HMS Richards Remembers Meeting Ellen G White Interview

http://adventistsermons.blogspot.co.uk/ In this video the Late HMS Richards Snr recounts the time he saw Ellen White preach and the impact it had on the people. He remembers people crying as they repented and how he felt the presence of the Lord during that meeting that he was afraid to open his eyes as he thought he might see God.
When you were a boy you saw Ellen White personally, didn't you? Can you tell me a little bit about her?

A. Yes, when my brother and I were little boys she came to Denver and talked with Father and Mother. My brother sat on one side of her and I on the other, and she talked to us, too. I don't remember much about what she said, but when I was about 16 we had a camp meeting in Boulder, Colorado, where the campus of the University of Colorado is now. There was a big octagon building with an iron roof that seated about 1,000 people. The Adventist population of Colorado then was only about 500, and there were probably about 250 there at that meeting. But that day the building was packed. People of all faiths were interested in seeing the Adventist prophet.

Q. What year was that?

A. It was 1909. She died in 1915. I don't remember her subject, but I was one of the boys who put the furniture in the tents.

She wore a long, black silk dress. She wore good material, very plain—a little white around her wrists and around her throat. On her head was a little motherly cap over her gray hair. I remember her as a sweet, old motherlike woman. She had a big floppy Bible, and just as she began to talk, it began to rain. You can imagine the noise it made on that iron roof. She had no amplifier, but she did have a tremendous preaching voice. It was just like a silver bell. You could hear it right through all that rain on the iron roof. She talked for about thirty minutes, using more than one hundred texts. She'd turn to the texts in her Bible, but she didn't stop to look and read. She knew and quoted every text she used. One text just after another. It just came as natural as part of her speech.

After about thirty minutes, Willie White came up behind her and said, "Now, Mother, we've got a long journey ahead." That was their first stop from California, you see. "You've got meeting, after meeting, after meeting—doz ens of towns and long journeys, and we don't want you to overdo and get tired." She replied, "I don't want to stop yet. I haven't prayed yet; I want to pray first." So she talked for about three minutes more and then knelt down on the plat form and began to pray. Her first words were, "Oh, my Father." She didn't say "Our Father"; it was "my Father." Within two minutes there was a mighty power that came over that whole place— a great power. I was afraid to look up for fear I'd see that God was standing right there. She was talking to Him. She'd forgotten all about us. She only prayed about five or six minutes at the most, but as she prayed there were sobs all over that audience—people weeping over their sins. She wasn't even looking at them. She was down on her knees with her eyes closed while praying, and Heaven came down and touched the earth, and God honored her as His prophet.

Q. That personal experience con vinced you that she was a prophet?

A. Yes. I know all the arguments why there should be a prophet, and I believe them. But if we didn't have a single one of them, I'd still believe that she was God's prophet because of what I saw. It was one of the turning points in my life. I've never doubted her since. A revival broke out. Those Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, and Adventists were all weeping over their sins. You know she was a great revivalist, but she didn't get up and harangue the crowd. She prayed, and men took their stand and some of them became preachers. She was a humble woman. She kept her place as a mother in Israel. She was like the prophetesses Deborah and Huldah in the Bible.