Chapter 6—God Revealed Secrets Through Ellen G. White

We turn our attention now to the certainty of the messages which came through the servant of God. I wish to relate a story on this aspect of Ellen G. White’s work—one of the most interesting, and certainly one of the most unusual that we come across in our reading concerning her work. But before that story, we should read a few verses from the 139th Psalm. In this psalm is found the basis for the experience which we shall present.DGRGC 84.1

“O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” ^{7Psalm 139:1-12.}DGRGC 84.2

We cannot get away from the presence of God.DGRGC 84.3

To think that God knows us individually and so intimately, and is able to look into our personal experiences and tell what is happening to us is beyond the understanding of man. It is one of the evidences that God knows the secret things and can reveal them to His messengers.DGRGC 84.4

Over in Australia, about 1891, shortly after Mrs. White arrived there, she was given a vision in which she saw a number of the workers engaged in our work in that part of the world. Among those brought to her attention in a very special way was a brother by the name of Faulkhead. N. D. Faulkhead was a very successful businessman. He was a man of unusual talents, appreciated not only by the Advent people when he joined them, but by the people of the city in which he lived. So much so, that he was a prominent leader in some five or more of their secret societies.DGRGC 85.1

This Mr. Faulkhead became a Seventh-day Adventist, and at the time saw no reason why he should not continue to be a member of the Masonic order and all the rest. Of himself he says, “I was a Master of the Master Masonic Lodge; I was first Principal of the Holy Royal of Canada; third, I was Preceptor of the Knight Templars, besides many other minor lodges (five in all)—good Templars, the Rechabites, Oddfellows, and so forth.” He really was mixed up in secret societies!DGRGC 85.2

This man sincerely believed that he could continue to be a leader in those societies and at the same time be a devout Seventh-day Adventist, and a worker in the cause of God. On account of his business ability he was made treasurer in the publishing house at Melbourne. At first, he did very good work, but as time went on, he became more and more interested in his lodge work, and less and less interested in the publishing house work. So much so, that the brethren became quite anxious about his spiritual welfare.DGRGC 85.3

Shortly after she arrived there in Australia, Mrs. White had this vision in which she saw Mr. Faulkhead. If I remember correctly it was in December of 1891. After she had this vision concerning him, and others, she sat down and wrote out the experience of Brother Faulkhead. It took some fifty pages of manuscript to set forth his experience, in a most remarkable and very detailed way.DGRGC 85.4

However, when she thought to mail this communication to him, something seemed to hold her back and say, “Not yet!” “Not yet!” So she withheld this message to him for some time. It was, in fact, a matter of twelve months later when the opportunity came for her to actually bring the message to his attention. She had been away in another part of the country and, on returning, she felt that she must give this message to Brother Faulkhead.DGRGC 85.5

The day after her return to Melbourne a meeting of the school board was called. In the morning everyone rejoiced in the closing exercises of the first term of the new Australian Bible School. That afternoon, Tuesday, December 13, Mr. Faulkhead, as a board member gave attention to the affairs of that meeting. At the conclusion of the business, Elder W. C. White, the chairman, stepped to the side of Mr. Faulkhead and said, “Brother Faulkhead, Mrs. White wishes to see you before you leave.”DGRGC 86.1

Brother Faulkhead, of course, wondered what it might be, for only a short time before that, in a dream he thought that the Lord had shown his situation to Mrs. White and that she had a message for him. He had sort of steeled himself against it, and he was just waiting for some such suggestion as that for, shortly before his dream one of the brethren, Brother Stockton, our first believer in the Australian field, was talking with Brother Faulkhead and told him frankly that they were all concerned over him. They believed that he was losing out spiritually by his contact with all of those lodges, and the fact that he was giving so much time to them and less and less time to his duties in the publishing house. Brother Stockton asked what he would do if Sister White should have a message for him.DGRGC 86.2

Brother Faulkhead straightened up and said, “It would have to be a mighty strong statement that would make me believe that the Lord had given her a message for me.”DGRGC 86.3

Now all of this went through his mind when Elder White said to him, “Sister White wishes you to see her before you leave.” So Brother Faulkhead went immediately to Mrs. White. Some time later he had told the brethren that he had had great regard for her as a Christian, but that he did not take much stock in her testimonies. He said, “I used to enjoy visiting with her and listening to her talk, but when it came to her giving testimonies, as it was stated she did and had done all along, I was a little sceptical.”DGRGC 86.4

Thus his attitude was one of uncertainty. He did not exactly believe in the testimonies, and he was not much interested when it came to something for himself, for he thought it to be only her imagination or something like that. Actually he had little confidence in the gift of prophecy.DGRGC 87.1

With all of this in his mind he went to Sister White and asked if she had something for him. She cordially greeted him, and replied that the burden of his case was upon her heart, and she would like to see him and his wife together for a message that had to do with both of them. He replied, “Why not let me have it now?” “Well,” she responded, “if you want the message now, I shall be glad to give it to you.” She went to the stand and brought out a fifty-page manuscript that she had written twelve months earlier.DGRGC 87.2

