It was early summer in 1882 before Ellen White had recovered sufficiently from the shock of James White's death to settle down to a consistent program of book production. When she did, weighing heavily on her mind was volume 4 of the Spirit of Prophecy series--The Great Controversy, dealing with the post-Christian era from the destruction of Jerusalem to the new earth. But first there was the writing dealing with current issues, primarily those relating to Battle Creek. She was living in her home on the little farm on West Dry Creek Road just out of Healdsburg. At first she felt she could give only half of each day to literary work, spending the other half-day in sewing and chores about the place.
In early August, Testimony No. 31 came from the press. It was a 244-page volume available in either paper or cloth binding but with a larger sized page than heretofore--approximately the Testimony size so well known by Seventh-day Adventists. Its serious messages had an impressive impact on the church, particularly the seven chapters that filled the first eighty-nine pages, dealing with the Battle Creek problem and education in general in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. These carried the titles "Camp Meeting Address," "Our College," "Parental Training," "Important Testimony," "The Testimonies Slighted,""Workers in Our College," and "Jealousy and Faultfinding Condemned."
Currently these chapters fill the first one hundred pages of Testimonies for the Church, volume 5.
S. N. Haskell declared Testimony No. 31 to be "the most solemn one that has been published" (The Review and Herald, October 24, 1882). Early in the Ohio camp meeting a copy arrived and frequently the entire camp was called together to hear portions read; the hearers were deeply affected (The Signs of the Times, September 7, 1882). G. I. Butler, the president of the General Conference, wrote of it, "Never before has so important a testimony been given to us.... It is filled with the choicest matter and the most stirring truths. Never were our dangers set before us as a people more clearly."--The Review and Herald, August 22, 1882. Reported Sanborn, a minister, "How thankful I feel that the Lord has not left us in our darkness and backslidings, but in mercy calls us to hear His special counsel." (Ibid., September 19, 1882).
Early Writings of Ellen G. White
Just before the turn of the year, a little volume bearing the title of Early Writings of Ellen G. White came from the press. It was a book eagerly sought by Adventist families, for it provided Ellen White's three earliest books, long out of print:
1. Christian Experience and Views of Mrs. E. G. White, a sixty-four-page pamphlet published in 1851 that presented many of her early visions. This included her first vision, at this time found in no other work.
2. Supplement to Experience and Views, a forty-eight-page pamphlet published in 1854. It explained some points in the preceding work that were not clear to all readers, and added some testimony-type articles on church order, et cetera.
3. Spiritual Gifts,, Volume I, the 219-page presentation of the great controversy story published in 1858.
As noted in an earlier chapter, at the General Conference session of 1879 action was taken recommending "the publication of a small edition of her [Ellen White's] earliest writings, now out of print, to bring all her writings within the reach of those anxious to obtain them" (Ibid., December 4, 1879).
Butler was delighted when finally in late 1882 this was brought about. He wrote an announcement for the Review entitled "A Book Long Desired." After naming the little books comprising Early Writings, he explained:
The first two, published some thirty years ago, have long been out of print, and only a very few of the older Sabbathkeepers have ever seen them. The latter has been read by more, as a larger edition was published.... But we wish to speak more especially of the two first-mentioned portions of the volume. There has long been a strong desire for the publication of a new edition of these. These were the very first of the published writings of Sister White. Since they went out of print, many thousands have become interested in her writings. Many of these have greatly desired to have in their possession all she has written for publication.... It meets a want long felt.--Ibid., December 26, 1882
Butler then discussed the criticisms brought by certain persons who had leveled accusations against the church of suppressing the early E. G. White writings. He declared, "They have claimed to be very anxious to obtain these writings to show up their supposed errors. They now have the opportunity."
When Butler explained the publication of Early Writings, he was doing so in terms of the republication of Ellen White's early books, notably the first, Experience and Views. He made no reference to the fact that her first vision had been published in several forms in 1846 and 1847--an article, a broadside, a pamphlet by James White. When the account of her first vision appeared in her first book, there were some deletions of which he was either unaware or had overlooked. Copies of these very early items were extremely scarce. The critics made the most of it, claiming suppression. As will be noted in another chapter, Ellen White herself entered the discussion and made some explanations. The publication of Early Writings was actually and truly the reprinting of the earlier books. As soon as copies were available in Oakland, Ellen White autographed and sent one each to Haskell, Smith, Andrews, Loughborough, and J. E. White (MKW to WCW, January 7, 1882).
