vision

Children’s Story – God’s Light from the Heavens

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James and Ellen White were still newlyweds when one day James suggested a trip. He thought they should travel to see some longtime friends in Topsham, Maine. Happily Ellen agreed. Early the next Friday, with the family horse hitched to the sleigh, they set out gliding cheerily on their way. It was important to them to get an early start, as they wanted to arrive in plenty of time before the hours of the Sabbath began that evening. They understood how special, how holy and how important the Sabbath is to Jesus, their best friend.

Sabbath morning, and being well rested after their travel, they journeyed to the Curtiss home for a Bible study. Upon arrival they were pleasantly surprised to find among those gathered, an old friend, a retired sea captain by the name of Joseph Bates.

Captain Bates had heard Ellen relate her visions before, but he was not entirely convinced that the visions were from God. You see, at that time there were other people claiming to have visions and communications with angels. These other visions were very different from the ones Ellen had. Not only that, but they did not agree with what the Bible taught. However, because of these false claims, people were very wary of those claiming to have visions. In fact, some preachers even told their church members that God no longer spoke to His people through visions like He did with Abraham, Daniel, Joseph, Isaiah and others.

But there were some dedicated Bible students who believed that God was still speaking to His people by visions. After all, the Bible, speaking of the last days, says, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.” Acts 2:17. Besides, they were sure that when so much error was being taught, the Lord would not leave His people without messages from heaven to warn and guide His faithful followers.

Captain Bates was an honest man who was sincerely seeking the truth. And that day, God had a special gift in store for him. As the group was studying and praying, the Lord gave Ellen a vision. Captain Bates studied her intensely. He felt that here was his opportunity to find out the truth about these visions. As she moved about the room while in vision, a bright smile was on her face, and then, to his surprise and astonishment he heard her speaking. Now that isn’t so strange, is it? But the startling thing was not that she was speaking but that while she spoke she did not breathe! Think of it, speaking without breathing!

Softly, and with music in her voice, she was describing what she saw—a vision of the heavens.

“I see four moons,” she said. Then she went on to describe different planets including one with beautiful colored rings around it.

“She’s looking at Jupiter!” exclaimed Captain Bates who, being a sea captain, was very familiar with the heavens, as back in those days, before all of the satellite instruments we have today, ship’s captains depended heavily on the stars when charting their courses.

Ellen continued speaking. “That’s Saturn she’s describing!” he proclaimed excitedly. And still later, “Now she’s viewing Uranus!” Though Ellen had not named any particular planet, Captain Bates knew by her descriptions exactly which ones she was describing.

A little later she began describing “the opening heavens,” an entrance into a heavenly region beyond, glorious with light. Captain Bates was very excited. He jumped up, eyes dancing. “How I wish Lord William Rosse was here!” Lord William Rosse was a very famous English astronomer. Captain Bates continued, “I wish he could hear that woman talk astronomy, and hear her description of the ‘opening heavens.’ It’s ahead of anything I ever read on the subject.”

Now you may think there is nothing unusual about Ellen being able to describe the planets and the heavens. After all, many people have studied and know much about the heavens today. But, as always, the Lord had planned this and arranged things long before they happened. Some time before this meeting, Captain Bates had visited with Ellen, trying to discuss astronomy with her. He found her totally unfamiliar with the topic. In fact, she confessed that she had never opened a book on astronomy in her life. (Remember, she barely had a third grade education.)

So that day, when he listened and watched her in vision as she accurately described so much in the heavens, Captain Bates knew that the knowledge was directly from the Lord. He was thoroughly convinced. He knew that the Lord had given Ellen White this special vision in his presence so that he would know without a doubt that the Lord was with Ellen, and that it was the Lord giving her the visions.

Today, let us remember that the Lord will always lead and guide His faithful, honest-seeking ones. We may not always know how, when or where, but if we obey all the light we already have, He is sure to give us more in His time and in His way.

