Testimony of Captain Bates

Among those who listened to her was a former sea captain, Joseph Bates. A few years earlier he had turned from the sea to become an active worker in the Millerite movement. In fact, he presided at one of the important general conferences of the movement. He was the only prominent Millerite leader who belonged to the small post-Millerite segment of which we are speaking. The fact that for years he had been a sea captain indicated that he belonged to a breed of men generally considered hard-bitten, skeptical, and well acquainted with many kinds and types of people.WBEGW 16.1

In April, 1847, he published on one side of a single sheet of paper, known as a broadside, the text of one of Mrs. White’s visions. (Later published in Early Writings, 32-35.) The text of the vision takes about three fourths of the space on the page. Following it are “Remarks” by Joseph Bates. We quote his “Remarks” as they appear on the broadside:WBEGW 16.2

“It is now about two years since I first saw the author, and heard her relate the substance of her visions as she has since published them in Portland (April 6, 1846). Although I could see nothing in them that militated against the word, yet I felt alarmed and tried exceedingly, and for a long time unwilling to believe that it was any thing more than what was produced by a protracted debilitated state of her body.WBEGW 16.3

“I therefore sought opportunities in presence of others, when her mind seemed freed from excitement, (out of meeting) to question, and cross question her, and her friends which accompanied her, especially her elder sister, to get if possible at the truth. During the number of visits she has made to New Bedford and Fairhaven since, while at our meetings, I have seen her in vision a number of times, and also in Topsham, Me., and those who were present during some of these exciting scenes know well with what interest and intensity I listened to every word, and watched every move to detect deception, or mesmeric influence. And I thank God for the opportunity I have had with others to witness these things. I can now confidently speak for myself. I believe the work is of God, and is given to comfort and strengthen his ‘scattered,’ ‘torn,’ and ‘pealed people,’ since the closing up of our work for the world in October, 1844. The distracted state of lo, heres! and lo, theres! since that time has exceedingly perplexed God’s honest, willing people, and made it exceedingly difficult for such as were not able to expound the many conflicting texts that have been presented to their view. I confess that I have received light and instruction on many passages that I could not before clearly distinguish. I believe her to be a self-sacrificing, honest, willing child of God, and saved, if at all, through her entire obedience to his will.”—Reprinted in A Word to the Little Flock, 21, 1847.WBEGW 16.4

How revealing these remarks. They picture Bates, not as a credulous man, but as almost a doubting Thomas at the outset. However, after two years his mind was settled, and he concluded that she was what she claimed to be, a handmaiden of God to whom He gave inspired revelations. Bates’s remarks concerning her unique value and significance to the Advent people are also worth noting. He saw Mrs. White’s function as that of a guide, a counselor, an expounder of the Word of God, to lead the people of God forward on the right path, despite distracting “lo, heres! and lo, theres!” Says he: “I confess that I have received light and instruction on many passages that I could not before clearly distinguish.”WBEGW 17.1