Chapter 27—Overseas

“We wish to have Mrs. Ellen G. White visit the missions in Europe. We request that you allow her and her son to come to Europe as soon as it can be arranged.” This was the message sent by a conference of the workers held in Switzerland in the spring of 1884.HMes 150.1

It was ten years since J. N. Andrews had gone to Europe and made a beginning in our missionary work there. Other missionaries had joined him, and the truth had spread through many countries. The missionaries and workers in the conference there knew that Mrs. White could give them much help if she could come and see their work and know their problems.HMes 150.2

That fall the General Conference men decided that Mrs. White and her son, W. C. White, should be asked to visit Europe, to encourage and instruct the workers there.HMes 150.3

When Mrs. White was asked to go to Europe, she hardly knew what to do. Three years before this, James White had died in Battle Creek, Michigan. She had much important writing to do, and she felt that she had not the strength to take such a long trip. Then she remembered that her Master had said, “My grace is sufficient for you.” “Yes,” she thought, “His grace is sufficient for me, and He will give me strength. I will go and give what help I can in this great work.”HMes 150.4

In August of the next year, Mrs. White, with her secretary, her son, W. C. White, and his wife and their three-year-old daughter, Ella, sailed for Europe. On the trip crossing the Atlantic there was a storm. As Mrs. White lay in her berth looking out through the porthole onto the tossing waves, she thought of the ship’s compass. Although the ship was struggling with the waves, tossed by the restless sea, yet the compass kept its position.HMes 150.5

“It is doing its work,” she thought, “always pointing to the pole, even though the ship is plunging in the waves. My soul must stay upon God, whatever comes, calm waves or stormy sea.” Through the fierce storm she rested quietly in her stateroom. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee,” she softly repeated to herself.HMes 151.1

The boat docked safely, and Mrs. White was soon giving advice to the workers and speaking to the Seventh-day Adventists in London. In two weeks she went on to Basel, Switzerland. Mr. Whitney, the superintendent of the European missions, met the party and took them to the mission headquarters. He was eager to show them the new meeting hall and the printing plant that had recently been built in that city.HMes 151.2

“Look at this meeting hall before going upstairs,” he said, as they started to go up the steps to the publishing department. Mrs. White went in and looked carefully about the large room.HMes 151.3

“It is a good meeting hall. I feel that I have seen this place before,” she said.HMes 151.4

From there she was taken on to the part of the building where the printing was done. The press was running, and the men were hurrying about their work. Mrs. White walked over to the press.HMes 151.5

“I have seen this press before,” she said. “This room looks very familiar to me.” Soon the two young men who were working in the pressroom came forward, and were introduced to the strangers from America. Mrs. White greeted them, and then said, “Where is the other man?”HMes 151.6

“What other one?” Mr. Whitney asked in surprise.HMes 152.1

“There is an older man here,” Mrs. White answered, “and I have a message for him.”HMes 152.2

Mr. Whitney then explained that one of the men who worked there was away that day in the city.HMes 152.3

More than ten years before this, in the vision given to Mrs. White at Battle Creek at the time she was healed of the influenza, she had seen the printing presses being operated in many foreign countries. And now she was seeing with her eyes what had been shown her long ago by the angel of prophecy.HMes 152.4

As soon as she stepped into the pressroom she recognized the press as one she had been shown; she even remembered the men she had seen working in the room, and missed the one who was not there when she entered.HMes 152.5

A few months after this she visited Norway, and there she saw in Christiania (now Oslo) another pressroom that had been shown her in the vision at Battle Creek.HMes 152.6

Mrs. White and her companions visited France and Italy, and held meetings wherever it was possible. As she visited many places of historical interest she called to mind scenes that had been shown her in vision.HMes 152.7

“I have seen this place before,” she said to her son, as they stood before a cathedral. In Germany she saw with her own eyes many places that the angel messenger had shown her in connection with the work of Martin Luther.HMes 152.8

During one of her journeys she was taken to the valleys where the Waldenses hid during the time of persecution. As she looked out over the quiet valleys and the hills where thousands of faithful ones had given their lives for their Master, she said, “What a scene will these mountains and hills present when Christ, the Life-giver, shall call forth the dead! They will come from the caverns, from dungeons, from deep wells, where their bodies have been buried. They will come forth with the sound of the trumpet and the voice of God at that last great and terrible day of the Lord.”HMes 152.9

There were few Seventh-day Adventist meetinghouses in Europe at that time, and halls were rented in which the people met. In these halls Mrs. White spoke to the interested believers. Sometimes these people would walk many miles over mountain trails to hear her speak. Her heart was touched as she saw them sitting there on hard wooden benches that had no backs, eagerly listening to every word she said.HMes 153.1

These meetings meant much to the people, and Mrs. White was eager to help them all she could. Even after she retired at night, she was still thinking of ways to make her visit a blessing to the people who lived in such ignorance of a loving God.HMes 153.2

On New Year’s Eve, 1886, she had a beautiful dream. She dreamed that she saw Jesus and that He talked with her. He told Mrs. White that He was ever near as she worked for the people, just as she saw Him near her then. Jesus said that He would always be her helper as she humbly worked, and that she could freely ask Him for the things needed to encourage her as she labored.HMes 153.3

In her dream she turned to Jesus and said, “Precious Saviour, give me wisdom that I may ever act wisely and be a blessing to others. I need Thy light and Thy presence to go with me; then I will never feel sad in any trials. I want to be the means of saving souls.”HMes 153.4

Mrs. White awakened, and was greatly comforted by this beautiful dream to carry on the work for the people of, Europe. “The peace of Jesus is in my heart,” she wrote, “and the softening, subduing influence of His Spirit has been with me through this first day of the new year. The old year is in the past, and the new year is before us. Day by day the record will go up to God. What history shall I make? Oh, that it may be such a record as I shall not be ashamed to meet in the judgment. I want to have Jesus with me every hour.”HMes 153.5

For two years Mrs. White and her helpers worked in Europe. “Go forward!” she told the ministers. “As we advance in the opening path of His providence, God will continue to open the way before us. The greater the difficulties to be overcome, the greater will be the victory.”HMes 154.1

In all the years since this visit the people of Europe have been encouraged by her words of counsel. Her books have been translated into many of the languages and are sold throughout all the countries. The oldest workers tell the younger ones of Mrs. White and of her visit to them. “We have heard her speak,” they say; “we have seen her humble, God-fearing life.” “Yes,” answer the younger people, “and we have her books, and they agree with the Bible, and deepen our love for Jesus. Surely God has sent His message to us by His servant.”HMes 154.2