Honesty – The Vision of the Missing Hairnet

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It all happened many, many years ago in Northern California. Mrs. Ellen G. White, the Lord’s messenger, was living at Healdsburg only a few blocks from our new college. Since her husband, Elder James White, was now dead, Sister White invited several young ladies to live in her home as they attended school. Among these was one young lady of considerable ability who did some teaching at the school.

How this young lady enjoyed living in Sister White’s home! It was a large, white, two-story, frame house, surrounded with garden and orchard. Sister White was a big-hearted, understanding mother to the girls who lived with her. All went well for a few months. Then it happened. As this girl went through Sister White’s bedroom on some errand, she saw something on the dresser she wanted very much. She stopped and looked at it. The longer she lingered, the more she felt she just had to have it. She looked this way and that, and seeing no one around she reached out her hand and took it.

And what was it? A watch, or something valuable, you think? No. It was just a hairnet. The women at that time often wore a net over their hair. True, it was a well-made, silk hairnet. Sister White would not miss it, she thought, and it was just what she so much wanted.

Leaving Sister White’s bedroom, with the hairnet in her closed hand, the young lady went to her bedroom and opening her trunk, put the net in the corner of the tray. She closed the trunk and went about her duties. But there was no song in her heart now. You know why.

A few hours later in the day, Sister White was preparing to go out, and entering her bedroom to get ready, she brushed her hair, and thought to put on the net, as was the custom of that day. But she could not find the net anywhere. It was not on the top of the dresser. She looked back of it, she looked under it, but could not find the missing article anywhere. Giving up, she did without it.

That evening at worship time the girls gathered with Sister White around the open fireplace. Often Sister White, in connection with the worship, told a story of the early days. How they did enjoy these stories! But this evening, Sister White had a question to ask the girls.

“Have any of you seen my hairnet?” she asked. Continuing, she said, “It was right there on my dresser in the bedroom. When I went to get it, it was gone. It must be found. It could not go away by itself.” But no one seemed to know about the hairnet, for no one responded. There was one girl there, however, who wished Mrs. White would not say anything about a hairnet. The matter was dropped.

A day or two later, as Sister White was passing through this girl’s room, a voice spoke to her as she passed the trunk, “Lift the lid of that trunk!”

But it was not Sister White’s trunk and she would not think of looking into someone else’s trunk.

Again the voice spoke to her, “Lift the lid of that trunk.”

Now she recognized the voice to be that of an angel, and she obeyed and opened the trunk. In the tray was the missing hairnet. She left it there, closed the trunk, and went about her tasks.

That evening, as the family came together again for worship, the hairnet question came up. “Does anyone know where the hairnet is?” Sister White asked. “I am sure it can be found. It could not go away by itself.” But there was no response, and [as] no one seemed to know anything about the hairnet, Sister White did not press the matter further. One girl was worried and in her heart she determined to destroy the hairnet, lest Sister White should discover that she had taken it. How ungrateful this would seem!

A few days after this, Sister White was seated in the living room in front of the fire in the fireplace, busy with her writing. It may have been a personal testimony she was writing to someone, or she may have been working on some of the last chapters of The Great Controversy. For several hours she had been busy with her pen and her hand was tired, her mind was tired, and her eyes were tired. She laid her pen down and looked into the fireplace, and then just for a moment she was in vision. This was one of the shortest visions ever given to Sister White.

In this vision she saw the hand and arm of a girl. In the hand was a hairnet. She also saw on the table a kerosene lamp which was burning. She saw the hairnet held over the lamp and then lowered until the net touched the flame. In a flash of light, the silk net burned, and it was gone. The vision was over, and Sister White found herself in the living room by the open fire. Now she knew what had happened to the missing hairnet.

That evening when the family was together around the fireplace, Sister White again asked about the hairnet. Did not someone know what had happened to it? Someone must know about it. But nothing was said; no one seemed to know. Sister White dropped the matter.

