Chapter 31—The Message that Will Not Die

The work was well started in Australia, and Mrs. Ellen White felt that she should return with her family to America. There was important work to be done in that land. The angel of the Lord had shown her that sanitariums needed to be established in many places, where the sick people could be cared for and taught to care for themselves.HMes 175.1

“In the night season many things are passing before me,” she wrote. “Many new lines of work must be begun.” Soon after her return, she took a trip through the Southern States. “We need schools for the South,” she told the ministers. “Medical missionary work must be started in many small centers.”HMes 175.2

From place to place she went, giving advice about the great work that God had called this people to do. From many places the workers were calling for her to visit the camp meetings and the conferences and give them help in the work. Mrs. White did what traveling she could, but always before her was the great responsibility of writing out God’s messages and publishing them in books, in order that all the people could read them.HMes 175.3

“I must prepare books,” she told the ministers, “and thus give to others the light that the Lord gives me. I do not want to leave an unfinished work.” Mrs. White bought a home near St. Helena, California, and there she settled down with her secretaries and other helpers to do this work. This home, which was called Elmshaven, was in a beautiful valley surrounded by pine-clad hills. Often, when tired of writing, she rode out through the valley and along the mountain roads. In the spring the orchards were in blossom, laying a pink-and-white blanket over her little valley and filling the air with fragrance. In the fall the colored leaves of the grapevines and the fruit trees made the valley look like a great patchwork quilt thrown down between the green hills. Here in this quiet place God gave His faithful servant, who had traveled so far in His service, a home and rest.HMes 175.4

“My health is good, and I am able to do much writing,” she wrote to an old friend, as she told of this new home. “I thank the Lord for this. I have decided not to attend so many camp meetings, but to give my time to my writing. I greatly desire to write on the life of Solomon, and I desire too to write on the life of Paul and of his work.”HMes 176.1

This desire was fulfilled, for a little later two books were published. One was The Acts of the Apostles, which gives the wonderful story of the apostles and their work. The life of Solomon, and the kings who followed him, is written in the other book, Prophets and Kings.HMes 176.2

However, the calls for her to travel still came, and occasionally she would leave her writing and visit the churches and attend general meetings.HMes 176.3

“The General Conference is to convene in Washington, D.C.,” said Mrs. White in the spring of 1909. “I believe I should leave my work here and attend this important meeting. I am eighty-one years old, and I should go back to Washington by the easiest way, but I cannot refuse the calls to visit churches as I travel.” She, with her traveling companions, was soon ready to start her journey. She stopped at Loma Linda, Los Angeles, and Paradise Valley in California, and then went on across the Rocky Mountains to College View, Nebraska, to visit the school and the sanitarium near Lincoln. There she spoke to the five hundred students who were in the school.HMes 176.4

This trip from California to Washington took four whole weeks, and during the trip she spoke nearly twenty times.HMes 177.1

At the General Conference in Washington, D.C., Mrs. White spoke often. “We are carrying forward a mighty work throughout the world,” she said. “We must lay hold on God, and seek Him most earnestly for guidance and blessing.”HMes 177.2

There were many people from foreign countries at this General Conference, and they came in groups to visit and talk with God’s messenger. They told her of how the work was progressing in their lands. Mrs. White listened carefully and then gave counsel as to the best way to carry on the work. How happy she was to meet these workers from over the seas!HMes 177.3

“I felt very deeply,” she said, “when our brethren who had come from foreign fields told me a little of their experiences and of what the Lord is doing in bringing souls to the truth.”HMes 177.4

One morning during the conference Mrs. White spoke of her confidence in the message that Seventh-day Adventists have for the world. She told of the part she had had in this work ever since she was a girl of seventeen. Standing before the great congregation, she told of how the angel had given her the command to write.HMes 177.5

“‘Write out the instruction I give you for the people,’ the angel said.HMes 177.6

“I answered, ‘I cannot write, Lord.’HMes 177.7

“Because of the accident which had nearly cost me my life, I had been feeble in health and unable to write, for my hand trembled so that I was forced after many efforts to give up the attempt to write.HMes 177.8

“But one night the angel of the Lord came to my bedside and said to me, ‘You must write out the things that I give you.’HMes 179.1

