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Why I Believe in Mrs. E. G. White - Contents
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    Chapter Eleven—Mrs. White’s Personal Life

    Up to this point in our story we have purposely focused on certain of Mrs. White’s major contributions to the Advent Movement from the day when it was a frail little fragment of post-Millerism until it had grown large and strong. Now, the question naturally arises in the reader’s mind, What are the main facts about Mrs. White’s own life? What manner of person was she? Where was she born? Where did she live and labor most of her life? This chapter will seek briefly, to answer these questions.WBEGW 73.1

    Ellen Harmon and her twin sister Elizabeth were born on November 26, 1827, on a farm near Gorham, Maine, a little town about twelve miles west of Portland. She was one of a family of eight children. Not long after her birth her father moved into Portland, to engage in the business of manufacturing hats.WBEGW 73.2

    It looked first as if Ellen would grow up like any other normal girl living in a large family. But at the age of nine, as she was going home from school one day, she was struck on the face by a stone hurled by another child. For weeks her life was despaired of as she lay unconscious. For years she suffered the aftereffects of the accident. In fact, the accident so greatly weakened her, physically and nervously, that she had to drop out of school. There were dark suggestions that she was not long for this world.WBEGW 73.3

    She was always a deeply religious child. In 1840 she attended a Methodist camp meeting and gave her heart to God, and a little later was baptized and received into membership in the Methodist Church. It is an interesting fact that she was baptized by immersion at her earnest request. She was only about fourteen, but evidently had been a careful reader of Scripture and had deep convictions on religious matters.WBEGW 74.1

    About this time William Miller and other Millerite preachers were conducting meetings in Portland, Maine. Ellen’s young heart responded to the preaching of the early return of Christ to gather His own to Himself. She eagerly engaged in missionary labor. For a religiously sensitive girl in her teens the disappointment of Christ’s not coming on October 22, 1844, was a great shock. The next two months were filled with distress of spirit and bewilderment. One morning, near the close of the year, she with four other women engaged in prayer in family worship at a home in South Portland. Suddenly Ellen had a singular experience, which she described as a vision. In that vision she received an answer to some of the questions that had troubled her since October. The bewilderment began to disappear.WBEGW 74.2

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