Chapter 1—Dorchester Vision of 1848 and Our First
Publishing Ventures
The Dorchester Vision of 1848 [
Following their return from
Western New York in September, 1848, Elder and Mrs. White jour-
neyed to Maine, where they held a meeting with the believers, October
20-22. This was the Topsham conference, where the brethren began
praying that a way might be opened for publishing the truths connected
with the Advent message. A month later they were with “a small com-
pany of brethren and sisters,” writes Joseph Bates in his pamphlet on
“The Sealing Message,” “assembled in meeting in Dorchester, near
Boston, Mass.” “Before the meeting commenced,” he continues, “some
of us were examining some of the points in the sealing message; some
difference of opinion existed about the correctness of the view of the
word ‘ascending’ [see
Revelation 7:2
], etc.”
Elder James White, in ... giving his account of this meeting, writes:
“We all felt like uniting to ask wisdom from God on the points in
dispute; also Brother Bates’s duty in writing. We had an exceedingly
powerful meeting. Ellen was again taken off in vision. She then began
to describe the Sabbath light, which was the sealing truth. Said she:
‘It arose from the rising of the sun. It arose back there in weakness,
but light after light has shone upon it until the Sabbath truth is clear,
weighty, and mighty. Like the sun when it first rises, its rays are cold,
but as it comes up, its rays are warming and powerful; so the light
and power has increased more and more until its rays are powerful,
sanctifying the soul; but, unlike the sun, it will never set. The Sabbath
light will be at its brightest when the saints are immortal; it will rise
higher and higher until immortality comes.’
“She saw many interesting things about this glorious sealing Sab-
bath, which I have not time or space to record. She told Brother Bates
to write the things he had seen and heard, and the blessing of God
would attend it.”
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