Children's
Story
"WHAT
HAPPENED AT A FUNERAL"
While James
and Ellen White were traveling in Ohio in 1858, they found a group of forty
new Sabbathkeepers in a small settlement called Lovett's Grove. On Sunday afternoon,
March 14, a funeral was held in the schoolhouse for a youth well known in the
community. Elder White was asked to preach the sermon. When he had finished,
Mrs. White arose to say a few comforting words. While speaking, she paused,
and her listeners noticed that the expression on her face had changed. Instead
of looking at those seated before her, she was gazing upward, as if seeing something
in the distance.
Then they
heard, in a rich, musical voice, the shout, "Glory to God!" Again the same words,
as full of melody as before, yet lower and softer, "Glory to God!" And a third
time, as if coming from a distance, "Glory to God!"
James White
spoke. "My wife is in heavenly vision." She had become weak, as usual when entering
into vision, and was leaning backward, supported by her husband's arm. Soon
she stood up and took a step forward, a radiant smile lighting her face.
The people
seated at the school desks watched in awed silence. Now and then they caught
a word, perhaps a sentence, an exclamation, or question. Whisperings were heard
around the room. "Hush, she must be talking with someone!"
James White
said, "She is conversing with her accompanying angel. In these visions she is
shown many things that those around her cannot see. At times she is given a
view of things which happened long ago, or which are still in the future. Sometimes
she seems to be in heaven, talking with Jesus and the angels."
There was
an awed silence in the room. Someone whispered, "Heaven is near, very near!"
Softly another
person said, "It seems as if we are listening at the open gate of heaven. If
only we could catch a glimpse of the glory within, and hear the angel voices!"
"What can
she be looking at now?" someone whispered. "It must be something terrible! See!
She is wringing her hands as if in distress; and the expression of anguish on
her face--what can it mean?"
Elder White
answered quietly, "She is probably looking at scenes of great suffering!"
Breathlessly
everyone waited and watched. What could be causing her such grief? After a time
the anxious, troubled look left her face and a pleased expression took its place.
"Evidently
the scene now before her is a joyous one," said Elder White.
The gloom
had lifted. The coffin at the front of the room was for the time forgotten.
It was now late afternoon. The people watching saw a change come over Ellen
White. For the two hours that she had been in vision she had not breathed at
all, but now she took a full, deep inhalation as if filling her lungs for the
first time. After a brief pause there was another deep breath, then another.
She began
to notice the people around her. They had gathered close to her and were asking
what she had seen in the vision. But she did not wish to talk, she said--not
just yet. It was a solemn time.
The coffin
was borne to the graveyard, and relatives and close friends left for that part
of the service. Some of the people remained, hoping that Mrs. White would tell
them what she had seen in the vision. She described some of the scenes just
presented to her, and they listened with special attention. What she had been
shown we today call the Great Controversy vision.
On Tuesday,
as the Whites traveled from Ohio to Michigan, Mrs. White told her husband more
about what had been presented to her, adding, "I must write out the vision."
"And then
we'll print it in a little book," her husband added.
At Jackson,
Michigan, they stopped to visit their old friends, Brother and Sister Dan Palmer.
Mr. Palmer took James outside to look around his garden while the two women
visited. Suddenly in the middle of a sentence Mrs. White felt a strange sensation
in her mouth. Her tongue seemed thick and numb. She could not pronounce the
words she was trying to speak. A chill passed over her head and down her right
side, and she knew nothing more until she heard the two men praying for her.
She looked around and tried to rise, but fell back helpless.
"A stroke!
A severe stroke!" she heard the men say. But they continued to pray. After a
time she made another effort to rise. With her husband's assistance she was
able to stand and move around a little.
The next
day, despite the Palmers' invitation that they stay until Mrs. White was better,
with her husband's support, she painfully made her way to the carriage and was
lifted in. Soon James and Ellen were on the train for the two-hour ride to Battle
Creek. For some time after getting home, she could not take one step alone,
nor could she feel the coldest water poured on her head. Yet she could not forget
the command of the angel to write the vision and publish it.
She asked
for writing materials while her side was still paralyzed. Trying with all her
strength, she managed to write a few sentences, and the first day completed
one page. It wasn't easy, but each day she accomplished a little more than the
day before. By the time the vision was written out and printed, the effect of
the stroke had disappeared, and she was in her usual health.
After she
completed her writing, but before the book was printed, God showed Ellen White
in vision that the stroke she had suffered in Jackson at the home of the Palmers
was Satan's attempt to kill her. Satan did not want her to be able to write
out what she had been shown about him.
The vision
filled a book of 219 pages. It told of the beginning of sin and sorrow, first
in heaven, then in the Garden of Eden. It revealed how Jesus offered to die
in the place of sinners. It showed His battles here on this earth with His great
enemy, Satan, who finally led wicked men to nail Him to the cross.
She described
the interest shown by angels and the inhabitants of unfallen worlds in God's
great plan for saving people, and the wonder of the entire universe at God's
unspeakable love in giving His own Son to save a race of rebels. She told of
their joy when Christ arose to life and returned to heaven, having conquered
Satan, sin, and death. She pictured the joyous welcome He received as He returned
to His Father's home amid the shouts and praises of millions of angels.
Later, Mrs.
White added a brief history of God's people from the time when sin entered the
world to the time when it will be uprooted forever. This wonderful story, as
she wrote it more fully in later years, fills five large books, called The Conflict
of the Ages Series. These books have been translated and published in many languages
and are read by millions of people. They explain many of the mysteries connected
with the great cosmic battle between Christ and His holy angels on one side,
and Satan and his evil angels on the other.
--Adapted
from Stories of My Grandmother, by Ella M. Robinson, 1967, pp. 112-117.
A facsimile reprint of the first edition of The Great Controversy, called
Spiritual Gifts, vol. 1, is available at your Adventist Book Center.