Uriah Smith
endorsement of Jones and Waggoner as
God’s messengers exacerbated their nat-
ural lack of humility. Her support did not
have to have that effect, but such hearty
public endorsements could be kept in
balance only if Waggoner and Jones con-
stantly applied their message of surrender
to the Holy Spirit in their own lives.
Evidently, however, that was the point
where they fell short.
Jones, having largely failed as editor of
the Review, was put out to pasture in
1901. He was replaced by Uriah Smith,
who was delighted by the reversal. Un-
fortunately, however, Smith could not
resist responding to the editorials Jones
had published on the gospel in Gala-
tians. In 1902 the “new” editor spon-
sored a series by William Brickey that
uplifted the pre-1888 position on the law
in Galatians. While Smith still claimed
that he believed in justification by faith,
his revival of the Minneapolis contro-
versy so upset the General Conference
administration that it again removed
him from the editorship. His replace-
ment was W. W. Prescott, who had
aligned himself with Jones and Wag-
goner in the early 1890s. These new de-
feats spelled the end for the aged warrior.
The Review that announced the change
also noted that Smith was seriously ill.*®
Never fully recovering from the shock,
he passed to his rest in Match 1903, at
the age of 70.
Butler, meanwhile, came out of retire-
ment after the death of his wife. In 1901,
at age 67, he became president of the
Florida Conference. From 1902 to 1907
he served as president of the Southern
Union Conference. He remained sur-
prisingly active in the work of the church
14  MINISTRY/FEBRUARY/1988
until his death in 1918. He apparently
never did alter his views on the law in
Galatians, and the apostasy of Jones and
Waggoner in the early years of the new
century merely emboldened him in his
position.
Paradoxically, it was the victors at
1888 rather than the losers who eventu-
ally left the denomination. Waggoner’s
most serious problems began in England.
Not only did he espouse pantheism, but
he began advocating the concept of
“spiritual affinity” — the view that a per-
son not rightfully a marriage partner in
this life might be one in the life to come.
His entanglement with Miss Edith
Adams, a British nurse, led his wife to
divorce him in 1905. The next year he
married Miss Adams.
Though Waggoner separated from de-
nominational employment during the
Kellogg schism of 1903, he never became
aggressive in his opposition to the church
or its teachings. But while he retained his
belief in righteousness by faith, by the
time of his death in 1916, Waggoner had
given up many of his distinctive Advent-
ist beliefs. Shortly before his death he
claimed, in what appears to be a carefully
written document, that his rejection of
such beliefs as the Adventist view on the
sanctuary service had begun as early as
1891.%°
Jones, who called Waggoner his
“blood-brother in ‘the blood of the ever-
lasting covenant, preached Waggoner’s
funeral sermon.” ” *! Like Waggoner, he
had sided with Kellogg in the Battle
Creek schism in 1903, becoming presi-
dent of the doctor’s new Battle Creek
College.
Having been rejected in his bid for
denominational leadership in the late
1890s and the early years of the twentieth
century, Jones, unlike Waggoner, be-
came the foremost public assailant of the
Seventh-day Adventist denomination
and of Ellen White. In a series of tracts
and small books he attacked church orga-
nization, the concept of a denomina-
tional president, and the person and
work of Ellen White.
His denominational credentials were
removed in 1907 and his church mem-
bership in 1909. After 1915 he edited
The American Sentinel of Religious Liberty,
a private publication that took regular
potshots at Adventists. His church affil-
iations were erratic during this period,
his last fellowship being with a group of
tongues-speaking Sabbathkeeping Pen-
tecostals. Unfortunately for Jones, that
group decided to organize into what was
to him the abomination of abomina-
tions —a denomination—and Jones had
to forsake them.’®> Soon thereafter,
Jones's health broke down. After a lin-
gering illness, he passed to his rest in May
1923. ]
! G. 1. Butler, Leadership (Battle Creek, Mich.:
1873), p. 1.