A little later Sister White called aside the girl in whose trunk she had seen the hairnet. She told her about the voice that spoke to her. She told her what she saw when she opened the trunk. Then she told her about the short vision and of how she saw the hairnet burn up over the lamp.

The girl broke down in tears. “Yes, Sister White, I took it,” she confessed. “I wanted it so much, and I did not think you would miss it, but when you began to press the matter I feared you would find out that I had taken it, so I held the net over a lamp and burned it up, just as you saw in the vision, and I said to myself, ‘Now no one will ever know about the hairnet.’ ”

But someone was watching from up in heaven. The angels made a record of what took place, and God sent His angel down to this world with a vision for Sister White just about the hairnet. It was such a small thing for the Lord to bother about. God who created the earth and guides the planets, sent His angel down to this world with a vision for Sister White just about a hairnet a girl had taken. But it was a matter much more important than the value of the hairnet. Here was the soul of a young lady at stake.

She was a member of the church. She went to Sabbath School and to church. She was a Seventh-day Adventist, and she felt that she was all right. She did not realize that there were little sins in her life—sins which led her to steal and to deceive. But when she saw that God loved her so much that He sent His angel down to this world with a vision for Sister White just about the hairnet, then she began to see some things differently. Some of the seemingly little things now seemed much more important. How much the Lord must love her; how important the little things were!

Not only did this girl confess her sin of stealing and make the matter right with Sister White and with the Lord, but this experience became the turning point in her life.

This young lady gave her heart anew to God, and she lived a sweet, consistent Christian life. And that was why the vision was given to Sister White. It was to help men and women, and boys and girls to live sweet, consistent Christian lives that so many visions were given to Sister White. And the counsels were written out in the Spirit of Prophecy books to help everyone live good lives, and to get ready to meet Jesus.

Campfire Junior Stories from the days of Seventh-day Adventist Pioneers, 9. Ellen G. White Estate, Review and Herald Publishing Association.

Ellen White in Vision

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Mrs. Ellen G. White was a woman very gifted in prayer, her voice clear, her words distinct and ringing, and it was almost always during one of these earnest seasons of prayer that she was taken off in vision. She also had important visions in public, usually an unexpected experience to those present.

Though many of her old friends and associates are passed away—Elders J. N. Loughborough, Uriah Smith, J. N. Andrews, S. N. Haskell, G. W. Amadon, and others, yet there are people living today in various parts of the world who have seen her in vision from time to time, and what is here stated [November 24, 1925] will doubtless be familiar to them.

As one who has frequently observed her in vision, knowing the company of people usually present, all deeply observant, and believers in her exercises, I have often wondered why a more vivid description of the scenes which transpired has not been given.

In vision her eyes were open. There was no breath, but there were graceful movements of the shoulders, arms, and hands, expressive of what she saw. It was impossible for anyone else to move her hands or arms. She often uttered words singly, and sometimes sentences, which expressed to those about her the nature of the view she was having, either of heaven or of earth.

Her first word in vision was “Glory,” sounding at first close by, and then dying away in the distance, seemingly far away. This was sometimes repeated. When beholding Jesus our Saviour, she would exclaim in musical tones, low and sweet, “Lovely, lovely, lovely,” many times, always with the greatest affection. Looking upon the cloud which enveloped the Father, as she afterward explained, her shoulders would draw back, her hands lift in awe, and her lips would close.

Sometimes she would cross her lips with her fingers, meaning that she was not at that time to reveal what she saw, but later a message would perhaps go across the continent to save some individual or church from disaster. She said, “Words cannot express the beauties of heaven”; no more can they describe these scenes of which she was a part. Her visions seemed to bring you nearer heaven; and you longed to be there.

There was never any excitement among those present during a vision; nothing caused fear. It was a solemn, quiet scene, sometimes lasting an hour—a scene, during which, like prophets of old, she saw so much of the vastness of God’s work for His people that it would be the principal subject of her writing for two or more years. When the vision was ended, and she lost sight of the heavenly light, as it were, coming back to the earth once more, she would exclaim with a long-drawn sigh, as she took her first natural breath, “D-a-r-k.” She was then limp and strengthless, and had to be assisted to her chair, her position in vision being a recumbent one.

