The fourteen 1876 camp meetings over, in early October James and Ellen White returned to Battle Creek, staying at the home of William and Jenny Ings. Mary helped in getting out the volume on the life of Christ, Spirit of Prophecy, volume 2. As they rallied from the incessant camp meeting labor, they began to plan for the return to the Pacific Coast, but first they had the job of hastening the book through the press.
Ellen White's October 19 letter to William and Mary in Oakland was devoted largely to plans for writing and publishing. C.W. Stone, newly elected managing editor of the Review and Herald, reported:
Sister White is keeping all hands busy with her pen, and Brother White is hard at work several hours each day in arranging the manuscript [for Spirit of Prophecy, volume 2] for publication in a book, and at the same time selecting portions of it to be printed in several pamphlets [Redemption series]. The presses are kept busy. Everybody here has enough to do, and God blesses in doing His work. He sustains His servants in their arduous labors wonderfully.--Ibid., November 9, 1876
Writing from Battle Creek on October 26, Ellen declared:
We are in the very worst drive and hurry getting off my volume two, Spirit of Prophecy. Three new forms are already printed. If we remain here four weeks longer we shall have the book completed, and removed from my mind great burden of care....
These few weeks will tell if we can make it. I fear if we left immediately the book would be hindered for two months.--Letter 46, 1876.
The Review for November 9 carried the announcement of the book:
The second volume of the Spirit of Prophecy, by Mrs. E. G. White, will be ready in a few days. This work is a thrilling description of the first advent, life, teachings, and miracles of Christ, and will be regarded by the friends of Mrs. White as a book of almost priceless value.... Price, postage paid, $1.00. J. W.
Uriah Smith was unstinted in his words of appreciation and commendation of the volume on the life of Christ:
We are prepared to speak of this volume, now just issued, as the most remarkable volume that has ever been issued from this office. It covers that portion of the great controversy between Christ and Satan which is included in the life and mission, teachings and miracles, of Christ here upon the earth. Many have endeavored to write the life of Christ; but their works, as compared with this, seem to be only like the outer garments to the body. Here we have, so to speak, an interior view of the wonderful work of God during this time.
And if the reader has a heart that can be impressed, feelings that can be stirred, an imagination that can respond to the most vivid portraiture of the most thrilling scenes, and a spirit to drink in lessons of purity, faith, and love from Christ's divine example, he will find in this volume that which will call into liveliest play all these faculties. But the best of all is the lasting impression it must make for good upon all who read.--The Review and Herald, November 30, 1876.
On November 16 the Whites and Mary Clough took the "fast train" for California. The Battle Creek they left was very dear to the hearts of James and Ellen White, and that affection was mutual. Feelingly, he wrote of his farewell just before taking the train for the West:
Twenty-one years since the Review and Herald was moved from Rochester, New York, to Battle Creek, Michigan. Here we have battled for truth, and the manifestation of true and undefiled religion among our people, for more than a score of years. Here we have witnessed the growth of our publishing work with deepest interest. Here we have seen the establishment of our Health Institute and the planting of our first college. We are happy to record that prosperity attends all these institutions.
At Battle Creek there is a large membership with whom we have during the past seven months enjoyed the happiest days of the past twenty-one years. We have never enjoyed so great freedom in preaching the Word to this people or to any other, as to the Battle Creek church since our return from California last April. This church has had trials, and has made mistakes. But having acknowledged those wrongs, and having entered into a most solemn covenant to stand unitedly for the right, the blessing of God has been returning, and last Sabbath morning was the best and happiest service we have ever enjoyed with this people.--Ibid., November 9, 1876
He reminisced of success and disappointments, and reminded his readers that he and his wife were growing old and never again could undertake to make a round of the camp meetings as they had just completed. He mentioned plans to refrain from such labor and spend a year on the Pacific Coast.
In her letter to her children in Oakland, Ellen White expressed herself in regard to the beloved Battle Creek they were about to leave:
I tell you, Will, we ...ought to be here all the time. This is the great heart of the work, and if the body here is healthy, a healthful current will be diffused through the entire body. Your father's and my influence is needed here more than in any other place. We are appreciated here. We can do more good when we are appreciated than when we are not.
We [have] never had greater influence among our people than at the present time. They all look up to us as father and mother. There is nothing that they would not do for us to help us if they could. We hate to tear away, but we must.--Letter 46, 1876.
