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Life Sketches of Ellen G. White
The General Conference of 1883
The fall camp meetings were followed by the twenty-second annual
session of the General Conference, during which Mrs. White gave
many “morning talks” to the ministers, published first in the Review,
and later in the 1893 edition of “Gospel Workers.” Concerning the
Conference, Mrs. White reported:
“The meetings at Battle Creek were fraught with deeper interest
than similar meetings ever held among our people. Many prayers had
ascended to heaven in behalf of this session of the General Conference;
and we can testify that Jesus came up to the feast, and was an honored
guest at this important gathering. The Bible readings afforded valuable
instruction to ministers, licentiates, and people. The morning meetings,
designed especially for the benefit of ministers and other workers in
the cause of God, were intensely interesting. Faith and love were
awakened in many hearts. Spiritual and eternal things became a reality,
and not a mere sentiment; a glorious substance, and not a fitful shadow.
This precious meeting is in the past, but its results are to be seen in the
future. We shall never know the good accomplished during the twenty
days of its continuance until we meet around the great white throne.”
The Review and Herald, January 15, 1884
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Closing Labors in the East
Appointments were out for a ten days’ Bible and Missionary Insti-
tute at South Lancaster, Mass., and a general meeting for the believers
in the Pennsylvania Conference at Wellsville, N. Y. These Mrs. White
was persuaded to attend, and upon her return to Battle Creek she spoke
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on Friday night to the helpers at the Sanitarium, and on Sabbath day
to a large congregation in the Tabernacle.
“These were my closing labors in the East on this journey,” wrote
Mrs. White of the Bible Institutes attended; “and I have to say to the
praise of God, that He has sustained me at every step. I have prayed in
the night season; and in the day, when traveling, I have been pleading
with God for strength, for grace, for light from His presence; and
I know in whom I have believed. I return to California with more
strength and better courage than I had when I left Oakland the 12th