These impressive scenes encouraged and strengthened the faith of those present, not only in her work, but in the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

The first time I ever saw her in vision was at my father’s house in Potsdam, New York. I was a girl of twenty, and there were only a few Sabbathkeepers then anywhere, no church as yet having been organized. This was in the early [eighteen] fifties. Brother John Andrews accompanied Elder and Mrs. White in our place, my father having made an appointment for Sister White to speak at the Wesleyan Methodist church in Morley, two miles distant. Just as we were about to start for the meeting, a violent thunderstorm came up, lasting so long that we could not go.

But what I best remember of that evening, nearly seventy-five years ago, was the occasion of our family worship, when Sister White was taken in vision.

The subject of this vision was the Sabbath question, and in connection with it, she saw that God had a great work for Brother Andrews to do.

As she came out of vision she reached for the hand of a young woman near her and, calling her by name, earnestly said, “Will you keep the Sabbath?” As the girl hesitated, Sister White repeated, “Will you keep the Sabbath? Will you?” She responded, “I will,” and she always did to the day of her death. Sister White had had no acquaintance with this girl, a beautiful young woman about whom we had all been anxious, fearing that she would not take the right step concerning the Sabbath. The earnestness of the Lord’s servant won her over, and it seemed that the Lord must have presented this case in the vision and impressed Sister White with what to say.

Similarly these experiences have turned many other footsteps from the wrong path to the right. From the very first a love for Sister White sprang up in my heart, and never has faded away.

Those were the days of turnpikes and plank roads; and the year before the Civil War, Brother and Sister White drove through from Rochester to Vermont, visiting little churches on the way. Father had pitched a tent in his pasture and fenced it in. It would hold about fifty people; and he called in his friends and neighbors for a meeting with Brother and Sister White.

This was a wonderful occasion—Sister White was taken in vision. After coming out she walked up and down in the tent, appearing in great perplexity, and repeating these words several times: “This country is to be deluged with blood.” It was a startling prophecy to all present, for political men were saying that the prospect of war would soon be over. But God knew otherwise, and her words proved true, for soon fathers and sons had to stand the draft and were sent to the battle front; and the time came when our whole country was in mourning for the loss of sons.

Another vision, which has always been of the deepest interest to me was in Sister White’s own room in Battle Creek. She sometimes differed in judgment even with her associate workers, and at this time their opinion varied somewhat over a situation which had arisen, and the matter was so intense to her that she fainted under the pressure. She was laid on the bed and Brother White, much alarmed, sent for Elder J. N. Loughborough and others to pray. While prayer was being offered—we were all kneeling about her—Elder White exclaimed, “She’s gone!” He thought that she was dead. But at that very instant he saw a gentle movement of her hand, and, showing great relief, he said, “She’s in vision!” By this vision the matter that was so difficult to understand was made clear, and God’s instruction through her was accepted by His people.

It is not easy for one to describe the influence of the Holy Spirit upon an individual, but all of Sister White’s experiences were appropriate and harmonious, and in no way apocryphal. She was quick to discern between the right and the wrong. Eternity only will reveal the influence she has had in saving souls.

In the old church in Battle Creek, before the tabernacle was first built, Sister White at one time arose to address the meeting concerning some who were too critical of one another because of differences of doctrine. While speaking she walked back and forth on the platform, earnestly appealing to the people, and pressing the question as to whether they had hold of the silken cord of love. Suddenly the sound went through the audience as if she had dropped to the floor, but immediately it was apparent that she was wrapped in a vision of God’s glory. What she saw was short and to the point, and sealed the truth of what she had been saying against the criticism prevalent. Her reproofs on such occasions might seem to have been severe, but she always ended with cheering encouragement to those who would obey the counsel of God.

