Probably Ellen White never had such an opportunity to write as she did in April and May of 1876. She had good literary help in Mary Clough, and the two worked together comfortably. The interests of the cause in the East that had called for James White to go to Battle Creek held him there; although Ellen missed James, home life became simple, and she did very little public work. She determined to make the most of this opportunity.
In 1870, The Spirit of Prophecy, volume 1, had been published, covering Old Testament history to the reign of Solomon. It was largely a reprint of volumes three and four of Spiritual Gifts,, with some amplification. It was put out in a neat volume of 414 medium-sized pages. Now she turned her mind to producing a volume similar in size, on Christ's life and work. This would be volume 2. Volume 3, the post-Biblical portion of the controversy story, would carry the reader to the second coming of Christ and the new earth. This was the plan. When the work was finally finished in 1884, there were four volumes--two on the life of Christ.
Early Beginnings on the Life of Christ
Ellen White had been able to write some on Christ's life in the late months of 1872. As fast as materials were prepared they were published in the Review and Herald--the first on December 17, titled "The First Advent of Christ." Each of the next five issues carried an article. There was a six-week pause for her to catch up, and then another three articles, closing with April 8, 1873; this carried the story to the death of John the Baptist. Sometimes she had not been able to push ahead with the writing, and sometimes James, who gave her literary help, had been too busy to assist her.
After a break of almost a year, eight articles appeared at irregular intervals between February and October in 1874. Five more, on the temptation of Christ, came out in 1875; the series closed in mid-April. At this time James and Ellen were dividing their labors between the East and the West. Camp meetings cut heavily into their time and strength, and writing on Christ's life was laid aside. Ellen White felt the need of competent literary help.
A Resumption of the Writing
When they returned to the West in late September, 1875, they had brought Mary Clough with them. Mary was the daughter of Ellen White's older sister Caroline. She was a Christian girl, but not a Seventh-day Adventist. She had had literary training and was soon giving the help Ellen White needed to go forward with her book production. As to her need of such help, Ellen White a little later wrote:
It is a great task for me to arrange my matter to be placed in the hands of the printer without any aid in the matter. If I could do as I have done, write and have a competent copyist prepare my writing for the press, I could do considerable.--Letter 4d, 1878.
At first the tent meetings in San Francisco had led to some breaks in the work as she and her husband were pressed into service; there was also some work in the churches. However her messages were often on some phase of the life of Christ. Aside from what may be deducted from this, there is little information on the phases of the Lord's ministry she was dealing with, until James White's departure for Battle Creek on Wednesday, March 22, 1876, to attend the special session of the General Conference.
After Lucinda Hall returned to Battle Creek, "China John," an Oriental helper, was brought in to assist with the housework. He knew but little English and had much to learn in both household activities and communication. In her note sent off on Friday, two days after James White's departure, she stated:
We are all well as usual. It takes a little time to get settled down from the excitement of your going. You may be assured we miss you. Especially do we feel the loss of your society when we gather about the fireside evenings. We feel your absence when we sit around the social board. But we shall get more used to this after a while. We have been writing today....
Mary [White, W. C. White's wife] and China John have been cooking today for the Sabbath. It has taken Mary's time almost entirely today. John flies around quick and cheerful.--Letter 1a, 1876.
As already noted, when James and Ellen completed their work in the camp meetings in the fall of 1875, he had declared their intentions to return to the East in the spring to spend the entire warm season in attending camp meetings (The Signs of the Times, November 11, 1875). Now that she was making good progress in writing on the life of Christ, Ellen White began to feel that she should be excused from the camp meetings and continue with her writing, a conviction that grew from day to day.
On Sabbath, March 25, in her letter to James, she wrote:
Mary Clough and I will do all we can to forward the work of my writings. I cannot see any light shining to Michigan for me. This year I feel that my work is writing. I must be secluded, stay right here, and I must not let inclination or persuasion of others shake my resolution to keep closely to my work until it is done. God will help me if I trust in Him.--Letter 63, 1876.
