The Angel's Special Message for James White

It was not until getting settled in Oakland and during the San Francisco tent meeting that Ellen White, on October 20, found opportunity to write out the account of the remarkable dream given to her Sunday night, September 12, on the campground at Rome, New York. The instruction of the angel who appeared to her as a noble, well-dressed young man, pertained first to the publishing and circulation of the message and the development of a colporteur ministry, as noted earlier.2BIO 487.5

Following this, the angel spoke of the work of James White:2BIO 487.6

Your husband and yourself can do much in the preparation of publications. You have a better knowledge of the wants of the people than many others. God has brought you in close connection with Himself, and has given you an experience in this work which He has not given to many others.

He has connected you with this powerful agency—the publishing department. Others cannot take your place in this, and do the work God has appointed you to do. Satan has been making special efforts to discourage your husband by controlling the minds of some who ought to be helpers. They have cherished temptations. They have been murmurers, and have been jealous without cause.2BIO 488.1

God will not leave nor forsake His servant while he clings by faith to His wisdom and strength. He has upheld him through the ministration of angels that excel in strength. His strength has not come from natural causes, but from God.2BIO 488.2

He will be beset with the enemy on the right hand and on the left. Satan will lead the minds of some to be distrustful of his motives, and to murmur against his plans while he is following the leadings of the Spirit of God. In God he must trust, for He is the source of his strength. The enemy, through agents, will harass and vex his patience, for the infirmities of human nature are upon him, and he is not infallible. But if he clings in humble confidence to God, and walks softly before Him, God will be to him a present help in every emergency.—The Review and Herald, November 4, 1875.2BIO 488.3

The angel touched on a number of important points:2BIO 488.4

Your husband must not be discouraged in his efforts to encourage men to become workers, and responsible for important work. Every man whom God will accept, Satan will attack. If they disconnect from heaven, and imperil the cause, their failures will not be set to his account or to yours, but to the perversity of the nature of the murmuring ones, which they would not understand and overcome.

These men whom God has tried to use to do His work, and who have failed, and brought great burdens upon those who are unselfish and true, have hindered and discouraged more than all the good they have done. And yet this should not hinder the purpose of God in having this growing work, with its burden of cares, divided into different branches, and laid upon men who should do their part, and lift the burdens when they ought to be lifted. These men must be willing to be instructed, and then God can fit them and sanctify them, and impart to them sanctified judgment, that what they undertake they can carry forward in His name.2BIO 488.5

Your husband must be humble and trustful, and walk carefully and tremblingly before God, for the ground whereon he treadeth is holy. God has strengthened him for great emergencies. He has given him strength, and light, and power like a running stream. This is not of himself, but of God. He has an inexhaustible fountain to draw from. He must not forget that he is mortal, and subject to temptations and weariness. His mind should have periods of rest, which will result in great good to himself as well as to the cause of God which he represents. He can with a mind invigorated do a greater amount, with greater perfection, than he can accomplish by steady labor and constant effort with a wearied mind.—Ibid.2BIO 489.1

The angel continued with commendations and counsel for J. N. Andrews and S. N. Haskell. Ellen White recorded the close of the solemn message with the angel's admonition: “God will have His servants connect closely with Him that they may have the mind of Christ.”2BIO 489.2