Back home at Elmshaven after the monthlong stay in southern California, Ellen White found living and working conditions more comfortable than they had been in former winters. A new steam central heating plant had been installed, with a large wood-burning furnace in the basement of the nearby tank house. While fireplaces would continue to enhance the attractiveness of the home, they would not be used exclusively to heat the large rooms with their high ceilings. And in the office, steam radiators also took the place of the messy little wood stoves.
New Year's Day fell on Wednesday. It was sunny and beautiful. Ellen White was feeling quite well and took her usual morning ride with Sara. December had brought refreshing rains, breaking a long dry spell. The grass was now green. The oats, sown before the rain, were coming up, making the fields bright and green, and W. C. White, as he took up his correspondence, wrote that at his mother's request he was wishing her friends "a Happy New Year." The year opened with book preparation in earnest, Ellen White working closely with her trusted literary helpers. Work on the Old Testament history, pushed so hard in 1912, seems to have slowed down, awaiting Clarence Crisler's attention. The preparation of the book on Christian education (Counsels to Parents and Teachers) was nearing completion and was receiving principal attention.
In mid-January, Sara McEnterfer's older sister suffered a stroke, and she was released to care for her in Mountain View. Miss May Walling, Ellen White's niece whom she had reared and educated, was called from Oakland, where she was nursing, to attend Sister White. This work she faithfully performed till Ellen White's death.
The Visit of Bookmen
On Thursday, January 23, the staff at Elmshaven, except for W. C. White, who was in the East, played host to a group of about forty men and women who arrived at the home at about 4:00 P.M. For several days the literature evangelists working in the five union conferences in the territory of Pacific Press had been in Mountain View, together with conference leaders and others, for a convention. Now colporteurs, some of their wives, church leaders, and some others were spending the day visiting Pacific Union College, St. Helena Sanitarium, and Elmshaven.
Advance notice had been given, and preparations were made to receive them. Appropriate exhibits showing books, documents, manuscripts, and letters that would be of interest to visitors were set up in the library room next to the manuscript vault.
As they crowded into Ellen White's living room and dining room, she came down to receive them and to read her message of greeting. It opened:
I welcome you all to "Elmshaven," the refuge that I found prepared for me on my return from Australia. In this quiet and comfortable home we have been able to prepare articles and books for publication. I hope you will enjoy your visit, and that you may come again. In your prosperity and welfare I am deeply interested.
She declared:
The time has come when a large work should be done by our canvassers. The world is asleep, and as watchmen they are to give the warning note, to awake the sleepers to a sense of their danger. The churches know not the time of their visitation. How can they best learn the truth? Through the efforts of the canvasser.
All who consecrate themselves to God to work as canvassers are assisting to give the last message of warning to the world. They are the Lord's messengers, giving to multitudes in darkness and error the glad tidings of salvation.--Letter 3, 1913.
After recounting some experiences in which Seventh-day Adventists were led to gain a broader grasp of the task before them, she urged her guests to pray for a deeper experience, and urged also that they go forth with hearts filled with the precious truths that God had given His people for this time.
After addressing them for about thirty minutes, she presented each with one of her books of their choice--The Desire of Ages, The Acts of the Apostles, or some other. The gift was made doubly memorable by a card in each book, bearing a printed message of good cheer and her signature.
A Year of Earnest Book Preparation
The few letters she wrote in 1913 and some of the many W. C. White letters indicate the place that book preparation took.
February 18:
Mother is quite well these days, but not at all strong. Our work in the office is progressing nicely. Minnie and Maggie are at work collecting material for Gospel Workers.--WCW to AGD, February 18, 1913.
March 31:
[Mother] keeps quite cheerful, rides out almost every pleasant day, reads all the manuscripts that we are preparing for the printer, gives us much valuable counsel about the work.--WCW to N. H. Druillard, March 31, 1913.
May 7:
I have a company of faithful workers, who are helping to prepare matter for the press. They are of good courage, and look on the bright side. We are doing our best to gather together the precious instruction that the people need.--Letter 9, 1913.
August 28:
The past few months I have not done much letter writing, for I have wished to keep my strength for the reading of important matter in my book work. I have with me an excellent company of workers, men and women who are as true as steel to principle, and whose entire interests are bound up with this work. My faith has increased as I have tried to do my best to complete my writings.--Letter 11, 1913.
December 4:
I am fairly well healthwise, not suffering much pain, but I realize that old age is reminding me that I am mortal. My book work is still taking my time, and I am trying to finish my work with joy and not with grief. I have not lost my courage.--Letter 13, 1913.