Late the next week she wrote:
I enjoy the presence of God and yet my soul is continually drawn out for more of His salvation. I am writing and having freedom in my writing. Precious subjects I am handling. The last I completed, or about completed, yesterday--Jesus healing the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda. It is a great subject, the discourse of Christ following the healing as He was accused of the Jews of Sabbathbreaking.
We miss you both very much. Mary seems lost without Lucinda. Our China John is a treasure. He does just everything with a nicety that is surprising. Mary has to superintend the cooking. Lucinda had no such help as this to do the drudgery. He works for two dollars per week while trying to learn to cook and talk.--Letter 1, 1876.
Her letter to James written Tuesday, April 4, was full of significant news. On Monday, the meeting of the stockholders of the Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Association had been held. She did not attend, but she was told that their 21-year-old son, William, had been elected president of the association. What she did not mention was that at the directors' meeting, held that same day, he had been elected also as business manager of the newly established publishing house (The Signs of the Times, April 13, 1876). She reported in her April 4 letter that they had sixteen at dinner, and "everything passed off pleasantly."--Letter 3, 1876. Although having a lot of company, she tried to stick to her writing and do as much each day as she dared. She soon found she must limit her writing to about half a day.
She arose early Thursday morning to complete this letter. She wrote of the two leading men at the college in Battle Creek and gave James some counsel on dealing with them and the problems there. She added, "I have not conversed with Mary and Willie as to what I have written, but speak of things that I know myself from high authority."--Ibid.. About her writing she declared:
My trust is in God. I have confidence that He will help me in my efforts to get out the truth and light He has given me to [give to] His people. Mary is good help. I appreciate her.--Ibid.
In her letter written Friday, April 7, she reported on her writing and the visits she and Mary Clough and the two little girls had made to two families. She found a Sister Bohin, of German descent, to be a most devoted believer, with fine taste and an understanding of sacred things. They came away with arms filled with plants for the garden at the new White home. She tells of planting them:
I set out my things in my garden of the new house by moonlight and by the aid of lamplight. The two Marys tried to have me wait till morning, but I would not listen to them. We had a beautiful shower last night. I was glad then I persevered in setting out my plants.--Letter 4, 1876.
Both J. N. Loughborough and J. H. Waggoner were laboring in the area. Ellen White resolved to let them carry the burdens of the churches; she shunned all responsibilities so she could get on with the writing. In this, she told James, "We are all doing well."
The precious subjects open to my mind well. I trust in God and He helps me to write. I am some twenty-four pages ahead of Mary [Clough]. She does well with my copy. It will take a clear sense of duty to call me from this work to camp meetings. I mean to finish my writings on one book at any rate, before I go anywhere. I see no light in my attending camp meetings. You and I decided this before you left....
I have no will of mine own; I want to do God's will. At present His will is to tarry in California and make the most of my time in writing. I shall be doing more for the cause in this than in going across the plains to attend camp meetings.--Ibid.
The next day, April 8, she wrote to Lucinda Hall of her convictions concerning her work:
My husband writes that an appeal is to be sent to me from the conference, but I shall not be moved from that which I believe to be my duty at this time. I have a special work at this time to write out the things which the Lord has shown me. We progress finely, but I cannot write more than half a day....
I want time to have my mind calm and composed. I want to have time to meditate and pray while engaged in this work. I do not want to be wearied myself or be closely connected with our people who will divert my mind. This is a great work, and I feel like crying to God every day for His Spirit to help me to do this work all right.... I must do this work to the acceptance of God.--Letter 59, 1876. (Italics supplied.)
She also told Lucinda that she was getting matter ready for the third "form" thirty-two pages of the Testimony, then in the process of production at the Pacific Press. In her letter to James, written the same day, she declared: "I never had such an opportunity to write in my life, and I mean to make the most of it." In discussing her work, she asks James:
How will it do to read my manuscript to Elders Waggoner and Loughborough? If there is any wording of doctrinal points not so clear as it might be, he (W, I mean) might discern it."--Letter 4a, 1876.
A Day of Recreation
In April, she wrote a longer letter than usual to her husband, quite revealing in many features:
I had written you quite a lengthy letter last night, but the ink was spilled upon it, making an unsightly blotch, and I will not send it.