2 G. I. Butler to E. G. White, Oct. 1, 1888.
3 E. G. White to G. I. Butler, Oct. 14, 1888.
4 E. G. White to Mary White, Nov. 4, 1888.
3 See G. R. Knight, From 1888 to Apostasy: The
Case of A. T. Jones (Hasgerstown, Md.: Review
and Herald Pub. Assn., 1987), pp. 33, 178-193.
© Uriah Smith to A. T. Robinson, Sept. 21,
1892.
"TE. G. White to E. J. Waggoner and A. T.
Jones, Feb. 18, 1887.
8 A. T. Robinson, “Did the Seventh-day Ad-
ventist Denomination Reject the Doctrine of Righ-
teousness by Faith?” (unpublished manuscript, Jan.
30, 1931).
?E. ]. Waggoner, The Everlasting Covenant
(London: International Tract Society, 1900), p. v.
10 | The Gospel in the Book of Galatians
(Oakland, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1888),
p. 45.
1 G. I. Butler to E. G. White, Oct. 1, 1888.
12. G. I. Butler to E. G. White, Dec. 16, 1886.
13 “General Conference Proceedings,” Review
and Herald, Dec. 14, 1886, p. 779.
14 G. I. Butler to E. G. White, Oct. 1, 1888.
I> E. G. White to W. H. Healey, Dec. 9, 1888;
E. G. White manuscript 15, 1888; E. G. White
manuscript 13, 1889.
16 See, e.g., Uriah Smith to Ellen G. White,
Feb. 17, 1890; Review and Herald, Sept. 23, 1884,
pp. 616, 617.
1" D. T.Jonesto]. D. Pegg, Mar. 17, 1890: D. T.
Jones to W. C. White, Mar. 18, 1890; O. A. Olsen
to G. C. Tenney, Mar. 20, 1890.
18 E. G. White, in Review and Herald Extra, Dec.
23,1890, pp. 1, 2; E. G. White manuscript 3, 1891;
D. T. Jones to R. M. Kilgore, Jan. 9, 1891; O. A.
Olsen to R. A. Underwood, Jan. 16, 1891.
190. A. Olsen to]. H. Morrison, July 10, 1892;
0. A. Olsen to E. |. Waggoner, July 27, 1892.
29 (3. 1. Butler, in Review and Herald, June 13,
1893, p. 377.
21 Report of Conference for the Consideration
of the Subjects of Righteousness by Faith and the
Relation of Faith and Works, Held in Dr. Kellogg's
Parlor on the Evening After the Sabbath, Feb. 18,
1893” (unpublished manuscript). (Italics sup-
plied.)
22 S.N. Haskell to E. G. White, Oct. 3, 1899; E.
G. White manuscript 26a, 1892; J. H. Kellogg to
W. C. White, Oct. 2, 21, 1891; Sept. 9, 1892.
23 See Knight, pp. 178-193.
24 “Saving Health,” Review and Herald, Nov. 22,
1898, p. 752. See also Knight, pp. 56-60, 167-171.
gener Conference Bulletin, 1897, pp. 70, 71,
84-89.
26 See Knight, pp. 83, 84, 104-131.
27 E. G. White manuscript 15, 1888.
28 Eugene F. Durand, Yours in the Blessed Hope
(Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub.
Assn., 1980), pp. 266-268; Uriah Smith to L. F.
Trubey, Feb. 11, 1902; “Notice to Readers of the
Review,” Review and Herald, Feb. 25, 1902, p. 128.
2% A. G. Daniells to W. C. White, Jan. 21,
1910.
OE. J. Waggoner, The ‘Confession of Faith” of
Dr. E. J. Waggoner, p. 14.
31 The Gatherir g Call, November 1916, p. 6.
32 See Knight, pp. 226-256.
33 The American Sentinel, September 1922, pp.
7, 8; October 1922, pp. 3, 4.