December 31:
Some lines of our work are moving forward well. Sister Bree is making steady progress in the preparation of copy for Gospel Workers. Mother is reading this article by article, and enjoys it very much.--WCW to AGD, December 31, 1913.
The Manuscript for Counsels to Parents and Teachers
As the new year opened, the book they then called "Christian Education," known today as Counsels to Parents and Teachers, was receiving first attention. In a letter written to Elder O. A. Olsen on January 2, W. C. White described in some detail the procedures in preparing the manuscript:
First of all, Professor Salisbury [secretary of the General Conference Department of Education] sat down with Mother's secretaries and spent two or three hours in pointing out those articles in the old book [Christian Education, 1893] which he regarded as essential; also those articles in Special Testimonies on Education [1897] which he thought should be used in the new edition.
Then Sisters Minnie Hawkins, Maggie Bree, and Mary Steward gave the matter which he has designated very careful reading, and made notes as to its contents. Then they went to Mother's files to see what new matter they could find and they made note of its contents.
Then we made a list of departments which we thought ought to be considered in the compilation and with these subjects before them, they made a thorough study of printed matter and manuscripts. As they collected matter, the departments developed from ten to fourteen.
When the manuscript had been pulled together in its preliminary form, it was submitted to several leading educators for critical reading. To them W. C. White wrote:
If you find anything in the manuscript to criticize, if you know of important material which should be added, or if you have any suggestions regarding arrangement, please send them along, and we will give your suggestions consideration.--WCW to M. E. Kern, January 15, 1913.
The procedures in handling this manuscript were quite different from those followed in the preparation of Prophets and Kings. In the case of the Old Testament history there was a natural sequence that had to be followed. In the case of the book on education some judgment could be exercised in the selection of materials that would make the book most helpful, as well as the most helpful sequence in which these should appear. Dedicated educators, who by nature of their work had been led to give diligent study to the Spirit of Prophecy counsels that had a bearing on their work, would be in the best position to point out any important counsels that had been overlooked and to suggest the most effective arrangement of articles.
Ellen G. White Counsels on Courtship
When the work on the book was first outlined, no consideration was given to dealing with the question of courtship in denominational schools. There were differences in policies from college to college; some allowed students of mature age and of good standing to meet in the dormitory parlor by permission of the preceptress. Other college administrators thought no provision should be made for such association, and were certain that their position was in harmony with the testimonies and Ellen White's oral teachings (DF 251, WCW to Elders G. A. Irwin and E. E. Andross, September 7, 1912).
In early September, 1912, W. C. White talked over this matter with his mother. He mentioned to her that administrators who were inclined to some leniency felt "that the strong and unqualified statements in the testimonies regarding this matter refer to and apply chiefly to the schools made up largely of young and immature students" (Ibid.).
Ellen White responded at length, pointing out that the young and the old cannot be treated alike and that "age and character must be taken into account." She stated that men and women of sound experience and good standing have a right to expect some privileges not granted to the young and immature.
She mentioned also that if administrators are too stringent in this matter, they shall make a serious mistake. If students feel that they are dealt with unjustly and without consideration, there is greater temptation to disregard the rules of the school and the advice of the teachers (Ibid.).
Pacific Union College, nearby, was one of the schools holding to the more conservative position. Its president, C. W. Irwin, had served in the Avondale school, where the school calendar quoted from an E. G. White letter stating:
We have labored hard to keep in check everything in the school like favoritism, attachments, and courting. We have told the students that we would not allow the first thread of this to be interwoven with their schoolwork. On this point we are as firm as a rock.--Letter 145, 1897.
This he had enforced as president of the Avondale school and was currently attempting to enforce as president of Pacific Union College. As W. C. White discussed with him the forthcoming book of counsels on education, Irwin pressed hard for the inclusion of something on courtship, rather expecting that it would be an elaboration of the counsel given to the Avondale school.
However, as noted earlier, the discussion W. C. White had with his mother did not support this, but indicated rather that Ellen White would make a definitive statement for general use. When the new chapter on "Deportment of Students" was prepared, W. C. White sent a copy to A. G. Daniells with a description of the procedure followed in its preparation.
You will observe that this chapter is made up of three parts: first, a broad statement on general principles of deportment. This was drawn from Testimonies for the Church, volume 4.
Following this is a statement regarding what may be permitted in our colleges in the association of men and women who, are mature in age and of good experience. This is followed by a restatement of the instruction Mother has always given in such schools as the Battle Creek College, the Avondale school, and elsewhere.--WCW to AGD, February 7, 1913.