We received your few words last night on a postal card--"Battle Creek, April 11. No letters from you for two days. James White."
This lengthy letter was written by yourself. Thank you, for we know you are living. No letter from James White previous to this since April 6, 1876. We were very thankful to receive a few lines in reference to yourself from Sister Hall, April 9. I have been anxiously waiting for something to answer.--Letter 5, 1876.
Before closing, she promised, "I will write every morning," and she asks, "Will you do the same?"
Much of the letter is devoted to a description of the activities of the previous day. It seems that Charles Chittenden, a church member in San Francisco, owned a sizable sailboat, and he had invited a number to join him and his wife in an excursion on San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The entire day was spent on the beach and on the water. A steam launch took them out through Golden Gate and to the open Pacific. In the group of passengers were Mary Clough, Edson and Emma White, J. N. Loughborough and his wife, J. H. Waggoner, and a half-dozen others. Mary and Emma were at first seasick, but not Ellen White. She loved every minute of it, and wrote:
The waves ran high, and we were tossed up and down so very grandly. I was highly elevated in my feelings, but had no words to say to anyone.
It was grand--the spray dashing over us, the watchful captain giving his orders, the ready hands to obey. The wind was blowing strong, and I never enjoyed anything so much in my life.--Ibid.
"I was today to write upon Christ walking on the sea and stilling the tempest," she told her husband. "Oh, how this scene was impressed upon my mind." She continued the account of the happenings. She overheard Chittenden say that Sister White looked happy, but he observed that she had nothing to say to anyone. She was filled with awe and buried in her thoughts as she observed the grandeur of the ocean with its high, running waves. The majesty of God and His works occupied her mind. She pondered:
He holds the winds in His hands. He controls the waters. Finite beings, mere specks upon the broad, deep waters of the Pacific, were we in the sight of God, yet angels of heaven were sent from His excellent glory to guard that little sailboat that was careening over the waves. Oh, the wonderful works of God! So much above our comprehension! He, at one glance, beholds the highest heavens and the midst of the sea.--Ibid.
In her mind she saw the disciples that night on stormy Galilee. She penned two or three pages in vivid description of the tempest, the struggles of the disciples at the oars, and the deliverance as Jesus appeared and stilled the troubled waters. She closed the account with the words "He is our Redeemer. We may trust Him in the storm as well as in the sunshine." Then she added:
Can you wonder that I was silent and happy with these grand themes of contemplation? I am glad I went upon the water. I can write better than before.--Ibid.
Days of Loneliness
Most of Ellen White's letters to James at Battle Creek were preserved. In the main, they were rather short and carried but few themes: the happenings about the home, her interest in her husband's activities and welfare, and the progress being made in her writing. Frequently she mentioned her affection for James and the loneliness she experienced in his absence.
In her letter penned on Thursday, April 13, she wrote:
We are all quite well and cheerful. We feel every day a most earnest desire for a more sacred nearness to God. This is my prayer, when I lie down, when I awake in the night, and when I arise in the morning, Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee.
I sleep alone. This seems to be Mary's preference as well as mine. I can have a better opportunity for reflection and prayer. I prize my being all to myself, unless graced with your presence. I want to share my bed only with you. Lucinda is an exception. She seems to be a part of myself as I can make no other one.--Letter 6, 1876.
On Friday, as the sun was sinking in the west, her thoughts turned to her husband. She wrote:
The Sabbath is drawing on. I will write you a few lines so as not to miss one day. If there is no line from me to you, be assured the fault is not mine.
I have not much news to write. We are well as usual, but when Sabbath comes, it seems quite lonely.--Letter 7, 1876.
Four days later, April 18, her letter carried the word of how much she missed James, and added, "We are so buried up in our writing we have no time ...to be lonesome while thus engaged; but when gathered about the fireside, then there is a great miss."--Letter 9, 1876.
On Monday evening, April 24, she described the home situation after the day's work of writing was done.
