Testimony No. 34, known now as Testimonies for the Church, volume 6, published early in 1901, presented counsels written in Australia. During the nine years she spent there, Ellen White helped to pioneer newly opened fields with the thrust in evangelistic outreach, augmented particularly by evangelistic camp meetings; in church-oriented educational work resulting in the establishment of the Avondale school at Cooranbong; in the medical work represented in treatment rooms and sanitariums; and in church buildings to meet the needs of a growing church and to give stability to the cause.
Many of the testimonies of instruction and counsel penned during this period, while universal in their application, quite naturally relate to these lines of church activity and are strongly represented in the five hundred pages of volume 6.
But with Ellen White back in the United States, another Testimony volume seemed to be needed. The situations that were met in rapid succession during her first two years back in America led to a great deal of writing. She traveled through the South to attend the General Conference session in Battle Creek, which brought her into close touch with the work among the blacks. The 1901 session with its sweeping reorganization brought many administrative matters to her attention. The trip to New York City brought her into close contact with the evangelistic challenge of that great city and other cities of America.
There was the accelerated interest in opening new sanitariums and establishing food factories and vegetarian restaurants. There were the operational problems of two longstanding publishing houses and the establishment of a third in Nashville; the Battle Creek Sanitarium fire and its important lessons; and not least, the many contacts with newly opened colleges and medical institutions as she crossed and recrossed the continent. As noted earlier, she found that "at every place" she "visited there was writing that must be done for that place."--Letter 213, 1901.
Testimonies for the Church, Volume 7
While Ellen White was on the precarious winter trip to New York just at the close of 1901, Marian Davis was busy at Elmshaven drawing materials together for consideration for the proposed new Testimony volume. In a brief note to her, W. C. White, in the East, wrote on December 20:
I am much pleased with the work you are doing on Testimony No. 35, and I can only say, go forward with good courage. Give the matter room to be well and clearly presented.
There is a movement on foot for the establishment of many more sanitariums; this will make it important for us to bring out in the next Testimony very fully what Mother has written on the erection and management of sanitariums.--18 WCW, p. 174.
Quietly through the next few months the work progressed. Writing to Dr. and Mrs. Kress in late April, Ellen White reported:
At times my brain is so intensely active that it seems impossible for me to write the ideas as fast as they come to me.... I have four workers at work for me, besides my son.... I have much to place in their hands.--Letter 68, 1902.
As the work progressed on Testimony No. 35, articles on soul winning--the theme ever uppermost in Ellen White's mind--took the lead. There were appeals for lay families to move to new territories and, as they engaged in making a livelihood, let their light shine. There were the needs of the great cities; the church should delay no longer in its thrust in a strong work in soul-winning activity. Articles on family worship and married life needed to be written.
The manuscript for the section on sanitarium work encompassed the whole world field in its appeals and included instruction on starting medical institutions, their location, and their operation. It also came to grips with a declining of the spiritual experience of personnel in the church's older medical institutions.
With health-food manufacturing burgeoning and with the starting and operation of vegetarian restaurants, a section of the new book was appropriately given to this rapidly developing phase of the work.
Problems in the publishing institutions abounded, and there was need for counsels dealing with situations from "the object of our publications" to "commercial work," with the devastating effects of some of the demoralizing literature published; from the making of translations to "avoiding debt" and the threat of consolidation.
Volume 7 of the Testimonies was to bring to the attention of all believers the importance of the much-neglected work--the work for blacks--in the Southern part of the United States. In a series of five articles published in the Review and Herald late in 1895, Ellen White had made an earnest appeal for a strong work in the South. Now having traveled through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee in 1901, and visiting Tennessee again in early 1902, she devoted a section to the Southern field in which she brought to the church the fact that "the proclamation that freed the slaves in the Southern States opened doors through which Christian workers should have entered to tell the story of the love of God."--Testimonies for the Church 7:222. She called for "a hundred workers where now there is but one" (Ibid., 7:224).