C. W. Stone, in his Review editorial titled "Westward," wrote touchingly of the departure of the Whites and several who were accompanying them to work at the Pacific Press:
At 1:17 P.M. we heard the rumbling of the wheels, and filling the windows in the south end of the three office buildings, where we could watch the departing train, our corps of helpers waved their handkerchiefs with many a good wish for the dear friends and servants of God who were rapidly being borne from our sight.
Our prayers go with them. May they safely arrive in Oakland, where a welcome greeting has long been awaiting them; and from that sunny coast may the servants of God be able to send out words of warning, reproof, and good cheer to all parts of the wide harvest field, until in the providence of God it shall seem good to them again to visit us.--The Review and Herald, November 23, 1876.
The Work for the Winter
To James White, the return to California meant picking up his work as editor of the Signs of the Times. He would be assisted by his daughter-in-law, Mary Kelsey White, who at the age of 20 was serving as managing editor and would soon have her name on the masthead as such. It was to return to the newly established publishing house efficiently managed by his son William, now 22, reaching out for the aid of experience in the publishing business. It was to encourage George Manual, foreman of the plant, who had taken charge at the age of 21, "being master before he was apprentice," as James White put it, but who "called books and genius to his aid," and was gaining a reputation for the excellence of his work" (The Signs of the Times, December 14, 1876). "Thank God for children," expostulated James White, as he reflected on the words of a "tramp" printer who, visiting the plant, commented that the work was conducted by children.
To Ellen White, to return to California, was, in part, to return to their Oakland home and their two married sons in the West, but mainly to pick up the work of writing on the later events in the life of Christ for volume three of the Spirit of Prophecy, and for the Signs. Regarding the latter, James White explained:
Mrs. White designs to furnish matter for each number of the Signs which will deeply interest all our readers. Her expositions of Scripture truths, practical appeals, and her life sketches will add great importance to this volume of our paper.--The Review and Herald, December 28, 1876.
Added to this was the selecting of suitable reading for children and youth. This feature of work can be traced back a full year to December, 1875, when the Pacific Press published twenty little booklets of children's stories.
Children's Stories Selected by Ellen White
Some twenty years before this, when the children of James and Ellen White were growing up, and before Seventh-day Adventists had either schools or appropriate reading matter for youth, except the eight-page monthly Youth's Instructor, Ellen White began to select, largely from religious magazines, stories with moral lessons that would help to furnish appropriate reading for the Sabbath in their home.
At this period of time there was an exchange of journals between publishers. The Review and Herald furnished its journals, the Review, the Health Reformer, and the Youth's Instructor, to non-Adventist publishers in return for the journals they put out. It was a common practice, and the magazines so received were referred to as "exchanges." These journals came to Uriah Smith's desk. After he had looked them over and selected what he wanted from them, he passed them to Ellen White. She, in turn, watching for helpful materials, especially to read to her family, clipped out choice articles and pasted them in scrapbooks--large-sized volumes made up by binding the issues of some journals together for this specific purpose, or constructed from heavy new stock. These grew in number until there were some twelve or fifteen, which she referred to as her scrapbooks. They are now in the White Estate vault.
As time went on, Ellen White and others observing the value of these materials began to think in terms of some booklets for children. Well along in the year 1875 she led out in selecting materials for twenty little books of sixteen pages each, to be put out in neat, colored covers. James White, advertising them in the Signs of December 23, 1875, described their origin. This is one of the few places Ellen White was linked, by name, with this enterprise:
We have for sale at this office a series of little books for children suited to the ages of from 5 to 12 years. Mrs. White has been gathering blessed little stories for the past twenty years, and pasting them in her scrapbooks. This little series of books is a careful selection from a great amount of excellent reading matter for children, and will be universally acknowledged by all who become acquainted with them to be the best in print.
These were priced at 2 cents each or 40 cents for the full series of twenty. The same material was put up in ten books of thirty-two pages each with "highly colored, glazed covers," which could be had for 50 cents postpaid, for the set of ten. Although the pamphlets were small and inexpensive, James White thought big in terms of their distribution. He continued:
We know that our friends have ten thousand little sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, and other little folks who are very dear to them to whom they wish to present these precious little books. So we print enough for all.
