Ellen White's Reaction

Writing from Sunnyside, Cooranbong, March 30, 1897, to “Dear Brethren,” Ellen White, after expressing her feelings of sadness over the developments, declared:4BIO 281.1

This is no sudden movement. The enemy has been at work for a long period of time. I knew that Brother and Sister McCullagh would be strongly tempted in the very direction in which they are now. I knew that a crisis would come, that they would either see the defects in their home management, or else that Satan would blind their perception, so that the sin of Eli would become their sin. These things must be kept before the people, whether men will hear or refuse the warnings.4BIO 281.2

I have not to study the consequences which may be the sure result to me. I have put myself in the hands of God. If He shall permit the enemy to do to me as he did to my Saviour, shall I complain?4BIO 281.3

In her closing lines of the six-page communication, she wrote:4BIO 281.4

You may inquire, “What effect does this have upon you?” Sorrow only, sorrow of soul, but peace and perfect rest, and trust in Jesus. To vindicate myself, my position, or my mission, I would not utter ten words. I would not seek to give evidence of my work. “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

She added, “We have never made meat eating a test of fellowship, never.”—Letter 14, 1897.4BIO 281.5

On April 5 she addressed a communication to the church at Adelaide. It opened with words that may offer a basis for using the names of individuals in the recital of this experience:4BIO 281.6

It is your privilege and duty to stand firmly in the faith. I wish you now to see that which I never meant to be made public. It will explain to you the reason of this wonderful apostasy.4BIO 281.7

Brother Haskell, I think, has the matter in clear lines, written to Brother McCullagh after he had received a special blessing at the Cooranbong Bible Institute. Brother McCullagh thanked me for reading this to him....4BIO 281.8

As he has poured out his tirade against me publicly, when I was not present to answer for myself, I think it just and right that his accusations shall be presented in writing or before others, that we may be able to answer them, point by point, and thus to disappoint the enemy in his determined efforts to accuse. This accusing spirit will continue till the close of time, but let none suppose that the Holy Spirit prompts them to work out Satan's attributes. They are working under another leader. We have seen this acted over and over again in our experience.—Letter 4, 1897. (Italics supplied.)4BIO 282.1

S. N. Haskell, soon after reaching Adelaide, listed in a letter to Ellen White the charges being made by McCullagh in his public meetings and in his visiting the church members from house to house. Some of these points were:4BIO 282.2

1. That you are worth from £10,000 to £20,000.4BIO 282.3

2. That all your testimonies are written upon the testimony you received from others.4BIO 282.4

3. That you have tried to separate Brother and Sister McCullagh.4BIO 282.5

4. That tea drinking and flesh eating are made tests among us and especially among the ministers.4BIO 282.6

5. That ministers have been disfellowshiped because they would not give them up.4BIO 282.7

6. That you have spent $3,000 on a sixteen-room house and have an awful household expense, and yet profess to believe the Lord is coming soon.4BIO 282.8

7. That your books are prepared by others and that you only give them ideas and books to select from.4BIO 282.9

8. That we do not educate people for the ministry, only for the canvassing work, and that your being located where you are is only to build up a school to educate canvassers to sell your books.4BIO 282.10

9. That in some meeting where a number of the brethren were, myself [Haskell] included, you saw that we all would live till the Lord would come and that we would all be saved, but many are dying, to our confusion.4BIO 282.11

Haskell added: “And now their burden in name is Christian perfection, but in reality it is to attack positions on the sanctuary.”—S. N. Haskell to EGW, April 5, 1897.4BIO 283.1

Ellen White's assessment of the situation on Monday, April 6, is mentioned in her letter to Edson:4BIO 283.2

By the letters enclosed, you will learn that Brethren Hawkins and McCullagh, who were laboring in Adelaide, have given up their position on the truth, and are going in for holiness altogether. They have come out against the testimonies of the Spirit of the Lord. Elder Daniells telegraphed this to us, and we at once made arrangements for Brother Starr and wife to go to Adelaide....4BIO 283.3

Brother Haskell has left us for a week or two to visit Adelaide. We deemed it advisable for him to go.... We thought that as Brother Haskell had ordained both Brethren McCullagh and Hawkins, he might possibly save these poor, deluded men. He left us last Wednesday.—Letter 152, 1897.4BIO 283.4

Both Haskell and Starr gave frequent reports to Ellen White of the progress in their attempts to reclaim the men who were departing from the church. They labored hard with the two couples, but without success. Most of the members of the Adelaide church were soon standing firm, however. The hall meetings of McCullagh and Hawkins collapsed. Both men, with their wives, gave up the Sabbath. Hawkins found a position as pastor of a Baptist church in the little town of Mannum about forty miles east of Adelaide.4BIO 283.5

Reports came in occasionally of McCullagh filling appointments in Baptist churches; in July he was reported to have gone to a little Baptist church about fifty miles from Adelaide.4BIO 283.6