God’s communication is not limited to biblical times. As we will see in coming weeks, God speaks to human beings in perpetuity, and His words will be manifested in modern ways until Christ returns.
Ellen Gould Harmon (White) and her twin sister, Elizabeth, were born on November 26, 1827, in Gorham, Maine. They were the youngest of eight children born to Robert and Eunice Harmon. In a few years, the family moved to the city of Portland, Maine, where Robert Harmon hoped to expand his hat-making business. At age nine, Ellen suffered an injury that affected her physically, emotionally, and socially. While she was in a park near her home, an angry classmate threw a stone that struck her in the face, leaving Ellen in a semiconscious state for several weeks. This accident abruptly ended her formal education and left her with lifelong health challenges. The facial injuries also left Ellen self-conscious about her appearance, limiting her social interactions.
It is in this context of uncertainty that the young Ellen Harmon began to think about her spiritual destiny. She was afraid of God and felt unworthy of heaven. Such fearful feelings intensified when the Harmon family accepted the Millerite doctrine of the soon second coming of Jesus. Even after her baptism by immersion into the Methodist Church in 1842, Ellen did not feel worthy of God’s love. She believed she was “forever lost” (Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, p. 29; also see pp. 20–31).
Amid these agonizing thoughts, young Ellen had two dreams that began to change her mind about God. But it was not until she met Levi Stockman, a Methodist preacher, that she understood and felt God’s love and grace. It was as if God spoke to her in her despair. “Faith now took possession of my heart,” she wrote later. “I felt an inexpressible love for God and had the witness of His Spirit that my sins were pardoned. My views of the Father were changed. I now looked upon Him as a kind and tender parent, rather than a stern tyrant compelling men to a blind obedience. My heart went out toward Him in a deep and fervent love.”—Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, p. 39. At the same time, Ellen White also understood the doctrine of the “state of the dead” and gradually grasped the idea that there was no forever-burning hell. Her new understanding of God and His love completely changed her attitude. As we will learn each Friday in the weeks to come, Ellen White fell deeply in love with Jesus and served Him for the rest of her life.
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Supplemental EGW Notes
Reflecting Christ, “The Pure in Heart to Reflect Christ,” December 30, p. 378.
To Be Like Jesus, “Time to Study Revelation,” March 1, p. 69.\
The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.