Mary, Willie, and myself are now seated at the table writing.... We are getting used to being alone so that we do not feel lonesome as we did.... Be of good courage and be just as cheerful and happy as you can. I will do the same.--Letter 13, 1876.
The letters bubble over with her delight in having the opportunity to write on the life of Christ, the subjects she was covering, the fine working relationship with Mary Clough, and with her satisfaction in the finished product.
Ellen White's Intensity in Writing on Christ's Life
She had an appointment to speak Sunday evening, April 16, in San Francisco. Her letter to James carried this word:
I have written quite a number of pages today. Mary is hard after me. She gets so enthusiastic over some subjects. She brings in the manuscript after she has copied to read it to me. She showed me today quite a heavy pile of manuscripts she had prepared. Quite proudly she viewed it....
Willie, his Mary, and Mary Clough accompany me to the city tonight. I think that we had better not get any furniture for the new house till you are here to select it.... I do not wish my mind diverted from my work to even go and select furniture....
Well, I cannot write you very much news, when I shut myself in my chamber day after day writing, and then when I write you every day, but you must be content with what you can get. We now take the boat [for San Francisco].--Letter 8, 1876.
Her next letter gives a report on the meeting in the city Sunday night, wherein she took up the subject of "the loaves and the fishes with which Jesus by His miraculous power fed about ten thousand people," Christ walking on the sea, and the Jews requiring a sign that He was the Son of God. She commented:
All listened with wide-open eyes, and some with open mouths. Mary says she feels provoked that she has written out [in copying and editing the E. G. White text] that subject before she heard me speak upon it. She will now insert some living points she heard that night. She seemed deeply interested.--Letter 9, 1876.
Referring to her writing, she declared:
I see many subjects to write out which must be done with the greatest care. I want this summer, the whole of it, to do this work in. I must stop a day or two in the week and go somewhere or my head will break down. I begrudge every moment that I feel compelled to rest. These intensely interesting subjects weary me far more to write them out than to speak upon them.--Ibid.
Her mind turned again to the plans for the summer. James had promised months earlier that the two of them would attend the 1876 camp meetings. The brethren in the East were urging that she do this, but James was conceding that perhaps it would be well for her to stay in Oakland and continue her writing.
Her letter to James written Monday, April 24, opens with a word picture of activities in the Oakland home:
Mary has just been reading to me two articles--one on the loaves and fishes, Christ walking on the water and stating to His hearers He was the Bread of Life, which caused some of His disciples to turn from Him. This takes fifty pages and comprises many subjects. I do think it the most precious matter I have ever written. Mary is just as enthusiastic over it. She thinks it is of the highest value. I am perfectly satisfied with it.
The other article was upon Christ going through the cornfield plucking the ears of corn and healing the withered hand--twelve pages.... These writings are all I can see now. Mary's interest does not decrease at all. She is just as ardent and anxious as I am that this work shall be done now before we leave California.
Interesting subjects are continually opening to my mind. These subjects I speak upon, which fastens them in Mary's mind. I believe that the Lord is with us and His Spirit will impress our hearts.... I believe the Lord will give me health; I have asked Him, and He will answer my prayer. I love the Lord. I love His cause. I love His people. I feel great peace and calmness of mind.
There seems to be nothing to confuse and distract my mind, and with so much hard thinking, my mind could not be perplexed with anything without being overtaxed.
Then in this newsy letter, a little longer than most of her daily epistles to her husband, she gives the home news:
I have not the least care of anything in the house. Mary White is a good general. Shew [the Chinese servant] is first-rate. Shew gets meals now very good, with some oversight.... Everything seems to move off smoothly and well. All the house is well taken care of. I generally choose to take care of my own room, for I dare not have a hand touch my writings or run any risk of having them mislaid....
We are as regular as clockwork. We arise at five. The bell for prayers rings at six. We have prayers before breakfast. We breakfast quarter after six. There is seldom any variation in our time.--Letter 13, 1876.
Her letter written a few days later, May 5, reveals the plan for two books on the life of Christ. It was now clearly seen that one four-hundred-page volume could tell only about half the story. She wrote: "If I am blessed with health as I have been hitherto, I shall complete my first book in about four weeks."--Letter 21, 1876.
