Understanding Ellen White

Historical overview of D. M. Canright

D. M. Canright was converted in 1859, at the age of nineteen, to Seventh-day Adventism through the preaching of James White. On May 29, 1865, he was ordained and within a short time became one of the most forceful and successful preachers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. From his prolific pen came numerous books and articles published in the Review and Herald and later in the Signs of the Times advocating and defending Adventist truth and Ellen White’s prophetic ministry. UEGW 133.2

In 1873, however, after spending some extended time in Colorado with James and Ellen White, Canright and his wife, Lucretia, ran into conflict with the Whites. Ellen White, who had received a vision specifically about Canright several years prior to this experience, used the opportunity to counsel the young couple. She wrote candidly about their deficiency in “ essential qualifications” and their tendency to be “ pharisaical” ² She also included encouragement in the letter: “You may have no remarkable evidence at the time that the face of your Redeemer is bending over you in compassion and love, but this is even so. You may not feel His visible touch, but His hand is upon you in love and pitying tenderness. God loves both of you and wants to save you with an abundant salvation.” ³ Nevertheless, the young Canright felt the letter was “too severe” and some of it “not true.” He “quit preaching for a short time,” but “soon got mostly over this” and went back into ministry. ⁴ UEGW 133.3

Feeling much better toward Ellen White, in 1877 Canright penned one of his strongest affirmations of her prophetic ministry in a ten-part series of ar-ticles titled “A Plain Talk to the Murmurers: Some Facts for Those Who Are Not in Harmony With the Body,” published in the Review and Herald, March 15-June 14, 1877. The purpose of the series was to address those “brethren and sisters” who “murmur and complain, and find fault with various things in the work,” particularly the labors of “Bro. and Sr. White.” This series was Canright’s “plain talk” with these dissenting individuals. ⁵ He gave special emphasis to Ellen White’s prophetic leadership within the Adventist movement and observed that “those who have rejected the testimonies have largely lost their zeal in the cause, lost their faith in the work, their piety and devotion, and have become cold, unfeeling, and dark in their minds.” ⁶ UEGW 134.1

In 1880, Canright became discouraged and took another leave of absence from the ministry. Upon hearing of his state of mind, Ellen White made an earnest appeal to him, penned on October 15, 1880. Again, she wrote pointedly: “Satan is full of exultant joy that you have stepped from beneath the banner of Jesus Christ, and stand under his banner.” ⁷ Like the earlier letter, though, she added a message of grace: “God has chosen you for a great and solemn work. He has been seeking to discipline, to test, to prove you, to refine and ennoble you, that this sacred work may be done with a single eye to His glory which belongs wholly to God.” ⁸ Nevertheless, Canright, according to his own words, “did not” receive the letter “at all well” and “felt hard toward Sr. White, and soon quit the work entirely.” ⁹ UEGW 134.2

During this second leave of absence from the ministry, Canright struggled with Seventh-day Adventist doctrines and even “talked with ministers of other churches to see what they would say” He concluded they had no better solution. ¹⁰ After several months of this kind of searching, he went back to preaching the Adventist message. Again, in September of 1881, he published in the Review and Herald a strong affirmation of Seventh-day Adventist doctrine in the article “Danger of Giving Way to Discouragement and Doubts” “If the Bible does not plainly and abundantly teach the doctrines of the third angel’s message” he exclaimed to his readers, “then I despair of ever knowing what it does teach” This is a lesson, he declared, “I shall not need to learn again as long as I live”¹¹ UEGW 134.3

But Canright’s struggles with Adventist doctrine and Ellen White’s prophetic ministry were not over. In the autumn of 1882, he left the Adventist ministry for the third time and farmed for two years. During this time he harbored doubts about Adventist teaching and rejected the testimonies of Ellen White. In September of 1884, Canright attended the northern Michigan camp meeting at the pleading of friends and counseled with his old friend, George I. Butler. Butler helped Canright see Ellen White’s strong counsels in a new light, and he experienced an awakening: “Light came into my mind, and for the first time in years I could truly say that I believed the testimonies. All my hard feelings toward Sr. White vanished in a moment, and I felt a tender love towards her” This statement reveals the key role Ellen White played in Canright’s experience of Adventism. ¹² UEGW 135.1

