Mrs. White told me that she was planning to return
to America as soon as she could sell her home and settle up certain matters there in
Australia; but she was very anxious to see plans adopted for a building, suitable for
Sanitarium work, and the work of erecting it started before she left Australia. She
said that land had been secured and partly paid for, but thus far they had been unable to
raise any money with which to erect a building. W. C. White then said, "We have
no plans for a building nor money to pay for making plans." Sister White then
said, "I had planned to have Brother Wessels put his money into a Sanitarium
building, and to be it's financial manager, and I fully expected he would do so. He
gave me to understand that he would, and he had to do with selecting the land, but instead
of investing his money in that enterprise he suddenly took Steamer a few weeks ago and
returned to South Africa without putting a shilling into the work." Mrs. White
then went on to tell me of the efforts she had made to raise money to establish the
Sanitarium there in New South Wales.
Nine hundred pounds bad been raised in
Australia. She said that the Sanitarium at Battle Creek ought to help quite
liberally, for one of the purposes for which it stood was to assist in
establishing Sanitariums in other places. She said that she had been repeatedly
calling on Dr. J. H. Kellogg to send her means to help in this work, telling him that it
was his duty to see that the Battle Creek Sanitarium appropriate of it's earnings for that
purpose.
I told Sister White that I understood
that the Charter of the Battle Creek Sanitarium would not permit the use of any of its
earnings outside of the State of Michigan, that it was a legally incorporated institution
and that the directors must keep within it's charter restrictions. She then told me
that she had been shown that she, as the Lord's steward, had a right to make demands for
money to carry on the Lord's work, and who, said she, has a better right than I to say
where the money is needed, or where it shall be used. She then told me that whenever
she asked Dr. J. H. Kellogg to have the Sanitarium send her money he always replied that
they could not because of the heavy indebtedness.
This, said Mrs. White, was not the truth.
Dr. Kellogg lied to me about this matter; for at the very time when I was pleading with
him so hard for money he was spending thousands upon thousands of dollars of the
Sanitarium's earnings in building up and carrying on the work which he is doing in
Chicago, for the unworthy poor, a work which God has never called him to do.
To this I replied, "Sister White, I am
confident that you are laboring under a mistake in this matter, for the following reasons:
1st. The Charter of the Battle Creek
Sanitarium forbids the use of it's earnings outside of the State; that Sanitarium has no
State, County, or City tax to pay on the ground that it is a charitable institution whose
charities are to be expended wholly within the State of Michigan.
2nd. I am informed that the money used by
Dr. J. H. Kellogg in carrying on that Chicago work is taken wholly from means donated for
that special work, and that it came very largely from people outside of the Seventh-day
Adventist denomination."
The following morning Sister White told me that I
was mistaken in my view of the matter we had been discussing. Said she, "I have
the proof right here that Dr. Kellogg lied to me when he said the Sanitarium could not
send me the money I asked for. I have proof that at that very tine he was spending
thousands of dollars of Sanitarium money in Chicago." She then handed me a copy
of a New York paper, The Observer I think, in which there was an article which
purported to give a flattering account of a work conducted by Dr. J. H. Kellogg for the
poor of Chicago, whose homes were in the slums of that city. The article represented
Dr. J. H. Kellogg as a great philanthropist, said that he had expended much of his own
private means in that work, and many thousands of dollars of the Battle Creek Sanitarium's
money. It further stated that the B. C. Sanitarium intended to keep right on
spending many thousands of dollars every year "in that work".
After reading the article through, I said,
"Sister White, you must :not place much confidence in the statements contained in
this paper, for it is evident that the writer of the article which you asked me to read is
either a newspaper reporter who seeks to make a sensational article, or a person who has a
scheme of his own which he seeks to promote by means of the article. I know Dr. J.
H. Kellogg too well to believe that he would knowingly allow any such flattering stuff to
be published about either himself or his work in Chicago. I do not think he ever
saw, or knew anything about this article until after it was published, if he had ever
known anything of it.
