Uriah Smith Biography

By Gary Land

Hanging above Uriah Sith7rsquo;s desk was a simple sketch — presumably drawn by Smith himself — of a dead person lying in a coffin, with the caption “This Man was talked to death.” The humorous sketch proved sufficient to curtail unnecessary conversation from visitors, allowing Smith to stay focused on his work. Indeed, nothing seemed to take his focus from his work — not his artificial leg, a bout with malaria, or even conflicts with Ellen White. In the early Adventist church, the name of Uriah Smith seemed to be everywhere! As a protegé of James White, Uriah Smith sought to move the young Adventist movement from a loose group of like-minded believers into an organized movement equipped to accomplish its world-wide mission. With his writing and editing skills and workhorse energies, Smith was able to assume many of the duties that James White had carried during the earlier years. He became editor of the Review and Herald for most of the next 50 years. His articles and editorials helped shape the thinking of 19th-century Adventists, and he became the church’s foremost authority on the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. Smith was a complex man whose conservative views often brought him into conflict with a changing church and a changing world.

This book provides new insight into Smith’s private life and professional struggles, and consequently, into his sometimes strained relationship with Ellen White.

Hardbound, 256 pages.

Contents

I. Child of New Hampshire
II. Early Days at the Review
III. Battle Creek, 1855 – 1860
IV. Organization and Its Discontents, 1860 – 1880
V. Trials and Reconciliation, 1870 – 1880
VI. A Troubled Time, 1880 – 1894
VII. Conflict Returns, 1885 – 1894
VIII. “The Great Globetrotting Trip,” May 1894 – January 1895
IX. “I Still Adhere to the Old Paths,” 1895 – 1903