It was during this return from his third leave of absence that Canright uttered his most significant statements of support for Ellen White and Adventism. In the October 7, 1884, Review and Herald, he told readers that “now I not only accept, but believe the testimonies to be from God. Knowing the opposition I have felt to them, this change in my feelings is more amazing to myself than it can be to others”¹³ Speaking to ministers about the Adventist message, he wrote: “It seems to me, dear brethren, that my whole soul is now bound up in this present truth I will never do this backing up anymore; and I believe that if I ever go back from this I am lost”¹⁴ Ellen White believed Canright’s words to be true: “How my heart rejoiced to see Bro. Canright all interest, heart and soul in the work, as he used to be years in the past! I could but exclaim, What hath the Lord wrought!” ¹⁵ UEGW 135.2

For the next two years Canright labored successfully in the Adventist ministry, preaching, teaching, and writing. In his best-remembered article during this period, “To Those in Doubting Castle,” published in the February 10, 1885, Review and Herald, he affirmed that “no one who has ever felt the power of the Spirit of God upon his own heart can candidly read through the four volumes of ‘Spirit of Prophecy’ without being deeply convicted that the writer must live very near to God, and be thoroughly imbued with the same Spirit that inspired the Bible, and animated the apostles and prophets.” ¹⁶ UEGW 135.3

Things went fine for him until the General Conference of 1886, in which he experienced a debate over the law in Galatians that changed his relationship to Adventism and Ellen White for the rest of his life. ¹⁷ In Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, he recalled: UEGW 136.1

In our General Conference that fall, a sharp division occurred between our leading men over the law in Galatians. One party held it was the ceremonial law, the other the moral law—a square contradiction. After a long and warm discussion the conference closed, each party more confident than before. There was so much disagreement over other points of doctrine, and a good deal of warm party feeling. This, with other things, brought up my old feelings of doubt, and decided me that it was time for me now to examine and think for myself, and not be led nor intimidated by men who could not agree among themselves. ¹⁸ UEGW 136.2

According to his own words, Canright “laid the matter before the leading men at Battle Creek, resigned all the positions” he held, and “asked to be dismissed from the church.” His request was “granted February 17, 1887,“ ¹⁹ at a special meeting called at Otsego, Michigan, his home church. G. I. Butler, who was present at this meeting, described Canright’s remarks as “very kind and conciliatory.” ²⁰ Thus, Canright’s departure from Seventh-day Adventism in February of 1887 was marked by peace. Within a short period of time, however, this peaceful atmosphere disappeared. The word apostasy was used several times in the Review and Herald in reference to Canright’s departure, and he took offense at it. In addition, various individuals in the church were sending Canright letters, which were, according to Butler, “calculated to create an acrimonious spirit, imputing unworthy motives, and saying things of a personal nature which better by far [should] be left unsaid.” ²¹ Consequently, a few short months after his peaceful departure from Seventh-day Adventism, Canright began to wage war on the church. While there has been discussion as to who broke the truce first, it appears that both sides were at fault. UEGW 136.3

For the next thirty-two years, until his death in 1919, Canright campaigned aggressively against Adventism, especially its prophetic messenger Ellen White. In 1888, Canright published the first edition of Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, which went through fourteen editions by 1914, and it became his most important book against his former church. ²² It contained extensive criticism of the history and teaching of Seventh-day Adventism. Although Canright devoted only one chapter to criticizing Ellen White’s prophetic gift, critical remarks about her were interwoven throughout the book. ²³ UEGW 136.4

Over the years, Canright went on to publish other works against Adventist teachings, such as a ten-tract series, Adventism Refuted in a Nutshell (1889), and two books: The Lord’s Day From Neither Catholics Nor Pagans (1915) and The Complete Testimony of the Early Fathers (1916). ²⁴ The culmination of his thirty-two-year-long campaign against Ellen White was his 291-page book Life of Mrs. E. G. White, Seventh-day Adventist Prophet: Her False Claims Refuted, published in 1919. ²⁵ It was the forerunner of all future criticisms of Ellen White and occupied the attention of Adventist apologists for decades. The two books, Seventh-day Adventism Renounced and Life of Mrs. E. G. White, became his legacy. UEGW 137.1