- About the Author
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- Abbreviations
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- Here the Story Begins
- Harbingers of the Advent Awakening
- Carefree Childhood Days
- Early Experiences Recounted
- A “School Days” Experience
- The Family Moves to the City of Portland
- The Portland the Youthful Ellen Harmon Knew
- Hatmaking in the Harmon House
- Attending Brackett Street School
- The Textbooks She Read
- Robert Harmon's Trip to Georgia
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- The Question of the Immortality of the Soul
- The Time of Expectation Passes
- A Test of True Character
- The Second Angel's Message
- October 22, 1844, The Day of Expectation
- The Great Disappointment of October 22, 1844
- The Failing Health of Ellen Harmon
- Ellen Harmon Given a Vision—Her First
- The First Vision as Published in the Day-Star
- The Vision Answered Many Pressing Questions
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- The Otis Nichols Letter of April 20, 1846
- Ellen's Experience in Delivering the Message
- Early Arguments for the Spirit of Prophecy
- Some High Points of her Work in Eastern Maine
- Vision of Ministry in the Heavenly Sanctuary
- Some Fanatical Positions She Met
- Wrestling With the Views of the Spiritualizers
- Ellen Leaves Suddenly for Home
- The Healing of Frances Howland and William Hyde
- Preserved from Fanaticism
- Visit to New Hampshire
- Contending with Spiritual Magnetism
- Called Back to Portland
- Vision of the New Earth
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- Enabled to Write
- The Large Family Bible
- The Bible Held in Vision
- The Unenviable Position of the Prophet
- A Symbolic Warning
- “Another Angel, Father!”
- Who Could be Saved?
- The First Visit to Massachusetts
- The 1845 Expectancy of the Second Advent
- The Second Visit to Massachusetts
- Otis Nichols’ Eyewitness Account
- Meeting Joseph Bates at New Bedford
- The Publication of Her First Vision—January, 1846
- Publication of the Vision of the Heavenly Sanctuary
- The Place of the Vision in Confirming the Sanctuary Truth
- God's Leadings Clearly Manifest
- The Vision in a Sailboat
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- Writing for the Press
- Ellen White described its reception:
- The Proclamation of the Third Angel's Message
- The Content of the Paper
- Birth of a Second Son, James Edson White
- The Paris, Maine, Conference
- Among the Believers in Maine and New York State
- A Hymnbook for the Sabbathkeeping Adventists
- The Little Paper Almost Died
- Death Invades the Camp
- Fruitage of Public Ministry in Oswego
- Vision of Future Events
- The Visit to Vermont and Maine
- The Gift of a Horse and Carriage
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- Satan's Vicious Attacks
- Special Significance Disclosed by Vision
- The Third Angel's Message to be Made Plain by a Chart
- A Marked and Significant Change in the Tide
- Many Visions Giving Insights and Guidance
- A Summary of Other Important Visions
- A Time for Development of the Doctrinal Structure
- The Crucial Yet Productive Years of the “Scattering Time”
- Taking Up Residence in Maine
- Significant Conferences at Paris and Topsham
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- Concerted Plan to Publish the Visions
- Ellen White's First Book
- Settling in Saratoga Springs, New York
- Moves Toward Order and Organization
- The Conference at Washington, New Hampshire
- The Bethel, Vermont, Conference
- The Conference at Johnson, Vermont
- The Conference at Vergennes, Vermont
- Testimony Concerning Using Tobacco
- The Midwinter Tour in Western New York
- Back Home in Saratoga Springs
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- Ellen G. White Looks Back
- Positive Denial of the False Charge
- Explained Further as a Charge is Answered in 1883
- Developing Perception on Ellen White's Part
- A Term with a Changing Meaning
- Vision of the Open and Shut Door
- Labor for Sinners During the Shut-Door Period of 1845 to 1851
- Experience of Heman Churchill (July, 1850)
- J. H. Waggoner Recalls His Experience
- A Review of 1851 Developments
- Criticism of Deletions from the First Vision
- Why Were the Lines Omitted in 1851?