To this Mrs. White replied with some warmth,
"I know what I am talking about, that article was written by your brother's own man,
the man who always travels with him to do his writing. Your brother knew all about
that article before it was published for he directed the writing of it, and it was
published by his order." I again endeavored to show Sister white that she held
a mistaken view of the matter, but she closed my mouth by declaring with much warmth that
she was not mistaken, that she knew whereof she was speaking. She then exclaimed,
"Your brother has been expending vast sums of money in the erecting of buildings and
in carrying on a work in Chicago to which God has never called him. It was his duty,
and the duty of the Battle Creek Sanitarium to help us in establishing a Sanitarium here
in Australia. He has always plead poverty and indebtedness as an excuse for not
helping us, yet he has spent thousands in his own work in Chicago, a work which
God never required at his hand. He has become exalted like Nebuchadnezzar, and like
Nebuchadnezzar he must be humbled. I am going to write him a short testimony on this
subject, but I do not want you to write him a word about what I have said to you about it.
She then exacted a promise from me that I would
not write to him on the subject. This promise I faithfully kept. Mrs. White
evidently kept her promise, for a few months later word came to me from St. Helena that
Dr. J. H. Kellogg had refused to acknowledge as true a testimony from Sister White
charging him with having spent thousands of dollars in erecting buildings in Chicago which
ought to have been sent to Australia in response to Mrs. White's demand.
Being desirous of ascertaining the facts about
that testimony, I made a special trip to St. Helena in 1906 and asked W. C. White to show
me what his Mother had written Dr. J. H. K. about the erection of buildings in Chicago.
W. C. White then told me that Dr. Stewart,
of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, had asked for a copy of the same testimony. He then
showed me two letters, written by his Mother to Dr. J. H. Kellogg, and also his letter to
Dr. Stewart in which he copied what his Mother had written to Dr. J. H. Kellogg.
In these letters Mrs. White said that she
had been shown in vision a great building which Dr. Kellogg had erected in Chicago, and
that a sheet of paper had been held up before her on which was written, "Consumers, not
Producers." On the sheet of paper were several rows of figures which
represented the amount of money which had been expended by Dr. Kellogg in the buildings
and work which he had erected and was doing in Chicago. These letters were written
in Australia in 1909.
In W. C. White's letter to Dr. Stewart he says
that his Mother first saw the newspaper article, herein before referred to, Feb. 24, 1900,
and that she wrote the first letter Feb. 27, or three days later. He also said that
his Mother said she thought the buildings had been erected, but this was not the case, and
she did not know how to correct the mistake she had made until 1902, two years after
seeing the buildings in vision when in Australia. W. C. White wrote to Dr. Stewart
that in 1902 Judge Arthur told his Mother that a plan had been made at request of some of
the Doctors, when Dr. J. H. Kellogg was in Europe, for a building to be erected in Chicago
in which to conduct the Medical Missionary College, and that shortly after receiving this
information from Judge Arthur she had a vision in which she was shown that the object of
the first vision was to prevent the erection of the building. When W. C. White told
me this in explanation of the testimony which accused Dr. Kellogg of having so squandered
the Lord's money in erecting large buildings, I asked him if he thought it was fair
treatment to accuse Dr. J. H. K. with apostasy and rebellion because he did not
acknowledge as true a testimony which accused him of having done what he had not done, nor
even contemplated doing, a testimony based on a dream or night vision which Mrs. White
said she misunderstood. W. C. White refused to give me any reply to this
question. I then said, Bro. White, just put yourself in Dr. J. H. Kellogg's place,
how would you have felt? What would you have thought? What would you have
said? How would you have acted, had you received such a testimony and then been
compelled to wait two years for any kind of an explanation, and then to receive such an
explanation as you give Dr. Stewart here in 1906? W. C. White could not answer these
questions.
As I understand the matter, there are many things
which have brought about the persecution which has been waged against Dr. J. H. Kellogg
and which has finally culminated in his expulsion from the Battle Creek church. Some
of these things were remote and were only incidental. Others were more immediate, of
these I will mention three which stand out more glaringly than the others.
1st, Dr. Kellogg is a man of whom W. C. White has
stood in fear for many years. He has told me on several occasions that he was afraid
of him, afraid of his influence, afraid of his power as an organizer. He said to me
more than once, "I am afraid to meet Dr. Kellogg, he has such a way of stating things
that I cannot answer him."
