Joseph Bates was among the small company gathered for a conference in the home of Otis Nichols in Dorchester, Massachusetts, November 18, 1848. Here Ellen White was given a vision in which God made it clear that the time had come to publish. Coming out of the vision, she turned to her husband and said:WV 48.5

I have a message for you. You must begin to print a little paper and send it out to the people. Let it be small at first; but as the people read, they will send you means with which to print, and it will be a success from the first. From this small beginning it was shown to me to be like streams of light that went clear round the world (Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 125).WV 49.1

But how could he? Where would he get financial and moral support? Nonetheless, James White pondered the words spoken in the commission. He was in great doubt and perplexity. He was penniless. He had no steady income. According to him, “there were those who had means, but they chose to keep it” (Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 259).WV 49.2

Not long after this, when the Whites were in a quandary to know how to plan for their summer work, and Ellen was within two months of giving birth to their second child, they received a generous invitation from friends. Albert Belden in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, urged them to come and live with his family.WV 49.3

“We will consider it a privilege to administer to all your wants,” he said. Enclosed with the letter was money to buy tickets. Accepting this as the leading of God, James and Ellen left little Henry with the Howlands at Topsham, and were soon on their way to Connecticut. Rocky Hill was not far from Middletown, where little Henry had spent some time with Clarissa Bonfoey. Of God's providence Ellen White wrote:WV 49.4

Sister Clarissa M. Bonfoey proposed to live with us. Her parents had recently died, and a division of furniture at the homestead had given her everything necessary for a small family to commence housekeeping. She cheerfully gave us the use of these things, and did our work. We occupied a part of Brother Belden's house at Rocky Hill. Sister Bonfoey was a precious child of God. She possessed a cheerful and happy disposition, never gloomy, yet not light and trifling (Ibid., 258).WV 49.5

While comfortably established with the Beldens, James again felt the burden to publish. The need to get the message to the people pressed upon him. He was still penniless, but he recalled the words of the promise “As the people read, they will send you means to print.”WV 49.6

The year before, he had gone into the field to mow hay to earn money on which to live and to travel to the Sabbath and Sanctuary conferences. Perhaps, he thought, now he should again go into the field to earn money with which to print. He started out in search of work. But God had other plans. Ellen White wrote:WV 49.7

As he left the house, a burden was rolled upon me, and I fainted. Prayer was offered for me, and I was blessed, and taken off in vision. I saw that the Lord had blessed and strengthened my husband to labor in the field one year before; that he had made a right disposition of the means he there earned; and that he would have a hundredfold in this life, and, if faithful, a rich reward in the kingdom of God; but that the Lord would not now give him strength to labor in the field, for He had another work for him; that if he ventured into the field he would be cut down by sickness; but that he must write, write, write, and walk out by faith (Ibid., 259, 260).WV 49.8

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