New Year's Day, 1883
When the new year dawned, Ellen White was spending a few days in Oakland at the W. C. White home. Willie was in Battle Creek, having gone east to attend the 1882 General Conference session held in Rome, New York. She had received an invitation from officers of the Oakland church to be present at the Sabbath school reunion to be held New Year's night and had made the trip from Healdsburg a few days before. Mary White, urging her mother-in-law to accept the invitation and spend a few days in Oakland, wrote somewhat of the program that was planned:
They intend to have a Christmas tree, or rather a New Year's tree, and some exercises by the children, and would like an address by you. We would like to have you with us Christmas too, and would urge it strongly were it not that you dislike our climate so much and might not be able to remain till New Year's. Would want you to stay as long as you can after New Year's.
We don't intend to go into Christmas presents very heavily this year, but I tell the family that if they have any presents to make, they must wait till New Year's so as to have you with us. So you must be sure to come.--MKW to EGW, December 17, 1882.
When Ellen White received this letter she was deeply involved in writing volume 4, but she was pleased to accept Mary's invitation.
The Monday night New Year's program, in which she participated, went off well. "The exercises were good and appropriate," Ellen wrote. "I spoke about one-half hour." Her remarks must have been appropriate and fitted to her audience, for she says, "The children listened with interest." Two Christmas trees were in the church, the trees and their decorations donated by the German Baptists. Offerings to the Lord were placed on one of the trees as fruit, and when gathered netted $172 for the Oakland church. Her final brief comment was that "all passed off pleasantly; nothing objectionable in the whole matter."--Letter 8, 1883.
Holiday Articles in the Review and Signs
In preparation of articles for the Review and Herald and the Signs of the Times, Ellen White and her helpers had worked ahead of the calendar. The readers of the Signs found the first article in the 1883 volume appropriately titled "The Old Year and the New." Its opening paragraph urged all, as the new year dawned, to engage in "serious, candid, critical self-examination," especially in "the things which concern our eternal interests" (The Signs of the Times, January 4, 1883). Her Review and Herald article ran to five columns. It was titled "Holiday Gifts": readers were reminded:
The holiday season is fast approaching with its interchange of gifts, and old and young are intently studying what they can bestow upon their friends as a token of affectionate remembrance. It is pleasant to receive a gift, however small, from those we love. It is an assurance that we are not forgotten, and seems to bind us to them a little closer.--The Review and Herald, December 26, 1882.
Then she counsels, "Brethren and sisters, while you are devising gifts for one another, I would remind you of our heavenly Friend.... Will He not be pleased if we show that we have not forgotten Him?"
Practical Gift Suggestions
In the setting of the gift-giving at the Christmas season, she made some suggestions:
It is right to bestow upon one another tokens of love and remembrance if we do not in this forget God, our best friend. We should make our gifts such as will prove a real benefit to the receiver. I would recommend such books as will be an aid in understanding the Word of God, or that will increase our love for its precepts. Provide something to be read during these long winter evenings.--Ibid.
She recommended books she herself admired and had been referring to as she was writing on the great controversy theme and on New Testament history:
For those who can procure it, D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation will be both interesting and profitable. From this work we may gain some knowledge of what has been accomplished in the past in the great work of reform. We can see how God poured light into the minds of those who searched His Word, how much the men ordained and sent forth by Him were willing to suffer for the truth's sake, and how hard it is for the great mass of mankind to renounce their errors and to receive and obey the teachings of the Scriptures....
Many of our people already have the Life of Christ [Geikie]. The Life of Paul [Conybeare and Howson], now offered for sale at this office, is another useful and deeply interesting work which should be widely circulated.--Ibid. (Geikie advertised in Ibid., November 7, 1882).
She mentioned also as appropriate the Testimonies and the three volumes of Spirit of Prophecy, and suggested children's books as appropriate reading--all available from the publishing houses, east and west.
Spirit of Prophecy, Volume 4
Now she was deeply engrossed in writing and preparing manuscripts for two books, Spirit of Prophecy, volume 4, and Sketches From the Life of Paul.
When plans were laid in the late 1860s for the Spirit of Prophecy series, it was at first envisioned as books of about 400 pages each. Volume 1, dealing with Old Testament history and published in 1870, made a book of 414 pages. When she wrote New Testament history, it was found that two volumes were needed, one with 396 pages depicting the life of Christ from His birth to the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the other with the events of Christ's Passion Week to His ascension and then taking up briefly the work of the apostles. These were published in 1877 and 1878. James and Ellen White hoped that the closing book of the series would be in the field without too much delay, but through the last two years of his life she could do but little with it. This remained the situation for the first year after his death.