A vision was given Sister White at Brother Aaron Hilliard’s in Otsego. This was in 1863. Brother White had been laboring under heavy discouragements. One Friday morning he invited some of his friends in Battle Creek to go with him to Otsego for a Sabbath meeting, for there was a tent effort at that place.

Friday evening we found ourselves all assembled at Brother Hilliard’s for family worship, about a dozen being present. A chapter was read and Sister White led in prayer, Brother White kneeling across the corner from her. Her burden in prayer was for him, and as she prayed, while still on her knees, she moved over to his side, laid her hands on his shoulders, and prayed until she was taken in vision. This lasted for about three quarters of an hour. At this time she was given the light on the health reform. Brother White also was greatly blessed and encouraged, and he was relieved of the burden of discouragement that he had been carrying.

Sister White loved the cause she served from her girlhood days. She loved the schools and the Sabbath schools which prepared the young people for missionary work; she loved the sanitarium for their promotion of health; she loved the church memorials built in His name; she loved the printed page which ever tells of the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ was her favorite theme. Her constant association with the atmosphere of heaven and with God’s Holy Word gave her a delineation of character far beyond human standards. She talked with Jesus, and He entrusted her with His messages of truth and love. The law of kindness was in her heart; she was thoughtful and considerate of those less fortunate than herself. She loved the fields, the trees, the flowers, and nature in all its beautiful forms had a charm for her.

Those best acquainted with her work have the most confidence in it. When she made her first visit to our old home in New York, she made a little appeal to our family. At first my brothers and sisters manifested some prejudice, and assembled in a room by themselves. As she ceased speaking, I went to them and said, “It makes no difference how anyone feels; I know that she is a woman of God.”

I am now nearly ninety-two years old and am the only living member of the first organized Seventh-day Adventist church in Buck’s Bridge, New York, about a mile from father Byington’s farm, St. Joseph, Michigan, November 24, 1925—the sixty-fifth anniversary of her marriage to George Amadon. She was nearly 103 years old when she died. Review and Herald, May 18, 1944.

Pioneers Authors, 1984, J.N. Loughborough, In Heavenly Visions, part 2, 123–125.

Editorial – Unmasking the Master Mind

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The title for this editorial is copied from the title of chapter ten of the book Prophet of the End and is about the same subject. Ellen White received many visions, both public and private. Her public visions were accompanied with supernatural phenomena which forces any candid observer to the same conclusion that Ellen White made herself: “God is either teaching His church, reproving their wrongs and strengthening their faith, or He is not. This work is of God, or it is not. God does nothing in partnership with Satan. My work for the past thirty years bears the stamp of God or the stamp of the enemy. There is no halfway work in the matter. The Testimonies are of the Spirit of God, or of the devil. In arraying yourself against the servants of God you are doing a work either for God or for the devil.” Testimonies, vol. 4, 230.

On Sunday afternoon, March 14, 1858, at Lovett’s Grove, Ohio, in a schoolhouse where religious meetings were being held, there was a funeral at which James White was invited to speak. After he had finished, Ellen White believed that she was being urged by the Spirit of the Lord to bear her testimony.

I believe it is always appropriate for a Christian to attempt to comfort those who are bereaved. We have a “blessed hope” (Titus 2). Ellen White began to speak about the coming of Christ, the resurrection and the cheering hope possessed by the Christian. During this time she was taken in vision for approximately two hours and was shown many things that she had been initially shown about ten years before about the great controversy of the ages between Christ and Satan. She was instructed in this vision to write out what had been revealed to her. She was also told that Satan would make strong efforts to hinder her from writing.

This vision and later visions on the same subject form the basis of the books in the Conflict of the Ages series and especially the last book of the set, The Great Controversy. For any person who wants to avoid being deceived in our time, this book, The Great Controversy between Christ and His Angels and Satan and his Angels, is a book that should be carefully studied.

“In The Great Controversy, the last message of warning to the world is given more distinctly than in any of my other books.” Letter 281, 1905.