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- Strict Economy Maintained
- Working in the Opening West
- First Visit of James and Ellen White to Michigan
- With the Believers in Jackson, Michigan
- The Strange Case of a Self-Appointed Woman Evangelist
- Lost on the Way to Vergennes
- The Vergennes Meeting and Mrs. Alcott
- Back Home in Rochester
- The Review and Herald to be Published Weekly
- The 1853 Eastern Tour
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- The Vital Need for Church Organization
- James White Joins in Calling for Gospel Order
- The Tour of Northeastern New York State
- Sins Tolerated in the Camp
- Early Light on Basic Health Principles
- Ellen White's Battle With Disease
- Continuing the Evangelistic Thrust
- The Trip to Wisconsin
- Establishing the First “Adventist Book Center”
- Eyes on the Evangelistic Tent
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- The Vision at Hillsdale, Michigan
- Visiting the Churches in Eastern Michigan
- The Concept of the Investigative Judgment Dawns
- A Power Press for the Review Office
- Plans for a Trip East
- Vision at Buck's Bridge, New York
- The August Vision at Monterey, Michigan
- The October Visit to Monterey and Another Important Vision
- The Battle Creek Conference
- The Vision of the Shaking
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- Meetings in Ohio
- The Great Controversy Vision
- Counsels for New Believers
- A View of the Agelong Controversy in its Broad Sweep
- Ellen White Tells the Story at the General Conference in May
- The Choice of Title for the Forthcoming Book
- A Startling and Thought-Provoking Object Lesson
- M. B. Czechowski, the Converted Catholic Priest
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- The Conference Address on Organizing Churches
- The Eight-Week Eastern Tour
- Vision at Roosevelt, New York
- The Battle Creek Church Sets the Pace in Organizing
- A Creed and the Spirit of Prophecy
- The Formation of the Michigan Conference
- Other States Organize
- Cautions Sounded
- M. E. Cornell to Go to Ohio
- Confessions of Negative Attitudes
- James White Surveys the Battle and Victory
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- Vision at Parkville, Michigan
- Ellen White Examined While in Vision
- At Home and Writing Personal Testimonies
- The Inroads of Prevailing Fashion
- Letters to the Wife of a Minister
- Another Intimate Glimpse of the White Home Life
- A Second Vision of Civil War Involvement
- The New Publishing House
- The Five-Week Western Tour
- The War and the Threatening Draft of Recruits
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- First Annual Session of the Michigan State Conference
- The Business Sessions of the Conference
- Matters for Conference Consideration
- Organization of the General Conference
- The Last Few Weeks of 1862
- A Burden for the Youth of the Church
- Victories at Wright and Orleans
- Triumphant Year-End Meetings at Battle Creek
- The Church Prepared for Development and Expansion
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The Portland the Youthful Ellen Harmon Knew
Portland, Maine, from its infancy was an important seaport. At no time was this more true than during Ellen's childhood. The poet Longfellow was born in a home at the edge of Casco Bay, and had grown up there just twenty years earlier. He left a rich source of poetic descriptions of Portland life. “I remember,” Longfellow wrote, “the black wharves and the slips, and the sea-tides tossing free; and Spanish sailors with bearded lips, and the beauty and mystery of the ships.”—“My Lost Youth,” Complete Poetical Works, p. 194.1BIO 22.5
We can imagine Ellen and Elizabeth, perhaps in company with their older brother John, or even their father, visiting Portland Pier along Fore Street. Portland was noted for its trade with the West Indies, just as Salem, Massachusetts, specialized in the East India trade, and New Bedford in whaling. Along the Fore Street wharves were crowded a forest of masts: brigs, barks, majestic clippers, schooners, and even a few whalers. The “Spanish sailors with bearded lips” and with elaborate tattoos were there too. As Ellen and Elizabeth walked along, wide-eyed, under the pointed bowsprits of the graceful square-riggers, they could see the busy counting offices; the ship chandler's stores with their ropes, pulleys, anchors, chronometers, and other navigational instruments; and, here and there, the two-story sail lofts with their signs flapping from the upper windows.1BIO 23.1
The stevedores, many of them black, were hoisting the heavy barrels of Jamaica rum and molasses from the holds of the ships, and along with the sweating and swearing came the rhythmic songs of the islands.1BIO 23.2
The life of the sailors was hard and hazardous, and the Portland papers frequently carried stories about ships lost at sea or grounded and thrashed to shreds on the rocky coasts of New England. Many a home built in the city of Portland had its “widow's walk,” a little porchlike area with a neatly painted white balustrade around it at the very top of a house. It is said that from these vantage points those who waited the return of a husband, father, or son could look out over Casco Bay to watch for the return of the ship that had been out upon the seas for months or perhaps even a year or more.1BIO 23.3
The chief export from Portland was lumber. Portland's streets were often lined with teams of oxen hauling timber out of the virgin wilderness of Maine. While Portland sent its lumber out to different parts of the world, it received from the West Indies sugar, molasses, coffee, tobacco, spices, and of course, rum. The big share of the latter, considering the large sailor population in the town, kept things lively. Portland was early a center of temperance activity.1BIO 23.4
The city directory of 1834 lists the professions of the men of the city and shows that it had 256 laborers, 220 mariners, 209 dealers in West Indian goods, 145 carpenters, and 131 ship captains. All of these jobs were related to the sea, for Portland was not only a seaport but also a shipbuilding center of considerable importance.1BIO 23.5
The weather in Portland was colder than it is today. The average yearly temperature between 1820 and 1833 was a mere 43 F. February was the coldest month, with the temperature hovering around 20 F. most of the time. In July the temperature reached the upper 60s. Snow was heavy, a little under five feet annually, but in 1833 nearly eight feet fell. The homes were heated by wood-burning stoves, and for light, whale-oil lamps were used. Common use of kerosene was yet two or three decades away. The Harmon home was brightened outside by the flowers that Eunice Harmon loved. The inside of the house was equipped for hatmaking.1BIO 24.1
We can imagine Robert Harmon taking his twin girls along to the wood market that occupied an entire block in the heart of the city, bounded by Brown, Congress, Center, and Free streets. Here farmers would unload cord wood and bargain with the townspeople. It might well have been here that Robert Harmon bought beaver and rabbit pelts of animals that the farmers had trapped. He would have to hire someone to take his wood and pelts home, for only a wealthy family kept its own horse and carriage or wagon.1BIO 24.2