Heavy Family Bible

Mr. Thayer, the owner of the house, was not convinced that Ellen Harmon was of the devil. He had heard that one test of whether the visions were from Satan was to lay an open Bible on the person in vision. He asked Sargent to do so, but he refused.MOL 146.4

Being a man of action, Thayer took his heavy family Bible, opened it, and laid it on Ellen Harmon’s chest (who was inclined against the wall). She arose immediately and walked to the middle of the room, holding the Bible high with one hand. With her free hand, her eyes looking upward and not on the Bible, she began to turn the pages of the Bible, placing her finger on certain texts.MOL 146.5

Many in the room who were able to look at the passages where her finger was pointing while her eyes were looking upward, noted that she was quoting them correctly. But Sargent and Robbins, though now silent, continued to steel themselves against the dramatic refutation of all they had said.MOL 146.6

Nichols reported later that this “No-work Party” became even more fanatical, declaring themselves free from all sinning. About a year later, the group was scattered amidst the revelations of “shameful acts of their lives.” ^{12A Word to the Little Flock, 103-105.}MOL 146.7

In 1852 a very personal event convinced Marion Stowell that Ellen White’s visions were genuine. On one of their itineraries through northern and western New York, the Whites found Marion exhausted after two-and-a-half years of caring for Mrs. David Arnold. They asked her to join them in their sleigh as they continued their journey.MOL 146.8

Marion Stowell recalled later in a letter to Mrs. White: “We had not gone many more miles when you said, ‘James, everything that was shown me about this trip has transpired but one. We had a little meeting in a private family. You spoke with great freedom on your favorite theme, the near coming of Christ.”MOL 146.9

James responded: “It is impossible [for this] to transpire on this trip as there is not an Adventist family between here and Saratoga. We will put up at a hotel tonight, and we surely wouldn’t have a meeting there, and tomorrow afternoon will reach home. It must occur on our next trip....”MOL 146.10

Ellen replied: “No, James, it was surely on this, as nothing has been shown me of the next one, and it is three months before we take another. It was shown me on this trip, yet I can’t see how it can come to pass.”MOL 146.11

Near sundown the Whites, recalling that a recently married friend lived nearby, stopped for a visit and were happily welcomed.MOL 147.1

Marion Stowell continued the story: “Supper over, Emily said, ‘Brother White, would you mind speaking to my neighbors on the near coming of Christ? I can soon fill both rooms. They have heard me tell so much about you both, they will come.’”MOL 147.2

And they came. Not until the traveling party were on their way to the next stopping place, Saratoga Springs, did anyone remember the connection between the earlier vision and that evening meeting. Marion confided to Ellen White: “Not once from that time to this has Satan ever tempted me to doubt your visions.” ^{13Letter to Ellen White from Marion Stowell Crawford, Oct. 9, 1908, cited in Bio., vol. 1, pp. 225, 226.}MOL 147.3

Many are the stories, each unique, that reveal how men and women became convinced regarding the genuineness of Mrs. White’s visions. The experience of Stephen Smith is typical. Reports in the Review and Herald indicated that Smith had a series of experiences in the 1850s that led to his being disfellowshipped. During this period, Mrs. White wrote him a testimony. When he received it, he thrust it, unopened, deep within a trunk for twenty-eight years!MOL 147.4

During these years Mrs. Matilda Smith remained faithful and received the Review and Herald weekly. Eventually her husband picked up the copies, read them, and was softened by articles written by Ellen White, whom he remembered from the 1850s. Then he attended a revival meeting in the Washington, New Hampshire church, a church that he had been ridiculing for nearly three decades. After making a public confession one Sabbath of how wrong he had been, the following Thursday he remembered that unopened testimony in the bottom of his trunk. The following Sabbath he returned to the Washington church and gave his story:MOL 147.5

“Brethren, every word of the testimony for me is true, and I accept it. And I have come to that place where I finally believe they [the testimonies] all are of God, and if I had heeded the one God sent to me, as well as the rest, it would have changed the whole course of my life, and I should have been a very different man....MOL 147.6

“The testimonies said there was to be no more ‘definite time’ preached after the ‘44 movement, but I thought that I knew as much as an old woman’s visions, as I used to term it. May God forgive me! But to my sorrow, I found the visions were right, and the man who thought he knew it all was all wrong, for I preached the time in 1854, and spent all I had when if I had heeded them, I should have saved myself all that and much more. The testimonies are right and I am wrong.... I want to tell our people everywhere that another rebel has surrendered.” ^{14A Word to the Little Flock, 490-492.}MOL 147.7