“I said, ‘I cannot write.’HMes 179.2

“Again the command was given, ‘Write out the things I give you.’HMes 179.3

“I thought I would try, and taking up a lapboard from the table, I began to write, and found that I could trace the words easily. The Lord had wrought a miracle upon me. Since that time I have written thousands of pages, and I continue to write at the age of eighty-one. Through all these years the Lord has been my helper. Angels of God have protected me, guiding me and giving me strength to carry out the instruction of the Lord. Should I doubt the Lord now, and cast aside the evidences of His loving mercy and power? I thank His name that I have been kept from doing this.”HMes 179.4

It was the last day of the meeting. Mrs. White felt that she might never attend another General Conference. She came to the platform to give a parting message to those who had come to the conference—a message that they could carry with them to encourage them in their work. She spoke of how much she had enjoyed being at the General Conference, that was now closing, and of what a privilege it was for God’s people to meet together. She talked of what must yet be done in warning the world and of Satan’s efforts to hinder the work. She spoke of the nearness of the coming of Jesus and the need of getting ready to meet Him, and then exclaimed:HMes 179.5

“O what a scene of rejoicing it will be when Jesus shall place the victor’s crown upon the heads of the redeemed. Never, nevermore will you be led into temptation and sin. You will meet there those whom you have helped. You will see Jesus in His beauty.” Then Mrs. White turned to the pulpit and took from it the Bible that was lying there. She opened it and held it out before her.HMes 179.6

“Brethren and sisters,” she said in a clear, strong voice that could be heard all over that great congregation, “Brethren and sisters, I commend unto you this Book.” She gently closed the Bible and laid it back on the pulpit. Slowly she walked from the platform—she had spoken her last words before this great assembly of Seventh-day Adventists.HMes 180.1

Although she never spoke again in a great General Conference assembly, her counsel is still guiding God’s followers. God had shown her the work of His people clear through till Jesus should come, and we shall always have His Word to guide us.HMes 180.2

“The question is sometimes asked, ‘What if Mrs. White should die?’” Mrs. White wrote to the president of the General Conference at one time. “I answer: ‘The books that she has written will not die. They are a living witness to what saith the Scripture.’ ... Of myself I could not have brought out the truths in these books, but the Lord has given me the help of His Holy Spirit.” “Whether or not my life is spared, my writings will constantly speak, and their work will go forward as long as time shall last.”HMes 180.3

After the General Conference, Mrs. White went back to Elmshaven, her home in California, to continue her writing. The Lord spoke often with her there, as He had for so many years. Letters of guidance still were sent from her home to the ministers and the people who were trying to serve God.HMes 180.4

She was happy and contented in her quiet home. In the large office room on the second floor she spent many happy hours reading, writing, and studying. When weary of writing she often rested in a comfortable chair, looking out over the beautiful valley surrounding her home. On her writing table were kept several of the books she had written. She would often take a book from the table and sit with it in her hands. Sometimes when visitors came in she would be found holding two or three of the books in her lap, as though she really loved them.HMes 180.5

“I appreciate these books as I never did before,” she would remark. “They are truth, and they are righteousness, and they are an everlasting testimony that God is true.”HMes 181.1

Many were the visitors that came to talk with Mrs. White during the last few months of her life. She was always glad to visit with them and give them words of encouragement and cheer. The thought that she would not always be here to speak to them did not make her sad.HMes 181.2

“I rejoice in the thought that when I can no longer speak to the people, my books will speak for me,” she told a visitor one day.HMes 181.3

Ellen G. White finished her lifework and fell asleep July 16, 1915, when she was eighty-seven years old. Her last message to the young people was, “Tell our young people that I want my words to encourage them.”HMes 181.4

“I know in whom I have believed,” she whispered to her son, just before she closed her eyes for the last time.HMes 181.5

Although her voice does not speak to us today, still her books carry on the great work that she herself laid down. For seventy years the angel of prophecy had carried to Mrs. White the messages of God. And through all those years she never faltered in giving His word to the world. How precious to the Seventh-day Adventist people are the books that His messenger has so faithfully written to guide them home.HMes 181.6