Called By God
from a manuscript that she had written and then followed with impromptu comments.( Ibid., 422.) She could project her voice to be heard by 5,000 to 8,000 people at a time;( Ibid., 221-22.) news reports claim that the huge congregations Mrs. White addressed during the camp meetings of the 1870s numbered as many as 15,000 to 20,000.( From“ White, Ellen Gould( Harmon),” Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 1410.) Her strong voice, without benefit of amplification, carried clearly across open fields and through large buildings.
Not only was she a minister herself, but Ellen White also repeatedly encouraged other women to use their gifts in ministry for God and the church. She urged the male church administrators to remunerate the women for this work, even indicating that she would have to create a fund from her own tithe to use for that purpose if male administrators continued to be insensitive and unresponsive.( Taken from a letter to Brethren Irwin, Evans, Smith, and Jones by Ellen White, April 21, 1898, I191a, 1898. See appendix A, 7.4.)
To Mrs. S. M. I. Henry, Mrs. White wrot,
You have many ways opened before you. Address the crowd whenever you can; hold every jot of influence you can by any association that can be made the means of introducing the leaven to the meal. Every man and every woman has a work to do for the Master. Personal consecration and sanctification to God will accomplish, through the most simple methods, more than the most imposing display.
— Letter from Ellen White to Mrs. S. M. I. Henery March 25, 1899; published in the Review and Herald( May 9, 1899).
Two years later she wrote in an article that appeared in the Review,“ It is the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit of God that prepares workers, both men and women, to become pastors to the flock of God.”( From Ellen White, Review and Herald, January 15, 1901).
In 1881 James and Ellen White, in their thirty-fifth year of marriage, spent some enjoyable weeks together during the summer in Battle Creek. James White entered his sixtieth year of life vigorous in mind and body in spite of previous illnesses. Then while on a journey with his wife, James White developed a severe chill; on Sabbath, August 6, he died. Thus ended a memorable joint ministry.
That fall Mrs. White resided with her son Willie( W. C. White) in Oakland, California. She spoke at a camp meeting in Sacramento and in the area churches. The next year when Healdsburg College opened, she purchased a home nearby. There she worked intensively at writing out her understanding of God’ s dealings with humanity as He had revealed this subject matter to her. She also traveled a great deal. In August 1883 she left California to preach in the large Tabernacle in Battle Creek, Michigan, and in various locations in the eastern United States.
After her husband’ s death, Ellen White received the credentials and pay of an ordained minister. Unless the denomination has two categories of ordained ministers, one for Ellen White and the second for all other ordained clergy, Ellen White was an
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