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The Way Things Didn't Work:
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July 20 - The Way Things Didn't Work: The Case Of Hannah More

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I was a stranger, and ye took me not in. Matt. 25:43.

As we saw yesterday, events in the Adventist life of J. G. Matteson worked out the way they should. On the opposite side of the ledger is the case of Hannah More.

Like Matteson, More had an excellent education for the times. And like Matteson, she had excellent potential to make a contribution to Adventism.

As avid Bible student, she had committed the entire New Testament to memory. She had a broad Christian work experience as a teacher, school administrator, missionary of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions to the displaced Cheorkee and Choctaw tribes in Oklahoma, and missionary to West Africa under the sponsorship of the American Missionary Associaton.

In 1862 she met S. N. Haskell, who loaded her down with good Adventist books, including J. N. Andrews' History of the Sabbath. Returning to Afirca, she read herself into Adventism. That's the good part of her story.

Rejected by her former community because of her Adventism, she traveled to Battle Creek, Michigan, in the spring of 1867, hoping to find comfort and work among fellow believers. That is where the bad part of the story begins.

Arriving in Battle Creek when the Whites were on a travel itinirary, she was unable to find either a job or a place to live among church members. Rejected by the Adventists, she eventually found a home with a former mission colleague in northern Michigan.

Remarkably, given the way the Adventist community treated her, she did not give up her faith. The Whites, realizing the tragedy, began corresponding with Hannah, pledging to help her relocate in Battle Creek in the spring. But such was not to be. Hannah More became ill in February and passed to her rest on March 2, 1868. From Ellen White's perspective, "she died a martyr to the selfishness and covetousness of professed commandment keepers" (1T 674).

Years later, as the Adventists were trying to get started in foreign missons she wrote, "Oh, how much we need Hannah More to aid us at this time in reaching other nations! Her extensive knowledge of missionary fields would give us access to those of other tongues whom we cannot now approach. God brought this gift. . .; but we prized not the gift." She went on to deplore the loss of what Hannah could have contributed to Adventist mission(3T 407, 408).

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Forgive us, our Father. Help us to have a heart like Yours.
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