The Call To Witness

February 21  The Call To Witness

 

Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent. Acts 18:9, RSV.

About a week after her first vision Ellen experienced a second one, telling her to relate to other Adventists what God had revealed to her. It also instructed her that she would meet great opposition.

She balked at her duty. After all, she reasoned, she had poor health, was only 17 years of age, and was naturally timid. "For several days," she explained later, "I prayed that this burden might be removed from me, and laid upon someone more capable of bearing it. But the light of duty did not change, and the words of the angel sounded continually in my ears, 'Make known to others what I have revealed to you'"(LS 69). She went on to note that she preferred death to the task ahead of her. Having lost the sweet peace that had come with her conversion, she once again found herself in despair.

It is little wonder that Ellen Harmon felt dismayed at having to go public. After all, the population at large openly scorned Millerites, and serious doctrinal error and a wide variety of fanaticism plagued post-disappointment Millerism's own ranks.

More specifically, the prophetic gift had become especially suspect in 1844 by both the larger culture and the Millerite Adventists. The summer of 1844 had seen Joseph Smith, the Mormon "prophet," lost his life to a mob in Illinois, while late 1844 and early 1845 saw the rise of a large number of Adventist "prophets" of questionable character, a fair number of them operating in Maine. And in the spring of 1845 the Albany Adventists would vote that they had "no confidence in any new messages, visions, dreams, tongues, miracles, extraordinary gifts, revelations," and so on.

In that climate it is not surprising that young Ellen Harmon sought to avoid her call to prophetic office. But in spite of her personal fears, she ventured forth and began to present God's comforting counsel to the confused Adventists.

Even a cursory glance at her several early autobiographical statements indicates that she encountered a great deal of both fanaticism and personal opposition.

Some of her early visions dealt with fanaticism and opposition by giving counsel and rebuke that was often quite personal in nature.

Today, O Lord, help us to be faithful in the place where You have put us to sound the message that You have given us.