In an endeavor to keep the volumes close to the 400-page mark, volume 3 was held to 392 pages. This cut the story off in the midst of Paul's ministry, leaving him in Thessalonica. It was her plan to begin volume 4 at this point, and she continued writing five more chapters on this basis. These books were planned for Seventh-day Adventist reading. A uniform size for the books was considered important, as was the $1-per-volume price. But God had other plans; Ellen White was instructed through vision to adopt the format now seen in The Great Controversy. The fourth volume was to begin with the account of the destruction of Jerusalem. She followed this instruction. The five unused chapters on New Testament history were included in the second printing of volume 3, even though it made a book of 442 pages.
Instructed to Trace the History of the Controversy
It was revealed to Ellen White that she should present an outline of the controversy between Christ and Satan, as it developed in the first centuries of the Christian era and in the great Reformation of the sixteenth century, in such a way as to prepare the mind of the reader to understand clearly the controversy going on in the present day. Writing of this in 1888 as she had occasion (just four years after its issuance) to enlarge and revise volume 4, she explained:
As the Spirit of God has opened to my mind the great truths of His Word, and the scenes of the past and the future, I have been bidden to make known to others that which has thus been revealed--to trace the history of the controversy in past ages, and especially so to present it as to shed a light on the fast approaching struggle of the future.
In pursuance of this purpose, I have endeavored to select and group together events in the history of the church in such a manner as to trace the unfolding of the great testing truths that at different periods have been given to the world, that have excited the wrath of Satan, and the enmity of a world-loving church....
In these records we may see the foreshadowing of the conflict before us. Regarding them in the light of God's Word, and by the illumination of His Spirit, we may see unveiled the devices of the wicked one.... The great events which have marked the progress of reform in past ages, are matters of history, well known and universally acknowledged by the Protestant world; they are facts which none can gainsay. This history I have presented briefly, in accordance with the scope of the book, and the brevity which must necessarily be observed, the facts having been condensed into as little space as seemed consistent with a proper understanding of their application.--The Great Controversy, xi.
Chapters Published in Signs of the Times
Many of the chapters of the Spirit of Prophecy volumes on the life of Christ had appeared, while in preparation, in Signs of the Times. Ellen White now decided to follow the same plan as she wrote the chapters for volume 4. Just where she may have begun her writing for the book is unknown. She mentions doing such writing two years before James White's death. Now in 1883, the May 31 issue of the Signs carried as its lead article the beginning of a series of 20 articles featuring Martin Luther as the central figure in the Protestant Reformation. In preparing this material for publication, she was fulfilling the commission "to trace the history of the controversy in past ages," selecting and grouping "events in the history of the church." Much of this history had passed before her in vision, but not all the details, and not always in its precise sequence. In a statement read at Autumn Council of the General Conference Committee on October 30, 1911--a statement that had been carefully read by Ellen White and carried her written endorsement--W. C. White spoke of how she received light on Reformation history and the manner in which the writings of others were an aid to her in this work.
The things which she has written out, are descriptions of flashlight pictures and other representations given her regarding the actions of men, and the influence of these actions upon the work of God for the salvation of men, with views of past, present, and future history in its relation to this work.
In connection with the writing out of these views, she has made use of good and clear historical statements to help make plain to the reader the things which she is endeavoring to present. When I was a mere boy, I heard her read D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation to my father. She read to him a large part, if not the whole, of the five volumes. She has read other histories of the Reformation. This has helped her to locate and describe many of the events and the movements presented to her in vision.
This is somewhat similar to the way in which the study of the Bible helps her to locate and describe the many figurative representations given to her regarding the development of the great controversy in our day between truth and error.--Selected Messages 3:437.
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, in 1882 and 1883 Ellen White had within easy reach the volumes of D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation. She recommended them as appropriate Christmas gifts in her Review article. She pointed out that they were interesting and profitable and a source of valuable knowledge of God's hand in Reformation days.
The Review and Herald frequently carried advertisements for D'Aubigne's books, and Butler, in the March 13 Review, urged Adventists to secure and read them. A notice on the back page of the same issue of the Review advertised the set of books, normally selling for $5, as available for $4.
The Relation of Ellen White's Articles to D'Aubigne
All this publicity and urging Seventh-day Adventists to secure and read D'Aubigne's works on the Reformation is significant in view of the suggestion that in her tracing the history of the controversy she plagiarized the works of other authors. It is clear that she did make use of the writings of others in her narrative. But there was nothing surreptitious about it, and her use of the writings of others in no way injured the income from these standard works to their authors.