The closing section of the manuscript presented many lines of practical counsel to workers of the church in various capacities, and closed with an appeal for a "workers' fund," which materialized in 1911 as the "sustentation fund." Through August and early September intensive work was done on the manuscripts, not only for volume seven, but also for Education. Ellen White informed her friends that they had not been forgotten, but she was just too busy to correspond with them (Letters 133 and 141, 1902). W. C. White told of spending ten days reading manuscripts and selecting matter for Testimony No. 35. He was to leave with his mother on September 8 to attend the Los Angeles camp meeting, and he spoke of their desire "to get this work so far along that one person remaining" at Elmshaven could "see it through the press" (20 WCW, p. 390).
She was delighted to see Willie working so hard on her books, and she wrote to Elder Daniells on September 5:
For the first time since returning to this country, Willie has taken hold of my book work in earnest. All our helpers are doing excellent work in this line. The preparation of the book Education and Testimony for the Church No. 35 has held me close at home for several weeks.--Letter 138, 1902.
In mid-December Testimonies for the Church, volume 7, came from the press, and W. C. White, when he received a copy in Battle Creek, commented:
It is indeed a fine book. The matter is precious. Its arrangement is good, the paper and printing are fair, and the binding is excellent. I'm sure our people will be glad to get it, and that it will be studied very diligently.--WCW to C. C. Crisler, Maggie Hare, and M. A. Davis, December 17, 1902.--20 WCW, p. 605.
The Book Education
Christian education reached a high point of interest and activity among Seventh-day Adventists in the late 1890s and the early 1900s. For twenty or twenty-five years the church had been operating colleges. But except for elementary schools in connection with these institutions of higher learning, little or nothing had been done for small children by way of "church schools" till just before the turn of the century.
Ellen G. White counsels on education were published in 1893 by the International Tract Society in Battle Creek in the form of a 255-page book titled Christian Education. Its messages of instruction were eagerly read and began to influence the membership. Four years later Special Testimonies on Education in its 240 small pages added emphasis to the subject. With Ellen White calling the church to action and with instruction on the conduct of schools available, Seventh-day Adventists began to act.
At Battle Creek College in 1896 and 1897, where G. W. Caviness served as president and Frederick Griggs headed a twelve-grade preparatory school, dedicated instructors developed a normal school for the training of elementary teachers. (See A. W. Spalding, Origin and History, vol. 2, p. 361.) The next year, with E. A. Sutherland serving as college president, several church schools were opened here and there in Michigan. The church school movement spread rapidly. All this intensified the interest of Seventh-day Adventists in Christian education and made the preparation of an Ellen G. White book on the subject particularly timely.
Work on the book Education was begun in Australia by Ellen White and Sarah Peck. Considerable appropriate material was drawn from the two books just mentioned and from other sources such as her Review, Signs, and Youth's Instructor articles. Her addresses on education and letters of counsel to educators added more. Then Ellen White wrote new material to fill in where needed. Writing on April 11, 1900, while still in Australia, she reported:
I have been reading some chapters of the book on education. Sister Peck has been gathering this matter from a mass of my writings, carefully selecting precious bits here and there, and placing them together in harmonious order. I have read three chapters this morning and I think the arrangement is excellent.
I want all our teachers and students to have this book as soon as they possibly can. I can hardly await the process of publication. I want the principles contained in this book to go everywhere. We must take a higher stand on education.--Letter 58, 1900.
Her return to the United States from Australia later in 1900 and the travels and labors in the field in 1901 greatly delayed the work on the proposed book, but the summer of 1902 gave some time for work on it, as well as Testimonies, volume 7.
As Ellen White and those who worked with her were eager that books intended for both the church and the world should be most effective in their mission, it was not unusual for them to submit the manuscripts while in preparation to one or more qualified readers who could give counsel. Writing on July 19, 1902, to Mrs. Druillard, Ellen White mentioned her work on Education and reported:
I have carefully read all this matter. I feared that my eyes would not be strong enough to finish reading it, but I cried unto the Lord in prayer, and He heard me.--Letter 116, 1902.
And she asked this trusted worker and friend to read the manuscript and report. Here is her request: "I have had a copy of this book, in manuscript form, sent to you to read. We are now waiting for you to return it, with your criticism."-- Ibid.
Two weeks earlier W. C. White sent some sections to Professor Sutherland, now the president of Emmanuel Missionary College. He outlined what was expected in such readings:
We have sent to you several sections of copy prepared for Mother's educational book, with the request that you shall read it carefully and critically. We request you to mark carefully any passage which may seem to be difficult to understand, which may seem to be incomplete, or which may in your judgment be out of place in this book. In fact, we request you to comment and criticize freely upon what you read....
