Brother Rhodes, Brother Loughborough, and Brother Andrews. If you will get a map of the United States, and look at the upper right-hand corner, you can see where they started and where they went. First they were in Maine and Massachusetts. Then they went to New Hampshire and Vermont, and thence to New York and up into Canada. Before very long they were in Ohio and Michigan. Then they went on to Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. Everywhere they went they carried the message of the Sabbath and of the coming of the Lord. And many took hold of the faith.SWhite 51.1

In 1855, just ten years after their work had started, they moved the office of the church to Battle Creek, Michigan. The brethren there built a little wooden house for the printing office, and in it the Review and Herald and the Youth’s Instructor and many tracts and books were printed. The publishing work grew and grew and grew; and they built bigger and bigger. They built the great Tabernacle for a church. They built the sanitarium. They built the college. For nearly fifty years Battle Creek was the center of the work.SWhite 51.2

Meanwhile the message of Jesus’ coming was going farther and farther. Some of the brethren from Maine and Vermont moved to Iowa, across the great Mississippi River. A company of them settled at Waukon, in northeastern Iowa. Edward Andrews, the father of John N. Andrews, was one of these, and Cyprian Stevens, both from Maine. Then Ezra P. Butler, from Vermont, moved there. His son, George I. Butler, afterward became president of the General Conference.SWhite 52.1

This little company at Waukon included some very fine people, like the ones named above. But their land was so rich that, if they would work hard—and they all did—it would make them rich too. So they fell to money-making. Then some of them forgot to keep the edges of the Sabbath holy, because their work kept them too busy. Then they fell to finding fault with one another and with Brother and Sister White, and the truth began to slip away from them. They began to lose the love of Jesus, and to be like the world.SWhite 52.2

About this time, 1856, John N. Andrews, who had come to be a great preacher and writer, fell sick. He was so sick he feared he would die if he did not rest. So he left the work, and went out to his father’s at Waukon, and started clerking in his uncle’s store. Then pretty soon John N. Loughborough became discouraged, because his wife was discouraged, and she was discouraged because they could not make enough money. So Brother and Sister Loughborough followed Brother Andrews to Waukon, and he went to work as a carpenter. All this was very bad for the work, because Brother and Sister White depended a good deal on Brother Andrews and Brother Loughborough.SWhite 52.3

Things at Waukon were not going right. Winter came. Brother and Sister White went out to the State of Illinois, to visit some of the brethren who had moved there. And while they were at Round Grove, the home of Josiah Hart and Elon Everts, Sister White was shown by the Lord the bad state of things at Waukon. Brother Hart and Brother Everts had been preachers too, but they had come West with many others, and now they were farming. However, they and other brethren there were encouraged by Brother and Sister White’s visit, and they were ready to go into the work again.SWhite 53.1

Sister White said they should all go up to Waukon and help the brethren there. Waukon was two hundred miles away, on the other side of the great Mississippi River. The only way they could travel was by team and wagon or sleigh, for there was no railway out there. It being winter, they thought they would go in a sleigh. There was plenty of snow on the ground to make good sleighing. Brother Hart and Brother Everts had the sleigh and the team, and they said they would go along with Brother and Sister White.SWhite 53.2

But the night before they were to start, it began to rain. It rained and it rained all next day, and the snow began to disappear.SWhite 54.1

“Sister White, what about Waukon?” asked Josiah Hart.SWhite 54.2

She said firmly, “We shall go.”SWhite 54.3

“Yes,” he said, “if the Lord works a miracle.”SWhite 54.4

That night Sister White rose many times from her bed and went to the window to see if the weather had changed. She prayed that if the Lord wanted them to go, He would give them a sign by changing the rain to snow. And the Lord gave the sign. About daylight it grew colder and began to snow. It snowed nearly all day, so there was good sleighing again.SWhite 54.5

About five o’clock in the afternoon they began their journey in the sleigh, behind a brisk team of horses. The snow continued as they drove north to Green Vale. There they stopped to have some meetings with the believers at that place. And it kept on snowing. It snowed for days, and the drifts grew larger. They could not move for a week.SWhite 54.6

“Sister White,” asked Elon Everts, “what about Waukon?”SWhite 54.7

“We shall go,” she said.SWhite 54.8

Finally they started once more. But now the weather changed again, and it began to rain. They came near to the Mississippi. There was no bridge across the great river then, but it had frozen over during the cold weather, and they thought they could cross on the ice. The rain, however, was melting the snow and making the ice mushy. People told them several teams had tried to cross, and had broken through, the drivers barely escaping with their lives. Now the river lay before them. It was still frozen, but on top of the spongy ice lay nearly a foot of water from melted snow.SWhite 54.9