As she penned the Luther story, she had at hand a condensation of D'Aubigne's work that she found most helpful. A notation in her handwritten manuscript on Luther gives a lead to this: "See Words That Shook the World, 240 pages." She was here referring to a volume in her library written by Charles Adams: Words That Shook the World; or, Martin Luther, His Own Biographer. Being Pictures of the Great Reformer Sketched Mainly From His Own Sayings (New York: Carlton and Porter, 1858). In his preface Adams informs the reader: "For most of the sketches herein comprised I am indebted mainly to the work of D'Aubigne, from whose voluminous and captivating pages I have endeavored to draw forth the subject of my book, and, with a style and brevity suited to youthful readers, set him forth for their contemplation." In her writing on Luther for the series of Signs articles, she found this condensation of D'Aubigne helpful and copied some, paraphrased some, and gave some in her own words.
Through 1883 Ellen White was optimistic about the early completion of volume 4. On March 17 she wrote to J. N. Andrews in Switzerland:
I have not been able to write many letters on account of the effort I am making to get off volume 4. I am making good headway on this book, and four weeks, I think, will complete it.--Letter 9, 1883.
On July 3, while in Oakland hurrying the publication of the Testimony for the Battle Creek Church, she wrote her helper, Mrs. Ings, "I am in a hurry to get all settled down and rush this book." Marian, she said, "can press ...volume 4" (Letter 13, 1883). But in mid-August, with Butler urging her to help with the camp meetings, the unfinished work was laid aside to wait until the next year.
Sketches from the Life of Paul
There was one new E. G. White book that, in addition to the 244-page Testimony No. 31, was published in 1883. It was entitled Sketches From the Life of Paul. It had an interesting history. The Review and Herald, January 16, 1883, carried a note that the Sabbath school lessons beginning with the second quarter would be on the book of Acts of the Apostles. For collateral reading the two publishing houses offered copies of the popular standard work Life and Epistles of St. Paul, by the British clergymen W. J. Conybeare and J. S. Howson, as premiums with their respective journals (Ibid., January 2, 1883; The Signs of the Times, January 11, 1883). Not carrying an American copyright, the book had been picked up by several American publishers and had been issued in inexpensive popular editions, some of which could be secured for $1 per copy. Several thousand copies were distributed among Adventist readers. Just at this time Ellen White was adding to what she had written on the apostle Paul in her six chapters at the close of Spirit of Prophecy, volume 3. She greatly valued the Conybeare and Howson book, and as a part of an advertisement for it, wrote this communication:
The Life of St. Paul, by Conybeare and Howson, I regard as a book of great merit, and one of rare usefulness to the earnest student of the New Testament history.--Ibid., February 22, 1883
The Call for an Ellen G. White Lesson Help
Soon Adventists familiar with Ellen White's lucid style of writing in the several chapters on Paul at the close of Spirit of Prophecy, volume 3, were clamoring for a book from her pen on the subject. In response she took the published chapters and then prepared more material for a volume entitled Sketches From the Life of Paul. This 334-page volume, containing thirty-two chapters, was published in early June, 1883, to be used as a help for the Sabbath school lessons, which would run for another year.
As Ellen White prepared these materials, she had at hand both the Conybeare and Howson book and Farrar's Life and Work of St. Paul. She made some use of words and phrases from each. In this she was doing much as did the British authors. Howson, in a footnote to chapter 2, admitted gaining "useful suggestions" and in some cases adopting the "very words" from unnamed "modern Jews" (Conybeare and Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul, vol. 1, p. 34, note). (See F. D. Nichol, Ellen G. White and Her Critics, pp. 424, 425.)
Sizable editions of the E. G. White book Sketches From the Life of Paul were published by both the Pacific Press and the Review and Herald (MKW to WCW, June 5, 1883), and it was received with great favor. Wrote Butler after reading the book:
We obtained a volume as soon as it was accessible to us, and have read it through with the deepest interest. To those familiar with her writings, it is unnecessary to say that the language is beautiful, clear, and most forcible. It is indeed written in her very best style, which is a very high commendation. It seems to me that no one can read this book without being made better by it.
Though covering the same ground, and mentioning the same things contained in the Acts of the Apostles, yet there is a great flood of light thrown upon that narrative, bringing out most clearly many interesting circumstances, holding up to view many causes and effects which would not be discerned by the ordinary reader. Here is the great force of Sister White's writings, covering Bible subjects.--The Review and Herald, July 24, 1883.
For nearly two decades the book was available from the publishers. When stocks ran out, Ellen White was asked about its continuation. She recognized that it was not a full treatment of the experience brought to view in the New Testament Acts of the Apostles, nor did it contain comments on the Epistles written by others than Paul. As she hoped before too long to fill in the gap between The Desire of Ages and The Great Controversy, she did not give approval for continued printings.
