- 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 Profitable Time in Massachusetts
We have reported Ellen's desperate sickness and healing just before the Whites left for Massachusetts. They were gone for nearly seven weeks. Two days after their return home to Gorham, James wrote of the trip and of his wife's health, she was now pregnant with her first child.1BIO 117.3
Ellen has enjoyed the best state of health for six weeks past that she has for so long a time for six years. We are both enjoying good health.—JW to S. Howland, March 14, 1847.1BIO 117.4
Of their united labors on this extended tour, White reported in his letter to Stockbridge Howland:1BIO 117.5
Since we left Topsham we have had some trying times. We have also had many glorious heavenly refreshing seasons. On the whole it has been one of the best visits we ever had to Massachusetts. Our brethren at [New] Bedford and Fairhaven were mightily strengthened and confirmed in the truth and power of God. Brethren in other places were also much blessed.1BIO 117.6
This included the Otis Nichols family, with whom James reported they had a “very free time,” finding them “all devoted and strong in the faith as ever” (Ibid.). The picture begins to develop, revealing four strong families with whom they were in close touch and at whose homes they were always welcome, sometimes for extended visits:1BIO 118.1
The Stockbridge Howland family residing in Topsham, Maine. Howland was a successful civil engineer, but still suffering from being discredited for his Adventist faith and experience.1BIO 118.2
The Otis Nichols family living in Dorchester, Massachusetts, a suburb south of Boston. Nichols was a lithographer, in the printing and engraving business. He was a successful businessman.1BIO 118.3
The Joseph Bates family in Fairhaven, across the Acushnet River from New Bedford, the whaling seaport center. A sea captain who had retired with some means, Bates was a strong supporter of the Advent movement. He had chaired one of the large conferences in Boston in 1842. In 1844 he had sold everything to spread the Advent message, and now he was of necessity living frugally.1BIO 118.4
A fourth group would soon enlarge the circle. The Hastings family resided in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, some sixty miles north and west of Boston. At the point of which we write, the Whites and Hastings had not yet met but were in touch through occasional letters. Hastings was a farmer, engaged in fattening cattle for the market. He was one of the earnest Adventists who left his potatoes in the field unharvested in the autumn of 1844 as a witness to his faith. He had been well rewarded financially, as his potatoes did not rot and brought a good price on the market the next spring. On May 21, James White, addressing Mrs. Hastings, introduced his letter, “All I know of you is from what I have seen in the Day-Dawn from your pen.” He had just received from Fairhaven the copies of the broadside Bates had published for him carrying Ellen White's vision confirming the Sabbath truth. This he put with the 1846 broadside carrying Ellen White's first visions, saying:1BIO 118.5
When I get anything good I have a desire that all the faithful should share a slice. This is my apology for addressing you at this time and enclosing these two visions to you.—JW to Elvira Hastings, May 21, 1847.1BIO 118.6
The Harmons, Ellen's parents, with whom they lived in Gorham, had not yet accepted the Sabbath, and did not until a year later, which caused some problems. James mentioned this in his letter to Howland at Topsham:1BIO 119.1
You have a number to meet with at your place, but here is not one soul that we can meet with or unite in serving the Lord.—JW to S. Howland, March 14, 1847.1BIO 119.2
We gain a sense of the uncomfortable and unstable situation in which James and Ellen lived and moved as James continued his letter to Howland, recounting circumstances and tactfully throwing out some suggestions and hints:1BIO 119.3
We have been thinking much of home as well as of you at Topsham and Brunswick for two weeks. I think it will be the Lord's will for us to visit you soon. It seems a long time since we saw you last.1BIO 119.4
We should be glad to see you and Sister Howland here. Will you come up and see us? If you will we will return with you to Topsham. If you cannot come, send Brother Cobb or some other of the brethren. Let not the want of money prevent you from coming if you feel free to come, for I have $8 and can pay a part, or can and will gladly and freely pay the whole if necessary. I want you to write as soon as you receive this and tell me of your prosperity unless some of you can come and see us immediately.1BIO 119.5
If you do not conclude to visit us, please inform me by letter as soon as you can so that we may make some other arrangement. We should be very glad to see you here. I think it might prove a blessing to you and the folks here....1BIO 119.6
It may be a duty to come up to Gorham and cheer us with your words of comfort. How good it would be if Gorham were only about five miles from Topsham so that we could spend our holy Sabbaths together.1BIO 119.7
Oh, I am sick of our ungodly, hypocritical, dishonest, cheating neighbors. What a wicked world we are living in! I love to think of the kingdom. Take away our hope, and we are perfectly miserable. What a deathly degrading thought, to think of spending a life in this horribly unchristian world and then lay down in the dust. But it won't be so. No! No! No!— Ibid. 1BIO 119.8
Just what the immediate response was, and whether the Howlands visited Gorham at the time, is not known, but we do know that in April, James and Ellen White were residing in Topsham, staying with the Howlands in their well-constructed home. On Sabbath, April 3, Ellen White was given a significant vision. The following Wednesday, April 7, she wrote of it in a letter to Joseph Bates:1BIO 120.1