Chapter IV

If we were visiting at the White home in Battle Creek before she went to Australia in 1891, she might invite us to accompany her to an auction sale. She had to have some breaks in her pressing work, and she enjoyed attending auctions. She would look over the items to be sold, pick out a good bedstead or table or chair, and make up her mind what she would be willing to pay for each item. When the sale got under way she might be a successful bidder. She did not personally need what she bought, but she would have it sent home to the shed; and when she found a family in need, she could help in a substantial way.EGWP 5.5

She was sensitive to the needs and suffering of those about her, and from early years the family shared food, clothing, bedding, and money with the destitute. She studied how to help people in a way that would not embarrass or demean them. She would often employ an out-of-work head of the family, or a widow, pointing out how much she needed their help. She had a way of making people feel that they would be doing her a favor by accepting what she had to offer in helping them.EGWP 6.1

While she was in Australia (in depression years when to accept the Sabbath often meant the loss of employment), her help reached out in many ways. She would buy bolts of dress materials in several textures and colors, and when she found a family in need she would send an attractive dress piece as a serviceable gift. If the woman of the house could not sew, Ellen White might dispatch a secretary and a sewing machine for a day or two, to see that proper garments were made. She gave a number of such dress pieces to several young women in school, helping to fill out their scanty wardrobes. To one she gave a piece of red material, telling the girl that, with her complexion, she should always have a red dress in her wardrobe. “I can’t wear red,” she said, “but you can, and it will look well on you.”EGWP 6.2

To be able to meet the needs of her own family, to entertain as she was called on to do, and still have something to give to those in need, called for strict economy and a careful study of what would be bought and what would not be bought. During the stringent days in Rochester, New York, James White and his associates were getting under way with the publication of Adventist literature on their own new printing press. The Review and Herald was sent out gratis and supported by donations that were sometimes slow to come in. Unknown to her husband, Ellen White had hung, behind a cupboard door in the kitchen of their rented house, a stocking into which she periodically slipped a few coins carefully saved from the weekly household allowance. She had determined to put away something each week, for she knew that one day there would come an emergency.EGWP 6.3

And it did. James White came home from the office saying that the shipment of paper needed for the next issue of the Review was at the express office, but he did not have the money to pay for the COD charges. Without comment, the eyes of her husband following her, Ellen went to the cupboard, opened the door, and took down the hidden stocking. The eyes of James grew big as she emptied it and counted out money sufficient to meet the emergency expense. The next issue of the Review came out on time.EGWP 6.4

She counseled young housewives, as she did my mother, to save a little something every week, no matter how little. By diligent care they could save something for a financial emergency that was bound to come. All down through the years Ellen White kept an eye on family purchases, saving all she could. “I do not profess to be the owner of any money that comes into my hands,” she wrote in 1895. “I regard it as the Lord’s money for which I must render an account.” ^{1Letter 41, 1895, published in Remnant, p. 122.} This is illustrated by an order to the Pacific Press: “Please pay to the order of _____$100.00 (One Hundred Dollars) as a gift from the Lord who has made me His steward of means. Ellen G. White.” ^{2Letter 28, 1889, published in Remnant, p. 122.} While building her Sunnyside home in Cooranbong, she explained: “I study every pound which I invest in buildings for myself, lest I shall in any way limit the resources which I can invest in the upbuilding of the cause of God. I do not regret that I have done this. We have seen some trying times, but amid all we say, ‘It pays.’” ^{3Letter 130, 1897, published in Remnant, p. 123.}EGWP 6.5

To an old friend, Uriah Smith, she once confided: “If I should relate to you the experiences I have had in regard to money matters since I returned home, you would laugh, I know. I can laugh now, but I assure you in the pinch it was no laughing matter.” ^{4Letter 19, 1895.} On another occasion when money was in short supply she philosophized: “To be restricted for want of means is, as I can testify, a great inconvenience, but prosperity too often leads to self-exaltation.” ^{5Manuscript 29, 1895, published in Remnant, p. 123.}EGWP 6.6

Many an Adventist youth was helped through school by Ellen White; and before the days of sustentation, there were aged or infirm workers whom she helped in a time of special need.EGWP 6.7