Vision of the New Earth

But God was to bring hope and courage to young Ellen. “Discouragements pressed heavily upon me,” she wrote, “and the condition of God's people so filled me with anguish that for two weeks I was prostrated with sickness.” She recalled:1BIO 88.1

But brethren and sisters who sympathized with me in this affliction met to pray for me. I soon realized that earnest, effectual prayer was being offered in my behalf. Prayer prevailed. The power of the strong foe was broken, and I was released, and immediately taken off in vision. In this view I saw that human influence should never afflict me again in like manner. If I felt a human influence affecting my testimony, no matter where I might be, I had only to cry to God, and an angel would be sent to my rescue.1BIO 88.2

I already had one guardian angel attending me continually, but when necessary, the Lord would send another to strengthen, and raise me above the power of every earthly influence.—Ibid., 215, 216.1BIO 88.3

“Then I saw for the first time the glory of the new earth” (Ibid., 216). It was in relating this vision that she used the familiar words “With Jesus at our head we all descended from the city down to this earth.” The thrilling description is found in Testimonies for the Church, 1:67-70; Spiritual Gifts, 2:52-55; and Early Writings, 17-20. As she wrote out her “first vision” in a letter to Enoch Jacobs on December 20, 1845, she attached to it the account of this view of the new earth.1BIO 88.4

William Hyde, who had been healed only shortly before, was present when this vision was given and was led to use it as the basis of a poem, or hymn. The hymn was soon published in several Adventist papers; it was included by Joshua V. Himes in the Advent Harp and by James White in the hymnbook he compiled in 1849, Hymns for God's Peculiar People Who Keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus.1BIO 88.5

As White published the vision in The Present Truth, November, 1850, he also published the four-stanza poem and wrote of the experience:1BIO 88.6

In the spring of 1845, the author of the vision, published in this paper, was very sick, nigh unto death. The elders of the church were finally called, and the directions of the apostle (James 5:14, 15) were strictly followed. God heard, answered, and healed the sick. The Holy Spirit filled the room, and she had a vision of the “city,” “life's pure river,” “green fields,” “roses of Sharon,” “songs” of “lovely birds,” the “harps,” “palms,” “robes,” “crowns,” the “Mount Zion,” the “tree of life,” and the “King of that country” mentioned in the hymn. A brother took up his pen, and in a very short time composed the hymn from the vision.1BIO 89.1

The familiar words are found as number 305 in The Church Hymnal and number 453 in The Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal:1BIO 89.2

We have heard from the bright, the holy land;
We have heard, and our hearts are glad.1BIO 89.3