Brother Hart drew up his horses at the brink. Rising in the sleigh, he pointed his whip hand to the broad river, and said, “Is it Iowa? or back to Illinois? We have come to the Red Sea. Shall we cross?”SWhite 56.1

Sister White said, “Go forward, trusting in Israel’s God.”SWhite 56.2

And Brother White said, “Go on.”SWhite 56.3

Carefully they eased the sleds down upon the ice. The water came up nearly to the sleigh box, and the horses’ feet splashed as they went slowly forward. Who could tell whether they might come upon a weak spot and plunge into the icy river? They all prayed.SWhite 56.4

On the far bank people gathered to watch them cross. They feared they would see them go down at any moment. Nearer and nearer to the shore crept the sleigh with its precious freight. The God who had carved a way through the waters of the Red Sea for His people now froze the waters of the Mississippi in the path of His servants.SWhite 56.5

At last they reached the other side, and drove up on the bank. The people crowded around, and told them how glad they were they had come over safely. “Nothing could have made us try that crossing,” they said; “you must have had the hand of God with you.”SWhite 56.6

So now toward Waukon they pressed. It was Friday, and soon the Sabbath would come. They drew near to the town of Dubuque, and finding a hotel, stopped and spent the Sabbath there. In the parlor of the hotel they held meetings, singing the songs of deliverance and hope, and preaching the truth. The hotel keeper and all his guests were very pleased to have them, and invited them to stop on their way back and hold more meetings.SWhite 56.7

Sunday morning they started on. The weather had again turned cold, and in place of rain there was driving sleet, then snow. The fierce wind of the plains smote them, unprotected in the open sleigh. They wrapped up as best they could in quilts and buffalo robes, and they watched one another’s faces lest they should become frostbitten.SWhite 57.1

“Brother, your face is freezing. Rub on some snow.”SWhite 57.2

“Sister, your nose is freezing. Brother, your ear is white. Cover it up.”SWhite 57.3

For four days they rode, and on Wednesday evening they reached Waukon. Almost no one was glad to see them. They had had a cold journey, and they met a chilly welcome. But they had come in the name and power of God, and they prayed that He would give victory here.SWhite 57.4

A meeting was called for Thursday evening. They sang the old Advent hymns, and hearts began to warm. Brother Everts and Brother Hart told their experience, and hearts grew warmer. Brother White spoke, and the glow of love began to be felt. Then, while they were praying together, Sister White was taken into vision. She was shown the reasons why the brethren and sisters in Waukon were backslidden. And when she came out of the vision she told them the Lord’s message. “If you will open the door of your hearts,” she said, “Jesus will come in, and walk in our midst with power.”SWhite 57.5

The brethren and sisters of Waukon began to open the way. The hard, cold surface of their spirits was broken; their icy feelings toward one another began to melt. Sister Loughborough rose and said, “Brother and Sister White, I am glad you have come. I have been wrong. I have sinned, and made my husband to sin. God forgive me. Now I open the door of my heart. Lord Jesus, come in.”SWhite 58.1

Brother Loughborough stood up, and said, “I have laid up my hammer. I have driven the last nail. Henceforth my hand shall hold only the sword of the Spirit, and never give it up. So help me God!”SWhite 58.2

Then the Spirit of God moved on the hearts of that company. Many confessions were made, and the sweet, pure influence of Jesus took charge of them. The meeting went over to the next day and to the Sabbath. It was a very blessed time in Waukon. The brethren and sisters who had grown cold were brought back and warmed with the love of God.SWhite 58.3

When Brother and Sister White returned to their home, Brother Loughborough went with them, and entered the work again, never to give it up through all the remaining seventy years of his life. Brother Andrews slowly grew better, and as soon as he could he too went back into the work, and stayed with it to the end of his noble life. His father and mother and his uncle and aunt were reconverted, and so was the family of Cyprian Stevens. One of the Stevens girls, Angeline, married John Andrews the next spring. She was a fine young woman and a wonderful wife, and they had children and grandchildren who have given great service to God’s cause.SWhite 58.4

Brother Ezra Butler had been a grand help in the cause back East, and now he took his firm stand for the truth again. His son George was a strong young man, just then wandering from the fold; but soon he was brought back to the true faith, and he became a mighty worker for God, standing like a rock against the beating waves of evil.SWhite 59.1

At this meeting the church at Waukon was strengthened and fitted for the trials that were to come. The work in Iowa went forward with great strength; and many workers for Christ were brought forth there.SWhite 59.2

It was winter, and ice and snow lay heavy on the land, both East and West. And winter it had been in the hearts of Waukon. But over a bridge of ice God took His servants to bring the sunshine of His love, and in the summer that was to come He gave the flowers and fruits of His grace.SWhite 59.3