Seventh-day Adventist parents and others welcomed heartily this new line of literature. Beginning in the early months of 1876 and continuing for several years, the Signs carried a department titled "The Home Circle." Not a few stories selected from Ellen White's scrapbooks were here republished. Many holes cut into the pages of these scrapbooks testify to the use made of these materials as items were clipped out to make up copy for the journal. Looking through these scrapbooks today, one finds at the head of a number of the clippings, in Ellen White's handwriting, the words penciled, "Child's Book," "Sunshine Series," "Second Series," et cetera.
Just before leaving Battle Creek for the West, Ellen White, in writing on October 26 to Willie and Mary, mentioned them:
While we are seeking to get off my books, Sister Ings is devoting every evening to my scrapbooks. I have one about completed and several smaller-sized ones half done. We are getting together all the best pieces from exchanges for you to use--mothers' pieces for books, children's pieces for small books, youths' pieces for Sabbath reading. We are working to help you [Mary, in editing the Signs] in your work in every way we can.--Letter 46, 1876.
Soon plans emerged to issue four bound books of about four hundred pages each, composed of such materials; they were called Sabbath Readings for the Home Circle. As the fourth volume was on the press in 1881, James White told the story of this line of work:
In our early labors in the cause, both Mrs. White and the writer have felt a deep solicitude for the precious youth. Thirty long years since, when in comparative youth, before its present managers were born, we published the first number of the Youth's Instructor, containing the first Sabbath school lesson learned by the children of Seventh-day Adventists.
Mrs. White has ever been a great reader, and in our extensive travels she has gathered juvenile books and papers in great quantities, from which she selected moral and religious lessons to read to her own dear children. This work commenced about thirty years since.
We purchased every series of books for children and youth, printed in America and in Europe in the English language, which came to our notice, and bought, borrowed, and begged miscellaneous books of this class, almost without number. And when we established the Pacific Press at Oakland, California, in 1875, we shipped more than half a ton of these books and papers to that office at great expense.
And there we published the Sunshine Series of little books for the little ones, from 5 to 10 years old, the series of Golden Grains, for children from 10 to 15 years, and the volumes for the Sabbath Readings for the Home Circle for still more advanced readers. Our object in publishing in Oakland, California, instead of Battle Creek, Michigan, was to help the California office in its infancy....
We published ten thousand copies of the Sunshine Series, and ten thousand of the Golden Grains at Oakland, making in all 240,000 little books. And we have published six thousand copies of each of the four volumes of the Home Circle, making in all twenty-four thousand bound books....
Precious books! The compilers have spent years in reading and rejecting ninety-nine parts, and accepting one. Precious books, indeed, for the precious youth.--The Review and Herald, June 21, 1881.
The development of these materials, largely for the reading of children and youth, but in some cases the parents, provides a glimpse of Ellen White in a role she did not often fill. She selected materials for publication, materials for which she made no claim beyond that of a compiler. In this work she provided most useful reading matter for Adventist homes. The pamphlets and little bound books were advertised from time to time in the Signs of the Times and the Review and Herald, the bound books selling for 75 cents each, or four for $3.
Plans for the Signs for 1877
As plans were being formulated in late 1876 for the next volume of the Signs, James White wrote an editorial introducing the "new volume." He explained its various special features, penning these lines describing his intentions in regard to one department in the paper:
The "Home Circle" will be a department of great importance to every family. Here will be found lessons of self-control, mutual forbearance and love, respect for parents, the power of kindness toward children, and the great moral and religious lessons of life, which should bless every household. These articles for the family circle, embracing parents as well as children, are not hastily snatched from our exchanges for this year. They have been selected by the watchful, critical eye of a mother, during the twenty years she has been leading her own children to manhood, and by her hand pasted in huge scrapbooks from which they are now taken.--The Signs of the Times, December 28, 1876.
The issues of the Signs from week to week in the months of 1877 testify to Ellen White's faithful work in literary lines, but not altogether as projected by her husband. On an average, a little more than three out of four issues of the paper carried articles from her pen, primarily materials drawn from her writing on the life of Christ, which was a continuing work with her through much of 1877. With few exceptions each issue carried the "Home Circle," with materials selected by Ellen White. The promised articles continuing the story of Ellen White's life did not get prepared, hence did not appear.
