The Conference Session Closes on the Upbeat

From a letter written Sunday, November 4, to Mary White, a little glimpse is given of the closing days of the General Conference session of 1888. It was the last day of the meeting:3BIO 409.1

Our meeting is closed. I have on last Sabbath [November 3] given my last discourse. There seems to be considerable feeling in the congregation for the first time. I called them forward for prayers, although the church was densely packed. Quite a number came forward. The Lord gave me the spirit of supplication, and His blessing came upon me.3BIO 409.2

I did not go out to meeting this morning. This has been a most laborious meeting, for Willie and I have had to watch at every point lest there should be moves made, resolutions passed, that would prove detrimental to the future work. [One resolution that was urged would have restricted the theological teachings at battle creek college to only what had been taught in years past.]3BIO 409.3

I have spoken nearly twenty times with great freedom and we believe that this meeting will result in great good. We know not the future, but we feel that Jesus stands at the helm and we shall not be shipwrecked. My courage and faith has been good and has not failed me, notwithstanding we have had the hardest and most incomprehensible tug of war we have ever had among our people. The matter cannot be explained by pen unless I should write many, many pages; so I had better not undertake the job.—Letter 82, 1888. (Italics supplied.)3BIO 409.4

This she did shortly after the session closed, in the 26-page statement “Looking Back at Minneapolis” (Manuscript 24, 1888), a major portion of which appears in Selected Messages 3:163-177. After reporting in her letter to Mary that O. A. Olsen had been elected president of the General Conference, and that S. N. Haskell was to serve until Olsen could move from Europe back to the United States, she continued:3BIO 409.5

I cannot tell what the future may reveal, but we shall remain for about four weeks in Battle Creek and get out a testimony that should come out just now without delay. Then we can see how matters are moving at the great center of the work. We are determined to do all we can in the fear of God to help our people in this emergency.—Letter 82, 1888.3BIO 409.6

By several expressions in this letter to Mary it is clear that when the meeting at Minneapolis broke up, the way lines would fall was not then seen but would be determined by what was in the hearts of individual ministers. This would not be known until there was a firming up and personal decisions made.3BIO 410.1