Sources for Her Writing on Christ's Life
The elements that entered into Ellen White's writing on Christ's life were (1) the reports of the four Gospel writers, (2) the visions given to her through the years, (3) the writing of reliable commentators, and (4) the illumination of her mind by the Spirit of God as she pressed on with her writing.
In her first writing on Christ's life in 1858 in Spiritual Gifts,, volume 1, she frequently intimates the vision source by the use of such expressions as:
"I saw that the Son of God was pale and emaciated."--Page 31.
"I then viewed Jesus in the garden with His disciples."--Page 46.
"I saw the Roman guard, as the angelic host passed back to heaven."--Page 68.
In rewriting the story in 1876, she seldom referred to the visions as a source of her work. In one letter, as noted, she was writing out "the things which the Lord has shown me" (Letter 59, 1876). In 1889 she stated that "the betrayal, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus" had passed before her point by point (Letter 14, 1889). It may be assumed that such would apply also to other features of Christ's life and work. It is also reasonable to assume that what she wrote concerning visions given to her while preparing the manuscript for The Great Controversy would also be true of her work on the life of Christ. Of the former she stated: "Many times the scenes about which I was writing were presented to me anew in visions of the night, so that they were fresh and vivid in my mind."--Letter 56, 1911.
In 1900 she recalled:
Heavenly scenes were presented to me in the life of Christ, pleasant to contemplate, and again painful scenes which were not always pleasant for Him to bear which pained my heart.--Manuscript 93, 1900.
Mention has been made of her reference to commentaries. These might well be thought of as an aid to her writing, rather than a basic source. She read quite extensively in some of the well-known and well-accepted commentaries, such as William Hanna's Life of Our Lord, Cunningham Geikie's Life and Words of Christ, Daniel March's Walks and Homes of Jesus, and his Night Scenes in the Bible. Geikie's Hours With the Bible and Edersheim's works on the Temple and its services and Jewish social life were known to her, as well as some others.
W. C. White, newly elected president of the Pacific Press, with his wife, Mary, was living in the White home in Oakland as his mother was writing on the life of Christ. On several occasions, at a later time, he spoke of the use she made of such authors and the reasons for so doing:
Notwithstanding all the power that God had given her to present scenes in the lives of Christ and His apostles and His prophets and His reformers in a stronger and more telling way than other historians, ...she always felt most keenly the results of her lack of school education. She admired the language in which other writers had presented to their readers the scenes which God had presented to her in vision, and she found it both a pleasure and a convenience and an economy of time to use their language fully or in part in presenting those things which she knew through revelation, and which she wished to pass on to her readers.--W.C.W. to L. E. Froom, January 8, 1928 (Selected Messages 3:460).
There may be other reasons as well that are worthy of thoughtful consideration. He mentions several:
The great events occurring in the life of our Lord were presented to her in panoramic scenes, as also were the other portions of the Great Controversy. In a few of these scenes, chronology and geography were clearly presented, but in the greater part of the revelation the flashlight scenes, which were exceedingly vivid, and the conversations and the controversies, which she heard and was able to narrate, were not marked geographically or chronologically, and she was left to study the Bible and history and the writings of men who had presented the life of our Lord to get the chronological and geographical connection.
Another purpose served by the reading of history and the Life of Our Lord (Hanna, 1863), and the Life of St. Paul, was that in so doing there was brought vividly to her mind scenes presented clearly in vision, but which were, through the lapse of years and her strenuous ministry, dimmed in her memory.--(Ibid., 3:459, 460).
The knowledge that Ellen White read from other authors, and at times employed some of their phraseology, has led some to lose sight of the fact that the many visions given to her by God through the years constituted the main source of her information and insights. Were it not for these visions, she would never have written on the life of Christ. Her reading was primarily an aid in presenting what she had seen.