You will notice that since you saw the manuscript last, a wider range has been taken. More of the plan of redemption has been worked in by drawing from Mother's published works, such as Patriarchs and Prophets, Great Controversy, Desire of Ages, Mount of Blessing, and Christ's Object Lessons. This has required much labor; but we hope that the book is sufficiently strengthened to compensate both for the labor and for the delay. Please tell me what you think about this.--20 WCW, pp. 53, 54.
The Proposal of Independent Publications
Associated with Sutherland at Berrien Springs was P. T. Magan. He had led out by General Conference appointment in the Christ's Object Lessons campaign in which this E. G. White book was widely sold by church members to aid in the reduction of debts on educational institutions. Being a very practical man, the thought struck him that if Education could be printed on the press of their emerging "Advocate Publishing Company" at Berrien Springs, it would help the college and provide a book that could be sold for less than if printed by the Review and Herald or the Pacific Press. Further, it could be handled in such a way as to yield the author some much-needed funds with which to carry on her work.
On August 6, 1902, he wrote to W. C. White:
Now, I want to talk to you a little while relative to the book Education. I know that the type will be set and plates made by the Pacific Press. I also know your great perplexity relative to the publication and sale of this book. This is the point upon which I am exceedingly desirous to write you....
I cannot help but feel that if our publishing work were broken up into smaller sections, each section pushing different lines of books, that we would have greater success; and that is why I am making a plea that [Emmanuel] Missionary College, and our little Advocate Publishing Company, as we call it, should have a chance to demonstrate what it can do on Mother's [Note: Among the younger workers were those who often referred respectfully and affectionately to Ellen G. White as "mother"] new book, Education.--P. T. Magan to WCW August 6, 1902.
And then he put in some telling arguments:
It is this way: In the past Brother Sutherland and some of the rest of us, as well as your mother, have written a few educational books. We find it impossible to get our old publishing houses to take hold of these books unless we give them everything that there is in it, and then they put the prices so high that there is difficulty in selling the books. After we have given them all the profits, and accepted mere pittances for royalties, we find that we have to work up the entire trade, or else the books are not sold at all.-- Ibid.
Professor Magan then pointed out:
Now, here at Berrien Springs we feel the most intense interest in the publication of educational books. We would like to build up a little educational book business--not for the money there is in it, but for the good that it will do. There must be immediately some small simple textbooks, for use in our church schools, and they must be gotten out at a price so that our poor people and poor children can have them.-- Ibid.
It is not difficult to see that with the situation among the church's established publishers as it was at that time, involved as they were in the handling of commercial work and with a measure of indifference that could not be hidden (see Testimonies for the Church 7:161-163), such an appeal might have considerable weight. W. C. White presented the letter to his mother, and on August 29, both of them wrote to Professor Magan.
The bid for independent publishing was attractive. A large distribution of a very precious book was promised. But God gave instruction to Ellen White on the point of independent publishing. In her response to Magan in dealing with the principles involved she referred several times to the light given to her in vision. She wrote from her home on August 29, 1902:
Dear Brother Magan,
I have read your letter in regard to the publication of my book on education. I respect all you say about this matter, and I was quite desirous of complying with your request, if on consideration it should be thought best. But light has come to me that it would not be wisdom to do this. Confusion would be brought in. Some things have been presented to me that I will try to present to you.
There was in my mind a desire to present to the cause a couple of other books, to be used for its advancement, as Object Lessons has been used. In the night season I was instructed that the giving of the manuscript of Object Lessons was of the Lord, but that if other books were given to be handled in the same way, the arrangements made for their sale would bring in a train of influences that would hinder the work of handling the larger books.--Letter 137, 1902.
She pointed out that all phases of the Lord's work must be taken into consideration if there were to be real success:
Sometimes we get in a hurry, and by our plans bring confusion into the Lord's work. How many there are who work in their own strength, following their own lines, in order to accomplish that which they think should be accomplished. May the Lord take pity on our ignorance. May He help us to do nothing to hinder the work that He desires to have accomplished.
The work of the Lord includes more than one line of service. The doing of it calls for many minds and for much wisdom, in order that each part may be carried forward successfully.-- Ibid.
