An Interview with J. S. Washburn

Elder J.H. Morrison was put up to answer E.J. Waggoner, to defend the "old" view of the Law in Galatians. I was present at the Conference. E.J. Waggoner and A.T. Jones were about 35 then (actually, Jones was 38). Morrison defended the law as ceremonial, and Uriah Smith defended the Huns as one of the ten horns. When A.T. Jones made his bold remark asking the delegates not to blame him for what Uriah Smith said he did not know, Ellen G. White rebuked him saying, "Not so sharp, Brother Jones, not so sharp!"

A.T. Jones had a wonderful Christian experience. I went to the Conference prejudiced in favor of the Old view of the "Law" in favor of Morrison and Elder G.I. Butler. I felt that Jones and Waggoner were undermining the faith. But I was perplexed to hear Jones praying, and said to myself, "That man prays as though he knows the Lord!" I couldn’t understand how such a bad man as Jones must be in opposing Uriah Smith so sharply, could pray like that. Jones was very keen, and logical. But Uriah Smith was sort of an idol to me.

(James White was the head of his household; let his wife know he was. Ellen G. white was a great walker. She was walking down the street near the office in Battle Creek, when James called, "Ellen!" and she returned obediently. Often she would rebuke her husband, saying, "Too sharp!" and he would always take it.)

J.H. Morrison was father to Elder H.A. Morrison of Takoma Park [in 1950, H.A. Morrison was prominent there]. "Why, that man who talks to Uriah Smith as he does, certainly talks like he knows the Lord!" I thought.

When my wife saw Ellen G. White she said, "Isn’t she homely!" Sister White would stand by A.T. Jones and E.J. Waggoner and would say, "Brethren, there’s great light here." She would hear Waggoner all the way through, but would get up and go out before Morrison would finish his rebuttal. So I asked Morrison, "I know those two men are wrong." "Of course they are," he said. "They were all in California together, including Sister White, and came on the train together, so they influenced Sister White to go with them."

"Well," I thought, "she’s no prophet if she will be persuaded by men to follow them. We don’t really have a prophet!"

At that meeting, I received a call to go to West Virginia. I went with J. H. Morrison [president of the Iowa Conference at the time] to see Sister White about my going to West Virginia. She would give no counsel, said, "Brethren, my counsel has no weight in Iowa!"

Morrison, in his belittling the Spirit of Prophecy, would reason that not all that Ellen G. White said was inspired. When she said, "I saw," all right; but otherwise, she is not inspired any more than other people’s utterances. "Is ‘pass the potatoes’ inspired, simply because she would say so?" he would ask.

So I decided to go to her alone. She was always talking about faith. "What is faith?" I asked her. "Why," she replied, "don’t you believe what your father and mother tell you?" "Yes. I do." "Well, believe God in just that way!" I marveled at such a simple answer.

I was on the wrong side at Minneapolis. But I couldn’t understand how A.T. Jones could pray as