The crucial paragraphs in the chapter allowing for association of mature students, were dictated by Ellen White. She then reviewed them several times, commenting on each principle and expressing her approval of the wording.
When the chapter was submitted to Professor Irwin, he was surprised to find that it did not accord with the instruction given to the Avondale school. He wrote to W. C. White that the instruction was "something entirely new" and that he was "at a loss to know how to make it agree with matter which Sister White has written on other occasions." He inquired whether some new light had been given to her on this point (DF 251, C. W. Irwin to WCW, February 12, 1913). What Irwin had not taken into account was the different circumstances under which the seemingly divergent counsels had been given.
When she had written in 1897 the larger number of the students were under 16 years of age. The Avondale school at that time was primarily an academy, not a college. The majority of students in the church's colleges were older and more experienced and mature. Ellen White, in providing general counsel for denominational educators, took this into account and wrote accordingly.
Important Principles Enunciated
The whole experience was wholesome, for it drew out from W. C. White an explanation of principles that has been most valuable in dealing with the Ellen G. White counsels, in both primary and secondary ways. Of this he wrote to C. W. Irwin:
One of the most perplexing problems we have to deal with in preparing Mother's writings for publication is in just such matters as this, where the conditions of a family, or a church, or an institution are presented to her, and warnings and instruction are given regarding these conditions. In such cases, Mother writes clearly and forcefully, and without qualification regarding the situation presented to her. And it is a great blessing to us to have this instruction for our study in dealing with similar conditions elsewhere.
But when we take what she has written, and publish it without any description, or particular reference to the conditions existing when and where the testimony was given, there is always the possibility of the instruction being used as applying to places and conditions that are very different.
Very much perplexity has been brought into our work in this way, by the use of what Mother has written on the subject of diet, and on the use of drugs, and on other subjects that you will think of without my enumerating them; and when the time has come for instruction to be given to some individual, or family, or church, which presented the right course to be taken, under conditions which were different from those contemplated in former writings, the exception made, or the different course advised in view of the different conditions, has often come as a surprise to those who felt that the instruction they have been studying was of universal application.
In our book-making, as we have met this perplexity, Mother has given us very comprehensive and emphatic instruction as to how we shall deal with such matters. We are endeavoring to follow that instruction faithfully. It was in response to this instruction that several manuscripts were prepared that Mother read at the last General Conference, among which was the article entitled, "Faithfulness in Health Reform."--DF 251, WCW to C. W. Irwin, February 18, 1913.
Another consideration pointed out by W. C. White was: "Often people read into a statement many things that were not contemplated when it was written. And this makes it important that everything that is to be printed shall be studied in its many bearings before it is sent to the printers."-- Ibid.
Neither Ellen White nor W. C. White considered the "perplexities" referred to as a deterrent to a multiple use of materials. In 1868 she was instructed to publish testimonies addressed to individuals and families, for the counsel given to one would be useful to another (Testimonies for the Church 5:658, 659), and the Lord did not give a vision for each individual situation. She made a provision in her will for the production of books from her manuscripts.
W. C. White told Irwin that from the outset, in developing the chapter on "Deportment of Students" it was thought that the statement written to the school at Cooranbong, if used, "ought not to stand alone, but that a more complete presentation of Mother's views should be given than was found in that one manuscript" (DF 251, WCW to C. W. Irwin, February 18, 1913). And he told of how, with the manuscript ready to go to the printer, and considering the far-reaching nature of the statement on courtship, he asked Ellen White to read the chapter again. He reported that "she began with 'Courtship,' and read to the end, commenting upon and approving point by point of the instruction."--DF 251, WCW to J. E. White, January 25, 1913.
The chapter was included in the finished manuscript as it went to the printer, with the subtitle "Courtship" replaced by the less-pronounced "Association With Others." The portion in question reads:
In all our dealings with students, age and character must be taken into account. We cannot treat the young and the old just alike. There are circumstances under which men and women of sound experience and good standing may be granted some privileges not given to the younger students. The age, the conditions, and the turn of mind must be taken into consideration. We must be wisely considerate in all our work. But we must not lessen our firmness and vigilance in dealing with students of all ages, nor our strictness in forbidding the unprofitable and unwise association of young and immature students.--CPT, p. 101.
Thus, Ellen White refused to allow a statement written to meet the needs of the Avondale school in its beginning days, with its enrollment of young students, to be used as a rule to guide in college administration. The book came from the press in mid-May, 1913.