- 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 Background of this Traumatic Experience
To understand better what was happening, we should review a bit. The Adventists in their experience of expectation in 1844 had absolute confidence that Jesus would come on October 22. They allowed not one doubting thought. No mental reservation allowed for the question “What if Jesus does not come?” So certain were they that crops of hay, grain, and potatoes were left unharvested in the fields. There was a certainty that all things earthly would end sometime on Tuesday, October 22.1BIO 67.6
But Christ did not come. Wrote Ellen White:1BIO 67.7
The time again passed unmarked by the advent of Jesus. Mortality still clung to us, the effects of the curse were all around us. It was hard to take up the vexing cares of life that we thought had been laid down forever. It was a bitter disappointment that fell upon the little flock whose faith had been so strong and whose hope had been so high. But we were surprised that we felt so free in the Lord, and were so strongly sustained by His strength and grace.—Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 189.
As the weeks stretched into months, a wedge began to separate the Adventists. Some continued to hold that prophecy was fulfilled on October 22. A much larger group took the position that they were mistaken in the date; the events that they had thought would transpire in the fall of 1844 they now felt were all in the future.1BIO 68.1
Adventists of the smaller group, having cut loose from church creeds and church discipline, avowed their purpose to find their guidance in God's Word alone. The evidences of God's leading and providences in their experience for the past year or two had been too great to deny. The embryo of God's remnant church was in this group.1BIO 68.2
But in the vulnerable period in the early months of 1845, when they were reaching out to ascertain their position and responsibilities as sheep without a shepherd, Satan, the great adversary, made his inroads. Not yet perceived by the little flock, this had been clearly portrayed in the prophecy of Revelation 12:17: “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed.” Satan certainly did make war on the believers, intent to thwart, if possible, the very purposes of God by destroying at the outset the remnant church of prophecy.1BIO 68.3
Following what they interpreted to be the biddings of God's Word, but without proper leadership and lacking balance and a true understanding of what it meant to follow Christ, a relative few (but including some of the most trusted believers) became involved in strange and sometimes wild fanaticism. “These men and women,” wrote Ellen White, who was personally acquainted with some, “were not bad, but they were deceived and deluded.” She commented, “In the past they had been blessed with a consciousness that they had a knowledge of the truth, and they had accomplished much good; but [now] Satan was molding the work.”—Letter 132, 1900.1BIO 68.4
These fanatical teachings and actions on the part of some divided the little group who were clinging to their confidence that prophecy had been fulfilled on October 22. There were those who patiently awaited the dawning of light that they might gain a true understanding of their position and their work. These became the spiritual forefathers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.1BIO 69.1
But a few others found it hard to wait and were soon swept off their feet by the teaching that there was a spiritual coming of Christ. Christ came, they declared, on October 22, 1844. We are now in the kingdom, they asserted. Every tenet of belief and every activity of those involved was molded by this concept of the spiritual coming of Christ. In this were seeds that soon yielded a harvest of fanatical and shameful activities.1BIO 69.2
It was into this scene that 17-year-old Ellen Harmon was cast. The December vision revealed to her that God had led His people in their October 22 experience, and that if they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus they would safely reach the heavenly reward.1BIO 69.3
It was this young woman who in midwinter was bidden by God to go into the field and present to the people the messages that He gave to her. The beginning made at Poland, Maine, assured her that God was leading and that she must trust fully, casting herself on the Lord, ready to follow His directions.1BIO 69.4