James and Ellen White found themselves more worn than they had at first thought, and they were not able to get on with their literary work as rapidly as they had planned. They worked away in Oakland, traveling little and speaking rarely. They did attend the California State Quarterly Meeting in Oakland, Sabbath and Sunday, January 6 and 7. J. N. Loughborough, president of the California Conference, reported:
Sister White gave two searching and powerful, practical discourses, and Brother White favored us with good wholesome counsel and many words of good cheer in our business sessions.--Ibid., January 11, 1877.
Proposal of a Bible Institute
One of the points introduced by James White was the suggestion that a Bible institute be held in California:
We called attention of the brethren to the importance of a Biblical institute being held in this State by Elder Uriah Smith of Battle Creek, Michigan, during the month of April, 1877. We urged--
That our principal hope for accession of numbers to help extend the cause on this coast is in the proper selection and thorough drilling of young men to go forth and teach the Word of God, and circulate our publications among the reading public.--Ibid.
The time was favorable, he pointed out, just before the tent campaign and the harvesting of crops in California. He felt that at least fifty persons needing "such a drill" could be brought together for such a session. In the Signs of February 1, he set forth the plans.
It would probably run about four weeks with two or three lectures each day. The Oakland church (sixty members) would open their new house of worship for the lectures and bear the incidental expenses arising from the meetings. Explaining the work, White stated that it would offer "thorough training on theoretical and practical subjects, besides the spiritual benefit which is ardently hoped will attend such a gathering" (Ibid., February 1, 1877).
As they neared the time of opening, he commented, somewhat in warning,
The lecturers will be thoroughly prepared for the work of the occasion, and students will have all they can do, early and late, without taking time to visit. Plain living, and hard study, will be necessary to success on the part of students who shall take this course.--Ibid., March 1, 1877.
He expected a large attendance, and advised: "If students will bring bedding, and can live on bread and fruit, the floors of the church basement, office [Pacific Press], and some other rooms will be free to them."
The institute opened in connection with the California State Quarterly Meeting held on Sabbath, and the dedication of the Oakland house of worship on the weekend of March 31 and April 1. James White enthusiastically reported:
The Biblical institute opens very encouragingly and promises to accomplish more than we had hoped.... Here are young men of mind and culture who are making the best of their time in close study of the great Bible truths that lie at the foundation of the last message. Great results will appear in the future history of the cause from this series of Biblical lectures.--Ibid., April 5, 1877.
Some forty-seven students attended. At its close he wrote of the work done:
The lecturer took a brief survey of subjects, guarded well all critical points, put questions to the class upon the previous lecture, and answered questions presented in writing. This work usually occupied an hour. Two or more lectures were given each day. This kept the class hard at work. Thus sixteen days were profitably and very agreeably spent by Elder Smith and his class at Oakland, California.--Ibid., May 3, 1877.
J. H. Waggoner and James White also participated in giving some of the lectures. Uriah Smith calculated that the matter presented to the class in the seventeen days was equal to "sixty-four ordinary lectures." He noted that "some of the most important subjects were presented by Brother White," who he said "attended and took part in the work as other duties would permit." As to the class, Smith reported that they gave evidence that they had come to work, and the "interest continued unflagging to the close."
In his report to the readers of the Review, Smith described the closing days of the institute:
The last two days three sessions were held each day, during which the time was largely occupied by Brother and Sister White in giving instruction to the class of a practical nature, touching the best methods of study and labor, and the course to be pursued by those who labor in public or private in the sacred cause of present truth. This was most timely, and was highly appreciated by the class.--The Review and Herald, May 3, 1877.
Soon after Uriah Smith had given his first lectures, arrangements were made for a presentation of the material in synopsis form in the Signs of the Times. The May 3 issue carried lesson one on "The Great Image of Daniel, Second Chapter," and lesson two, "The Vision of Daniel, Seventh Chapter." Anticipating the publication of the material in book form, the editors had the type set in a column wider than usual so it could be used in a book as well.
By urgent request, Smith was detained on the Pacific Coast for a number of weeks, making it possible for him to visit most of the churches.
James and Ellen White continued with their writing; in her case, she pressed on with the events of the Passion Week in the life of Christ. On Friday morning, May 11, after they had been in California for twenty-five weeks, they took the train for Battle Creek.