It took her much longer than was anticipated to get to the task of filling in this gap. Not till the year 1911 was her 630-page book The Acts of the Apostles published. This lapse of time gave opportunity for rumors to be circulated, particularly that the book had been withdrawn from the market because of threatened legal action by the publishers of the Conybeare and Howson book. That such a rumor was pure fiction is demonstrated by the following letter of January 18, 1924, from the publishers of the edition the Review and Herald and the Pacific Press used as premiums in early 1883:
Dear Sir,
Your letter of January 15 received.
We publish Conybeare's Life and Epistles of the Apostle Paul, but this is not a copyrighted book and we would have no legal grounds for action against your book and we do not think we have ever raised any objection or made any claim such as you speak of....
Very truly yours,
Thomas Y. Crowell Company
Nichol, op. cit., p. 456 (see also DF, p. 389).
Testimonies for the Church, Volumes 1 to 4
From the publication of the first Testimony pamphlet in 1855, important instruction, admonition, encouragement, and reproof reached the church through thirty-one Testimony pamphlets, each of sixteen pages to 240 pages. In 1878 the General Conference session voted that these materials should be kept in print and made available to the church in a more permanent form.
In the early 1880s the publishers and Ellen White were faced with dwindling stocks. In late 1881 Marian Davis and Willie and Mary White began giving attention to what might be needed in the way of revising the wording, correcting imperfect grammar, or making clear the meaning intended by Ellen White. As the work was done, type was set and printing plates were made.
While W. C. White was in Battle Creek at the 1881 General
Conference session, Mary wrote to him:
Yours from Battle Creek containing instruction concerning the Testimonies came to hand last evening. Your suggestion to insert the volume and number in running title we all think good....
With regard to changes, we will try to profit by your suggestions. The fear that we may make too many changes or in some way change the sense haunts me day and night.--MKW to WCW, January 7, 1882.
Three weeks later Mary wrote a progress report: "There are now a little more than three hundred pages of the first volume of Testimonies electrotyped [in printing plates]. There is some more in type and much more prepared."--MKW to WCW, January 29, 1882. Work on this task progressed as other tasks allowed. On November 29 Mary wrote of what seemed to her and others of the need for some explanatory notes, and suggested following the style of Geikie in numbering such notes. In May, 1883, she was working on a subject index for volume 1 of the Testimonies, which she thought would "be of great value if done right" (MKW to WCW, May 13, 1883).
When W. C. White and his mother went to the General Conference session in Battle Creek in November, 1883, he took with him a report of the work in preparing the Testimonies for publication in convenient permanent form. He called for a resolution of explanation and General Conference support. Here is the action taken on the last day of the session:
Whereas, Some of the bound volumes of the Testimonies for the Church are out of print, so that full sets cannot be obtained at the office; and--
Whereas, There is a constant and urgent call for the reprinting of these volumes; therefore--Resolved, That we recommend their republication in such a form as to make four volumes of seven or eight hundred pages each.
Whereas, Many of these testimonies were written under the most unfavorable circumstances, the writer being too heavily pressed with anxiety and labor to devote critical thought to the grammatical perfection of the writings, and they were printed in such haste as to allow these imperfections to pass uncorrected; and--
Whereas, We believe the light given by God to His servants is by the enlightenment of the mind, thus imparting the thoughts, and not (except in rare cases) the very words in which the ideas should be expressed; therefore--
Resolved, That in the republication of these volumes such verbal changes be made as to remove the above-named imperfections, as far as possible, without in any measure changing the thought; and further
Resolved, That this body appoint a committee of five to take charge of the republication of these volumes according to the above preambles and resolutions.--Ibid., November 27, 1883
Butler appointed the committee, as follows: W. C. White, Uriah Smith, J. H. Waggoner, S. N. Haskell, and himself (Ibid.).
The General Conference on Record Regarding Inspiration
This was a time when the work of Ellen White was being carefully scrutinized and consideration was given to inspiration-revelation as it related to her experience and writings. The action taken at the session to deal with faulty grammar and to clarify some statements was to become very important to Seventh-day Adventists, for it puts on record the position of the church that has been a bench mark in dealing with the question of inspiration.
The work of preparing the testimonies for publication in four volumes proceeded, culminating in their publication in 1885.
One other task called for immediate attention if the provisions of the General Conference session, as they related to the E. G. White books, were to be carried out. Her writing on the life of Christ, as it appeared in Spirit of Prophecy, volumes 2 and 3, was to be prepared for publication in a single volume. This was to be translated in the languages of Europe, providing books that could be sold to the general public. The editorial task was assigned to Marian Davis. She began this at once, for A. B. Oyen was to begin translating the Danish-Norwegian edition almost immediately (MKW to WCW, December 6, 1883).