As he listened to the words, she not only read but she talked to him and explained it to him as she went along. He began to be very much interested, for in the course of her reading and her explanations she told of certain meetings that he had been attending and of what he had said in those meetings, where he had sat, the kind of seat on which he had sat, the position that he occupied, and the attitude that he manifested in transacting the business of the lodge, for he was one of their top-level men. Faulkhead wrote later, “I thought this was getting pretty close home when she started to talk to me in reference to what I was doing in the lodges.”DGRGC 87.3

In the course of her description of what he had done, and what he had said, and the place he had occupied, she gave a sign, and said, “The angel gave me this message for you and this sign that you should know, but I cannot relate all that was given to me.” She stopped. “Why,” he said, “Sister White, do you know what you have done?” She was not aware that she had done anything unusual. Then he told her that she had given the secret sign that is known only by the very few men who occupy that high position in that lodge. “Nobody else knows it. No woman has ever heard or seen it. We are sworn to secrecy with regard to such things.”DGRGC 87.4

She went on a little longer, and told him that she had heard him addressed as “Worshipful Master” and names like that or titles of that nature. She talked of Free Masonry and the impossibility of a Seventh-day Adventist being a Free Mason and a Christian at the same time. Once more she made a certain movement which she said her attending angel had made to her.DGRGC 88.1

Again Mr. Faulkhead was startled and turned deathly pale. “Sister White, do you know what you have done? No woman knows that. No woman is ever allowed to hear or see what is going on in those meetings, and yet you have described a particular meeting in which I took a very important part, and you have told not only what I said, but what I did.”DGRGC 88.2

She went on to describe the things that were going on in that lodge, the drinking, and the carousing, and the talk that is carried on by those men. She said, “I have heard it all.” He was even more than surprised, for at that time she made another movement. Again his face turned very white. He told her that she had just made that secret sign that is used in taking the degree of the Knight Templar.DGRGC 88.3

Later he told in a letter his reaction to all of this. He wrote, “This convinced me that her testimony was from God. I can assure you this caused me to feel very queer. But, as Sister White said, the spirit of the Lord had come upon me and taken hold of me. She went on talking and reading as if nothing had happened, but I noticed how her face brightened up when I interrupted her again and spoke to her about the sign. She seemed surprised that she had given me such a sign.... Immediately the statement that I had made to Brother Stockton that it would have to be mighty strong before I could believe that she had a message for me from the Lord, flashed through my mind.”DGRGC 88.4

It is an interesting story, and a wonderfully fine account that Brother Faulkhead has given, for it was a very strange experience for a man of his kind and position. It certainly revealed something in his life that was not known to others, not even to his wife; and after all this evidence had been given by the signs and by the specific expressions, along with the descriptions of what had taken place in those lodge meetings, accurately picturing the attitude of the people present, this is what he said: “I accept every word. All of it belongs to me. I accept the light that the Lord has sent me through you. I will act upon it. I am a member of five lodges; three other lodges are under my control; I transact all of their business. Now I shall attend no more of their meetings, and shall close my business relations with them as fast as possible.”DGRGC 88.5

I thank God for that kind of a reaction, for only God could know what that man had done in the secrecy of those lodges. Only God could see where he sat, what he was doing, and what he was saying, and know his very attitude in all of those meetings. God saw fit to reveal all of that to His servant that this man might be reclaimed and have his faith in her thus strengthened.DGRGC 89.1

Now I like the rest of his testimony: “I am so glad you did not send me that testimony, for then it would not have helped me. Your reading the reproof yourself has touched my heart. The Spirit of the Lord has spoken to me through you, and I accept every word you have addressed especially to me, and the general matter also is applicable to me. It all means me. That which you have written in regard to my connection with the Free Masons, I accept.... I have just taken the highest order in Free Masonry, but I shall sever my connection with them all.... It will take me nine months to wind up my business relations with the three under my control.”DGRGC 89.2

The hour was late when they finished their interview. He took the street car and started out to his home and, for some reason or other, the car was a little late in arriving at a certain station where he had to make a change. Just as he was arriving at the station he saw the train for Preston pull out; so he had to walk the remaining five miles to his home. He enjoyed the quiet walk for it gave him an opportunity to be alone and to think through all that had happened that afternoon and evening. He came to this conclusion: God had looked down from heaven and had seen him and had designed to help him turn from the course that would have led him away from the truth and away from the kingdom.DGRGC 89.3

I do not know of any experience recorded in the life and works of Ellen G. White of greater significance than this experience of Brother Faulkhead. On the following Thursday, Brother Faulkhead, accompanied by his wife, had another interview with Mrs. White. She, in the meantime had written more about that experience—I think some twenty-eight pages—and she read all of that testimony to both of them. They both accepted it—the reproof and the counsel that came from the Lord. Finally he told Mrs. White, “I wish you to know how I look upon this matter. I regard myself as greatly honoured of the Lord. He has seen fit to mention me, and I am not discouraged, but encouraged. I shall follow out the light given me of the Lord.”DGRGC 90.1

