The Strange Case of a Self-Appointed Woman Evangelist

One portion of the vision Loughborough copied related to a woman professing great holiness who was endeavoring to introduce herself to the new believers in Michigan. Of course, Ellen White, had never met the woman. All she knew about her was revealed in the vision at Tyrone, just after entering the State. M. E. Cornell, who had newly embraced the third angel's message, had met the woman a few days before the Whites reached Michigan but he did not mention her to them. When he learned of what Ellen White had written of the situation, he told Loughborough, “Now we will watch, and see how the case comes out.” He would not tell Loughborough where she was. When Ellen White asked him about the matter, he replied, “If there is such a woman you will probably find her, as you have appointments where you will be apt to see most, if not all, of the Sabbathkeepers in the State.” Loughborough wrote of the matter:1BIO 277.2

In Sister White's written description of the woman she not only told her mode of procedure, but that when she should reprove her, she would “put on a sanctimonious look, and say, “God knows my heart.”’ She said this woman was traveling about the country with a young man, while her own husband, an older man, was at home working to support them in their course. Sister White said the Lord had shown her that “with all this woman's pretensions to holiness, she was guilty of violating the seventh commandment.”—The Review and Herald, May 6, 1884.1BIO 277.3

With this description of the woman in his pocket, Loughborough waited with curiosity to see how the case would turn out.1BIO 278.1