While working in Australia, Ellen White was speaking one Sabbath about God’s wish for every man, woman, and child to keep the way of the Lord. God’s will was to become our will and “as His children bow in submission to God’s will, and take up the cross, inspiring faith will come to them, and God will endure trials and obey Him in every trial.
She later wrote that as she spoke, a man with a cigarette in his mouth and a young child in his arms entered the hall, placed the child on the floor and sent it to find its mother who was attending the Sabbath meeting. His mother, a Seventh-day Adventist, sat the child in her lap and saw her husband motioning her to leave the meeting, but she did not move. He kept trying to get her attention, but she would not look his way. Mrs. White then spoke to the woman, encouraging her to look to Jesus, to love God and have faith and confidence in him. EGW told her that if she put her trust in God, the divine presence would surely be with her in every difficulty.
Women of that time were felt to be lacking in intelligence and were to focus on raising children and doing housework, deferring to their husbands in all matters of daily life. But EGW encouraged women to think and decide for themselves when it came to serving God and keeping his commandments.