Just before the General Conference which was held
in Oakland in 1903 I asked W. C. White who he thought would be elected President? He
replied, "We have been planning to elect Elder A. G. Daniells, and I expect we will
be able to elect him if your brother does not oppose us. I am afraid, however, that
he will come to this Conference with sufficient influence to prevent it. I am in
hopes, however, that we may be able to elect Elder Daniells." This shows how
greatly he feared Dr. Kellogg. So much for this cause.
2nd, Dr. Kellogg had been left alone in his
struggle to re-build the Sanitarium. An attempt had been made to ruin his credit,
and Dr. K. had decided to give his book, Living Temple, to the Sanitarium, they to
publish it and use the profits as a building fund. A large edition was to be printed
and sold by subscription.
As soon as this fact became known a move
was made by those who were working against Dr. Kellogg to stop the sale of the book by
pronouncing it heretical. The true reason for wishing the sale stopped was because
its sale would absorb many of the Canvassers who were engaged in selling Sister White's
books, and other of the S.D.A. denominational books; therefore, to stop the sale of Living
Temple, the charge was made that it taught pantheism. This charge was made by
some of the General Conference officers in the face of the fact that the theology
taught in Living Temple is in perfect harmony with the theology taught by Sister White and the
leading ministers of the denomination and the editors of the denominational papers.
In 1904, when the book Living Temple was
being so severely criticised I called on Sister White and had a talk with her on the
subject. She told me that the book taught pantheism. I told her that I had
read it carefully several times and that I had been unable to find in it any different
theology than that which I found in several of her books. I then asked her if she
had even read the book. "No," said she, "I have never read it, Willie
has called my attention to a few paragraphs, but I have never closely examined it.
It was not necessary for me to do so. I have been shown twice in the night season
that which makes me say it must not be sold. In one of these night visions a
dignified person, the one who is usually present when I am in vision, stood before me with
a copy of Living Temple in his band. Holding it up before me he said, 'This
book must not be sold.' A short time before, or after, this I had been reading an
account of a Steamer which in crossing the Atlantic, had encountered a large iceberg and
had found it very difficult to avoid colliding with it.
"A few nights after reading this account I
dreamed that I, with many others, was on a Steamer on the ocean; we had been sailing along
smoothly but suddenly came very close to an enormous iceberg. The Captain tried in
every way to get away without a collision, but his efforts were useless. It seemed
as though our vessel would be hurled against the iceberg and dashed in pieces. At
the moment when it seemed that we would be struck by the ice, the dignified person whom I
have so often seen in the night season, appeared on deck and speaking to the Captain, he
said, 'Meet it, Meet it, Meet it.'
"At this the Captain had the ship put about
and run straight for the iceberg. It struck the berg with a tremendous crash which
made the ship tremble from stem to stern, but the blow destroyed the berg. The ice
came tumbling onto the ship until it seemed as though it must sink, but the ice all slid
off, the ship rose and sailed safely on it's way. When I awoke from this vision I
knew at once what we had to do about Living Temple and about your brother's
work. We have got to meet it just as I saw the ship meet the iceberg. Now I
want to tell you again that your brother John is not truthful. He has lied to
me. When I wrote to him that he must not sell Living Temple he promised me
faithfully that he would not, but he has broken his word for he kept right on selling the
book and has sold many thousand copies since he promised not to sell any more. It is
impossible for your brother to speak the truth, speaking untruths has been his failing all
his life. Your brother John has become exalted like Nebuchadnezzar and like him he
must be humbled, and I expect that like Nebuchadnezzar he will go insane."