Now came the real battle. He had fought the battle through on that night as he walked home, but it was not yet entirely won. He went to his office the next morning and dictated a number of letters enclosing his resignation to each and every one of those organizations, and lest he might weaken, he handed the letters to Elder A. G. Daniels, saying, “Elder Daniels, here they are. I am free from all of those things that have been binding me to the world. You mail them for me!” In relating that part of the story Mr. Faulkhead says, “How his eyes did sparkle with pleasure to think that the Lord had gained His point at last, and that his prayers had been answered.”DGRGC 90.2

The lodges refused to accept his resignations. He had to serve out his term of office. Then he dropped the whole thing. It was a difficult struggle. He was almost overwhelmed and once declared, “Brethren, I will not give up the conflict. I did not expect it would be so severe. I thought I could sever my connections easily; but I find it a greater struggle to break the bonds than I had anticipated. But the Lord has honoured me greatly in speaking to me through Sister White. He has presented my case to her, and called me by name. I will heed the instruction from the Lord.... O, the Lord has engraven my name on the palm of His hands.”DGRGC 90.3

When a message came to her from the Lord Ellen G. White never had any doubts as to what that message meant and her duty regarding it. She never questioned. She never stood off and wondered if the Lord really meant what He said. Nor did she hesitate and wonder what the people would think when she gave her message. Neither did she think to change or soften the message to ease the blow or make it more acceptable to the one involved.DGRGC 91.1

On one occasion, in a vision she did not see the face, she heard only a voice, and the angel of the Lord said, “When you hear that voice, bear this message.” And he gave her the message. That was all she had—merely a voice, and a message for that voice. Here is no room for guess work nor for human devisings or imaginings.DGRGC 91.2

It was some time before Mrs. White again heard that voice. Then came the day when she and her husband arrived on a certain camp ground. They were riding in a carriage, a brother having met them at the railway station, and as they approached the camp ground the brother said, “Now, we shall go over to the tent where you folks will be staying. We shall unload the baggage, give you a little opportunity to refresh yourselves, and then you can go into the meeting in the big tent.”DGRGC 91.3

They agreed to the arrangement, but as they came near to the big tent, Mrs. White heard a voice. Someone was preaching, and hearing the voice she said, “James, let us stop right here.”DGRGC 91.4

The man who drove the carriage insisted that they carry out the original plan. She listened. She said, “We stop right here,” and they stopped. They got out of the carriage. She and James White walked in from the rear of that big tent, right down the centre aisle, and stopped directly in front of the desk where the man was preaching. James White sat down. Mrs. White stepped forward, and looked up at the preacher, and said, “You have no business to be standing by that desk. You are not a fit man to be bringing a message to these people. I have been instructed that when I heard a certain voice I was to bear a certain testimony. When I came here I heard that voice. It is your voice.” She looked at that man, and she pointed her finger right at him and, of course, every eye in that great congregation was fixed upon the man standing by the desk, and upon that woman right in front of him, pointing her finger right at him. She had never seen the man before, nor did she know anything about him, except what the Lord had revealed to her. She had heard only the sound of his voice, and the Lord told her when she heard that voice to deliver a message to that person.DGRGC 91.5

Then she said, “There is a woman in another state who calls you husband. There is a child in that state who calls you father, and there is a woman here that calls you husband and a child who calls you father.”DGRGC 92.1

Now I wonder what you would do with a message like that and a finger pointed to you. Well, he did exactly what I think you would do. He disappeared! He never finished the preaching of that sermon; but the record is that, when he had gone, the people all sat speechless and motionless.DGRGC 92.2

Then a man arose in the back part of the tent. He said, “What Sister White has said is absolutely true. That man is my brother. I know of his double life. God has given the message.” That camp meeting turned into a great revival, knowing that the presence of God was so near. Such pointed, such direct and certain messages stirred the very hearts of the people and they realized that God was there.DGRGC 92.3

We ask you in all frankness could that have come from the imagination of any man? Suppose she had made a mistake? Suppose she had pointed the finger at the wrong man. Suppose she had made that kind of an accusation against the wrong person. The consequences you can supply from your own imagination. She had never seen that man. She had heard only a voice, but when she heard that voice that morning coming from that platform, she knew the time had come to give that message. She asked nobody any questions. Who would she ask? She walked straight down that aisle to the very front of that tent and pointing the finger at the man declared that he was not a fit man to be standing by that desk.DGRGC 92.4

I tell you, folks, that took a lot of courage. But it took more than that. It took a lot of faith and confidence in the source of that message. Such was her confidence, and such was her faith in the work that God had given her to do.DGRGC 93.1

May God help us as we read the marvellous messages that come from God through His servant, to have greater and greater confidence in the divine guidance that has come to this people all through their history. We have nothing to fear for the future except as we might forget the way God has led us in the past.DGRGC 93.2