Chapter 8—A Successful Public Speaker Today most Seventh-day Adventists think of Mrs. White primarily as a writer. Many families have copies of her numerous books on their library shelves. But many who lived during her lifetime knew her better as a public speaker. At first she presented most of what she saw and learned in her visions through sermons and talks. When an angel instructed her to “make known to others what I have revealed to you,” teen-age Ellen naturally took the command as a divine order for her to speak. With books and newspapers scarce throughout the young United States, public speaking was the most common form of public communication. {AOT 61.1} To a timid seventeen-year-old girl with only three grades of formal education, public speaking seemed terrifying. In addition, three months of throat and lung disease had left her voice little more than a whisper. She did not know how she could possibly talk before large groups of people. {AOT 61.2} Her whole nature shrank in horror from the thought of being God’s spokesman to the church. If she had someone to go with her, she thought, then she might be able to present the instruction God had given her. But her brother—two years older than she—had even worse health than she did and was even more shy about meeting people. Because of his family and business, her father could not travel with her. He did tell her, however, that if God wanted her to journey to other towns and cities to speak for Him, He would arrange things so that she could travel safely. {AOT 61.3} But her father’s assurance failed to cheer Ellen. She slipped into greater depression and melancholy. Her problem seemed to daily become more complicated and unsolvable. Although she wanted to obey God, she did not know how she could. Afraid of meeting people, her health poor, her voice nearly gone, she shrank from speaking to others about her visions. Death seemed to be the only way she could escape from disobeying God. {AOT 62.1} Ellen’s friends added to her misery. Noticing her growing depression without knowing what caused it, they thought it sinful that she should let herself become so sad, especially since God had honored her by giving her a vision. The Portland, Maine, Adventists met in the Harmon home, but Ellen could not force herself to attend the meetings. The turmoil in her mind made her want to remain in her room or go somewhere else. One day someone did persuade her to come. {AOT 62.2} The little group of Adventists gathered and prayed for Ellen, prayed that she would be able to accept God’s purpose for her life. John Pearson, an elderly family friend who had looked upon Ellen’s earlier vision as possibly from Satan, now tried to encourage and comfort the distressed young woman. Too exhausted and depressed to do anything, she just sat there, unable to pray. Her thoughts, however, joined her friends’ prayers, and she realized that she would do anything possible to please God. She no longer had any fear about going out to speak to people. {AOT 62.3} In the middle of the prayers Ellen felt the mental depression that had plagued her for several days leave, and a brilliant light suddenly appeared in the room. Pearson, who had not kneeled during the prayers because of his rheumatism-crippled legs, saw a glowing sphere of light flash toward Ellen’s heart. “I saw it!” he exclaimed after she came out of the vision and regained her sight and hearing. “I saw it! I will never forget it. It has changed my whole being. Ellen, have courage in the Lord.” {AOT 63.1} The young woman nodded, the vision still vivid in her mind. She had seen several angels, and one of them had repeated the command, “Make known to others what I have revealed to you.” Her chance to fulfill it came quickly when she went with her brother-in-law to visit her sisters living in Poland, Maine, thirty miles away. {AOT 63.2} While there she had an opportunity to speak at a small religious meeting. For the first five minutes her voice remained little more than a hoarse whisper. Then her speaking difficulty dramatically vanished, and she spoke clearly and strongly for nearly two hours. But when she finished, the soreness and difficulty in breathing returned and remained until the next time she spoke at a meeting. {AOT 63.3} More and more speaking appointments came. First she traveled throughout Maine, then to other parts of New England and to New York, and finally across the United States. Years later she journeyed and spoke in Europe and Australia. Her voice strengthened until people claimed they could hear her distinctly outdoors at distances up to a mile without any kind of electronic amplification or loudspeaker system. Audiences ranged from five to twenty thousand people, and she often kept their attention for hours. Grace White Jacques, a granddaughter of Ellen White, who often listened to her talks and sermons, said Mrs. White spoke simply, wasting no words, in a soothing but expressive tone. {AOT 64.1} Mrs. White obtained a reputation as an excellent speaker not only among Seventh-day Adventists, but among others as well. One day a young minister named A. J. Breed attended a large gathering held in Battle Creek, Michigan. Wanting to get a good seat in order to hear Mrs. White well, he went early and sat on the front row. As he waited for the meeting to start, a stranger came in and took the seat beside him. {AOT 64.2} Glancing around a moment, he turned to Breed and asked, “I understand that Mrs. White will speak here today. Is that true?” {AOT 64.3} The minister assured him that she would. {AOT 64.4} “I have come all the way from Chicago to hear her,” the man said. {AOT 64.5} The arrival of Mrs. White and several ministers on the platform ended his attempt at conversation. After the usual opening exercises Mrs. White stepped to the lectern. During the talk Breed noticed the stranger out of the corner of his eye. The man seemed extremely interested, sometimes leaning forward in his seat in concentration as he studied her movements and expressions. {AOT 64.6} When the meeting closed and the audience prepared to leave, the man from Chicago touched Breed on the shoulder and asked, “Could you tell me what school of elocution Mrs. White attended and where she learned public speaking?” {AOT 65.1} “She has never attended any,” the young minister told him. {AOT 65.2} “But she must have. I can see the training in the way she speaks. It’s obvious.” {AOT 65.3} Shaking his head, Breed insisted, “No, I’m sure she hasn’t had any formal training in public speaking. In fact, she’s had little formal education.” He briefly described the accident and sickness that had plagued her childhood and prevented her from going to school. {AOT 65.4} The stranger’s face mirrored disbelief. “I head an elocution school in Chicago,” he said after a pause, “and I am positive someone has taught her public speaking. She did everything tonight perfectly. For example, we teach our students the best movements to make with their hands. When they step forward with their right foot, they use their right hand to make things balance. And that’s what she did every time. Her breathing, her articulation—everything she did followed what we teach. I had hoped tonight to learn the name of the school she’d gone to.” Again Breed repeated that she had never had any formal training in public speaking. The man stared at the floor a moment, then commented, “There’s only one thing I can say: If no human being taught her how to speak, then the angels must have, because she’s an expert at it.” {AOT 65.5}
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 02:33:38 +0000