Chapter 34—November 17-18, 1848

Ellen White Saw a Great Publishing Work Ahead. 

Joseph Bates recorded some of Ellen White’s utterances made while she was in vision at the home of Otis Nichols in Dorchester, Mass., in November, 1848. Bates published these Ellen G. White comments two months later. He quotes Ellen White as saying: SDD 22.1

When Michael stands up this trouble will be all over the earth. 

Why they are just ready to blow. There’s a check put on because the saints are not sealed. 

Yea, publish the things thou hast seen and heard, and the blessing of God will attend. Look ye! that rising is in strength, and grows brighter and brighter. That truth is the seal, that’s why it comes last. The shut door we have had. God has taught and taught, but that experience is not the seal, and that commandment that has been trodden under foot will be exalted. And when ye get that you will go through the time of trouble. 

Yea, all that thou art looking at, thou shalt not see just now. Be careful, let not light be set aside which comes from another way from which thou art looking for. 

Bates then adds: SDD 22.2

The above was copied word-for-word as she spake in vision, therefore it is unadulterated; some sentences escaped us, and some which we have not copied here.—A Seal of the Living God, January, 1849, pp. 25-26. See Francis D. Nichol, Ellen G. White and Her Critics, pp. 248-249. 

Ellen White was shown a publishing ministry which still lay ahead for the Sabbath-keeping Adventists. Belief in the shut door obviously did not preclude a major missionary endeavor. The influx of large numbers of new converts is comprehended in this vision. Such a concept is hardly compatible with the idea that probation for the world had already closed. Any notion of a closed door of mercy that the Sabbath-keeping Adventists may still have had must have been fading fast. SDD 22.3