Tensions Begin to Show
Again and again in the interchange of letters between James and Ellen White in the spring of 1876, while he was involved with the work in Battle Creek and she was engaged in her writing in Oakland, they employed such phrases as "You are happy and ...free in your work" and "I am happy and free in my work." The refrain intimates that some tensions were developing. It would seem that these revolved somewhat around the growing tendency on the part of James to feel that he should be privileged to dominate Ellen's work. His keen insight and firm hand in the leadership of the church had saved it many a tragedy, and his strong drive had pushed forward a work that could easily have faltered. But as he advanced in years he was inclined to become demanding and somewhat dictatorial. Through the years Ellen had cherished his counsel, and she much appreciated his assistance in preparing materials for the press. He had been very careful to avoid influencing her or interfering in any way with her special mission. She too had been careful not to be influenced in her work by either friend or foe. She maintained that she must work alone; her messages could be influenced only by God.
On Friday, May 12, replying to a letter from James, she mentioned the fact that her calling upon him to assist her in preparing her writings for print had no doubt annoyed him. She declared:
In regard to my independence, I have had no more than I should have in the matter under the circumstances. I do not receive your views or interpretation of my feelings on this matter. I understand myself much better than you understand me. But so it must be, and I will say no more in reference to the matter. I am glad you are free and happy, and I rejoice that God has blessed me with freedom, with peace, and cheerfulness and courage.... I shall look to God for guidance and shall try to move as He shall lead the way.--Letter 25, 1876.
Although there were some differences of opinion between them at this time, it would be unfair and contrary to the facts to assume that their marriage was endangered. Illness and advancing age accentuated the situation. Nonetheless, the experience, together with the two thousand miles between them, might be said to mark the beginning of "the lonely years."
She was led to write to James four days later:
It grieves me that I have said or written anything to grieve you. Forgive me, and I will be cautious not to start any subject to annoy and distress you. We are living in a most solemn time and we cannot afford to have in our old age differences to separate our feelings. I may not view all things as you do, but I do not think it would be my place or duty to try to make you see as I see and feel as I feel. Wherein I have done this, I am sorry.
I want an humble heart, a meek and quiet spirit. Wherein my feelings have been permitted to arise in any instance, it was wrong....
I wish that self should be hid in Jesus. I wish self to be crucified. I do not claim infallibility, or even perfection of Christian character. I am not free from mistakes and errors in my life. Had I followed my Saviour more closely, I should not have to mourn so much my unlikeness to His dear image.
Time is short, very short. Life is uncertain. We know not when our probation may close. If we walk humbly before God, He will let us end our labors with joy. No more shall a line be traced by me or expression made in my letters to distress you. Again, I say, forgive me, every word or act that has grieved you.--Letter 27, 1876.
The Camp Meetings--E. G. White Would Attend
Notices of the 1876 camp meetings appeared in the Review and Herald and Signs of the Times and announced that the first would be held in Kansas, May 25 to May 29. Others would follow week by week, most opening on a Thursday. The Minnesota meeting would begin on June 20. The decision to devote two books to the life of Christ meant that the first book could be completed early and then she would be free, for a time, from writing. She wrote to James:
We thought we might get my book written in four weeks, and if it is thought best for us to be at the Minnesota camp meeting, we will be there.--Letter 26, 1876.
The Signs of the Times published four days later announced that because of the press of other writing, sketches of Ellen White's life would be omitted for the present (May 18, 1876).
However, on Sunday, May 21, just one week after suggesting to her husband that she might attend the Minnesota meeting in late June, she and Mary Clough were on the train bound for the East. Specifically, she would be at the Kansas camp meeting, scheduled to open on Thursday, May 25. James White triumphantly placed a last-page note in the Review of May 25 that read:
The Camp Meetings
We have received a telegram from Mrs. White stating that her niece, Miss M. L. Clough, and herself would meet us at the Kansas camp meeting the twenty-sixth. We shall probably go the rounds of the camp meetings for 1876, and retire from the northern climate in October, either to the South or to California.
James White.
Whatever work must yet be done on the first volume of the life of Christ would have to be accomplished as they traveled. This volume came from the presses of the Review and Herald in mid-November, 1876, although the title page carries the year date of 1877.