The Pressing Need for a Well-Trained Ministry

One deep concern shared by James and Ellen White was for a well-qualified ministry. A large part of the working forces in the field were self-trained, strongly dedicated men who, having reached a good degree of proficiency through diligent study and the blessing of God, had been pressed into public ministry. Stephen N. Haskell and Dudley M. Canright may be cited as examples. Canright, the oldest son in a southern Michigan farm family, had listened favorably to the preaching of the third angel's message at a tent meeting. He secured and devoured Adventist books, studied his Bible day and night, and soon longed to convert others to his newfound faith. His first convert was his own mother.2BIO 455.3

At about the age of 21, Canright felt the call to the ministry. He went to Battle Creek and sought out James White and spent an hour with him. White related the incident:2BIO 455.4

I said to him, “Do not content yourself with being a small preacher, but be somebody, or die trying. Do not go out to be a pet, but go out into the field, with the weight of the work upon you, with steady principles, and stand your ground.”2BIO 455.5

The last thing I did, was to present him with one of our English Bibles, and a pair of charts, saying as I did so, “Here, Dudley, take these, and go out and try it. When you become satisfied that you have made a mistake, bring them back.”2BIO 456.1

The next May, at the conference, I met him, and asked him, “What about those charts and the Bible?”2BIO 456.2

He replied, “Brother White, you have lost them.”2BIO 456.3

Thank God! I would like to lose more in the same way. We raised means to purchase a library for Brother Canright and Brother Van Horn. And said I to them, “When you study, study with all your might, and when you visit, visit with all your might, and exercise briskly. Whatever you do, do it with all your might.”—The Review and Herald, May 20, 1873 (see also Carrie Johnson, I Was Canright's Secretary, pp. 12-14).2BIO 456.4

James and Ellen White watched with interest as the walls for a denominational college building rose to a height of three stories in the summer and fall of 1874. Dedication was to be Monday, January 4, 1875.2BIO 456.5