The third and chief thing which, in my opinion,
contributed most to the persecution of Dr. J. H. Kellogg and his final expulsion from the
Church, was the fact that Mrs. White had sent him, as a testimony from God, a charge that
was not true, in any particular, a charge that was based on a dream which came to her as a
result of reading the newspaper article concerning his work in Chicago and as a result of
having seen in some of our denominational papers, a cut of the rented building in which
the work in Chicago was conducted. Having made a mistake which she could not
satisfactorily explain or correct she and others then made the mistake of trying to humble
the Doctor and bring him to terms by seeking to destroy his influence, by proclaiming him
a pantheist, a hypocrite, and a dangerous person. Not satisfied with this they
sought to cripple the Sanitarium in its work by an endeavor to prevent it from getting
nurses to care for the patients, by circulating all manner of vilifying stories about the
Doctor and his helpers. They also sought to cripple the Medical Missionary College
by preventing students from entering it as far as possible. This work of trying to
cripple the Sanitarium and the Medical College was hatched up by some of the officers of
the General Conference. It was agreed by them that the safest, the quickest, and
probably the only way in which Dr. Kellogg could be crushed and humbled would be by
cutting off his supply of students, helpers and nurses. After agreeing upon their
plan, and after agreeing that the only way in which it could be accomplished was by
showing that he was a pantheist, and a general all round bad man, they wrote the matter
out, sent it to Sister White, got her to endorse the plan, and to write some articles for
publication in the Review & Herald.
These statements I had from Bro. Osborne, who told
me that he was present at the meeting where the matter was considered by officers of the
General Conference Committee. He also told me that he was the secretary of that
Committee. I have just learned that Bro. Osborne died about ten days ago.
To sum up, I am shut up to the conclusion that the
persecution and expulsion of Dr. J. H. Kellogg was due primarily to a blunder of Mrs.
White in sending a short testimony of reproof to him, charging him with having done things
which he had not done and, secondarily, to a fear that the Doctor would use this false
vision against her to the hurting of her influence in the denomination, and against her
claim of being the mouth piece of God to this people. And thirdly, to a fear that if
he was not humbled, crushed, or driven out of the Church, as was Nebuchadnezzar from among
men, he would by his great organizing ability finally turn the canvassers from the sale of
Sister White's books to the sale of his own, and thus abridge her income from the royalty
on her books, which I am told W. C. White's son-in-law reported here in Healdsburg as
being five thousand dollars a year.
There are several reasons why I am fully satisfied
that Mrs. White has sent out many false testimonies, believing at the time that she was
speaking truth. I am personally knowing to two such testimonies in which a person
was sharply reproved for doing certain things, when to my certain knowledge the person
reproved had not only not done, but had actually done the very opposite. Another
thing which makes me believe that Mrs. White is not God's mouth piece in all she writes,
is the fact that she has to employ helpers of literary ability to revise and edit what she
says the Lord specially reveals to her. The most noted of these helpers were Marian
Davis and Fanny Bolton. It seems very strange that what is given by inspiration of
God, to a person specially chosen and inspired by Him, has to be revised and edited by an
uninspired person.
In 1894, when in Melbourne, Australia, Mrs. White
told me that in writing Great Controversy, and preparing it for the people, Marian
Davis and Fanny Bolton had charge of it. She further told me that these girls were
responsible for certain things which went into that book in the shape in which they
did. She said that Marian Davis confessed her part in the wrong, but Fanny Bolton
would make no confession. Mrs. White did not tell me just what wrong was committed
by the girls. I suppose the reason why she spoke to me on the subject was because of
the fact that Fanny Bolton had come to me with a statement as follows.
Said Fanny, "Dr. Kellogg, I am in great
distress of mind, I come to you for advice for I do not know what to do. I have told
Elder Starr (Geo. B.) what I am going to tell you, but he gives me no satisfactory
advice. You know, said Fanny, that I am writing all the time for Sister White.
Most of what I write is published in the Review and Herald as having come from the
pen of Sister White, and is sent out as having been written by Sister White under
inspiration of God. I want to tell you that I am Greatly distressed over this matter
for I feel that I am acting a deceptive part. The people are being deceived about
the inspiration of what I write. I feel that it is a great wrong that anything which
I write should go out as under Sister White's name, as an article specially inspired of
God. What I write should go out over my own signature, then credit would be given
where credit belongs." I gave Miss Bolton the best advice I could, and then
soon after asked Sister White to explain the situation to me. I told her just what
Fanny had told me. Mrs. White asked me if Fanny told me what I had repeated to her,
and my affirming that she did, she said, "Elder Starr says she came to him with the
same thing." Now, said Sister White with some warmth, "Fanny Bolton shall
never write another line for me, she can hurt me as no other person can." A few
days later Miss Bolton was sent back to America. From that day to this my eyes have
been open.
Signed/ M. G. Kellogg