Referring to the church's literature evangelists and how carrying out Magan's proposition might affect their work, she wrote:
There are many things to be done to advance the work of God. I have been instructed that the canvassing work is to be revived. Our smaller books, with our pamphlets and journals, can and should be used in connection with our larger books.-- Ibid.
Ellen White had a high sense of honor, and on the point of justice and fairness, she added:
Should I give the publication of the book on education into other hands than those who acted so liberally in publishing Object Lessons, I should not be dealing fairly. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to those who took part in the publication of this book, cooperating with me in carrying out the God-given plan for freeing our schools from debt. Let the good work continue....
We need to remember that the church militant is not the church triumphant. The difference between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the world is to be carefully considered, else we shall draw threads of selfishness into the web that we are weaving. We need to remember that beside every soul there is an unseen, heavenly Watcher.-- Ibid.
The manuscript for Education was submitted to the Pacific Press and has been a publication of that house from 1903 to the present. Ellen White especially led by God, refused to take steps that would bypass the divinely established organizational procedures that governed the publication and distribution of the literature of the church.
Visit to Southern California
In the second week of September, Ellen White, W. C., and their helpers traveled to Los Angeles for the camp meeting scheduled for September 12 to 21. The meeting was held at Boyle Heights, not far from the present location of the White Memorial Medical Center, and eight hundred people attended. While attending this meeting the White party enjoyed a new home that belonged to an Adventist family who moved onto the campgrounds, making it possible to turn over the whole house to Ellen White. Here they set up a temporary office.
Early during the meeting she slipped away to see the newly acquired property for the San Fernando Academy. She visited again when school opened October 1, and spoke to the students and faculty.
In connection with this trip south she was on the lookout for appropriate sites for sanitariums. To Elder Daniells she wrote, "Constantly the Lord is keeping southern California before me as a place where we must establish medical institutions."--Letter 138, 1902. On the way down, prospective property had been explored in Santa Barbara, and as she had opportunity during the camp meeting she went to Monrovia and Pasadena; the following week she looked at property just south of San Diego in the Paradise Valley.
The journey back north took her through Fresno, where she stopped for the California Conference session. While there she urged the reelection of A. T. Jones, who had served one year as conference president. His rather erratic leadership had seriously undermined the chances of his continuing in office, but after talking with him she pleaded with the constituency to give him another opportunity, and this was done. The Fresno meeting was climaxed by a special service for some twenty workers who were bound for overseas service. A new day was dawning for Adventist missions. She addressed the group and then offered a dedicatory prayer.
While in Fresno she was given a vision that she did not fully understand at the time but would come to understand following certain interviews held at Elmshaven later in October--and a stand on her part for which God reproved her.
Before going to the southern California camp meeting, Ellen White had moved into her new writing room. It had been a bit trying to do her literary work nearby during all the hammering and sawing and construction work. But it was well worthwhile. This room extended across the complete east end of the home, over the kitchen and service porch. Even though it had been specified that old materials would be used as far as possible, the alterations with the painting, inside and outside, cost $1,000. But she felt she was justified in making this investment even though she thought she should defend it. She had to have working conditions that were conducive to efficiency and health. To an acquaintance she wrote:
The building of this room took money. I held back for a year before consenting to have this room built; for I know how many places there were in which money was needed. But I saw that it was necessary, for the preservation of my life, that something be done. It would be wrong for me to shorten my life, for this would take me from the Lord's work.--Letter 165, 1902.
There was a bright bay-window arrangement on the southeast corner, with windows opening in all four directions, but principally east and south. Artistic shingles set off the tower on the outside. The room was fitted with a fireplace on the east side and with cabinets along the west wall, where her manuscripts, books, and papers could be kept. From the window on the north end of the room, between the cabinets and the door to the steep, hidden stairway to the service porch, she could look up to the Sanitarium on the hill above, and at the nearby office building when it was built shortly thereafter.
There were three features about this newly constructed writing room that especially pleased Ellen White: its roominess, its bay window with light and sunshine, and its fireplace. She was to spend a large part of her time here during the next twelve years, writing, writing. She would often come to the room at two or three o'clock in the morning, sometimes at midnight, sometimes earlier to start her day of writing.