What Ellen White has Meant to Me

Chapter 12—A Great Adventure in Confidence

In the years of my connection with the White Estate I have met many people with a great variety of attitudes toward Ellen G. White. Before audiences ranging from just a few to several hundred, I have often invited questions with no prearranged list of topics. The subject and slant of the questions have been the sole responsibility of the ones who asked them. I have not known what question or attitude would surface. WEWMM 97.1

The questions a person asks tell much about him. They may show a genuine interest in finding truth, or outright skepticism—even cynicism. Sometimes a question is raised in a defensive tone that indicates unwillingness to hear a reasonable answer. Still other questioners seek reinforcement of what they already believe and only ask for reassurance—whether their position is right or wrong. WEWMM 97.2

Whether the writings of Ellen White appear to be a hammer to pound home an idea, or a help to a better life, depends more upon the reader than upon the literary works themselves. Even as the sun hardens clay, melts ice, and burns the skin, so the results of being exposed to the writings of Ellen White vary according to the nature and disposition of the reader. WEWMM 97.3

F. D. Nichol’s Ellen G. White and Her Critics has often been a help to me in my work. There are obviously two kinds of critics. The dictionary distinguishes between (1) “One who expresses a reasoned opinion on any matter involving a judgment of its value, and appreciation of its beauty or technique, and (2) One given to harsh or captious judgment, a caviler or carper.” WEWMM 97.4

The specialty experts who speak from a background of experience such as music, literature, or art are of the first kind. Though we may not agree with every detail of their evaluation, we usually have respect for their opinions as being more than rash, unenlightened pronouncements. The other kind are those who indulge in carping criticism. To find fault with something or someone is a way of life with them. They are given to finding fault. WEWMM 98.1

Surely, then, we need to be aware of the basis on which a person expresses an opinion. Is his attitude based on facts, or ignorance, or worse still, on an unwillingness to know the truth or be guided by it? WEWMM 98.2

I determined early in my academy years to find out for myself what Sister White said rather than depend on another person’s evaluation. I remember many hours of patient reading. To keep myself at it I set goals—a certain number of pages each week—and quickly found that I was into some of the most fascinating reading I could imagine. By the time I had finished college and my theology course, I had read a number of her books through, and found my confidence growing. WEWMM 98.3

If I were to pick out a favorite paragraph it would be one I memorized and often used as a part of my prayer experience. I rearranged the sentences a bit and used it this way: “Lord, take my heart; for I cannot give it. It is Thy property. Keep it pure, for I cannot keep it for Thee.” “Save me in spite of myself, my weak, unchristlike self.” And then the part I remember best: “Mold me, fashion me, raise me into a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Thy love can flow through my soul.”—Christ’s Object Lessons, 159. WEWMM 98.4

I believe that prayer, especially the last words, helped me through several hard experiences. I was committed to the ministry, and these words summed it all up for me. Not that I never made any mistakes, because I failed many times. But I do say that what I read in the books by Ellen White in my younger years has had a powerful influence over my entire life. WEWMM 98.5

I have always enjoyed reading whole books, or stories or chapters, at one sitting. My mother would have testified to my concentration on such reading while she repeatedly called me for dinner. I think this is the reason I remember with so much pleasure reading the book Education one long Sabbath afternoon, or large gulps of The Great Controversy or The Desire of Ages, and Patriarchs and Prophets. Such a plan has given me a view of historical and Biblical events that I would never have acquired in hit-and-miss reading. WEWMM 99.1

My years of academy teaching bring back many high lights. How often I wish I had had a tape recorder during a lively discussion in a Bible Doctrines or Youth Guidance class. I have always tried to deal with the Bible and the writings of Ellen White as authoritative and factual sources, and have never made apology for doing so. I believe students have appreciated this approach. WEWMM 99.2

One of the most rewarding experiences I had as a teacher was with a freshman Old Testament class. We used Patriarchs and Prophets as our major textbook, along with the Bible. Daily I handed out written questions and required the students to read in this book, and then we would discuss their findings. I can remember animated discussions on Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Esau, Joseph, Moses, and many others. It was a great personal satisfaction to hear these students talking about their reading in Sabbath school classes and in private conversation. Their confidence in Ellen White grew, and from that time on Patriarchs and Prophets has been near the top of my personal list of favorites. WEWMM 99.3

When I was called to the White Estate in 1967 I knew I was about to begin a new, even more rewarding experience. A Prophetic Guidance class at Andrews a few years earlier and a tour of New England had been a great inspiration to me, but I was hardly prepared for what was in store. The ensuing experience has been far beyond what I had thought it would be. Part of my work calls for research into the original documents and letters in Ellen White’s own hand. Perhaps two projects will illustrate how this has increased my confidence. WEWMM 99.4

Soon after my arrival at the White Estate office I was asked to search through all of Ellen White’s letters, looking especially for those she wrote to young people. I collected about 170 letters. They tell the kind of person that Ellen White was. She usually got right to the point. Some contain uncompromisingly stern rebukes. Often she stated in these letters that she had been shown the basis for her counsel in vision. There was no indulging in gossip or hearsay. She spoke with an assurance as to her divine source of information. Often her tone was one of encouragement, frequently calling for dedication to a higher standard in life. WEWMM 100.1

I find her writing tender words to a dying girl, urging her not to be discouraged because all her hopes and plans cannot be fulfilled. She writes to other girls who lived for a time in the White home, giving them motherly counsel as her own “stepdaughters.” I detect that she sometimes regretted having no daughters of her own—only four boys. She wrote to many young men, speaking to them as plainly as a mother might speak to her own son. WEWMM 100.2

She often challenged these young friends to make the most of their lives for God, and urged dedication of their time and abilities to the One who had created them. These letters to young people proved to be a real reading adventure. To all who will trust the Lord with their lives as she had done, they breathe a confidence in her work, her Lord, her Christian experience, and an assurance for the future. WEWMM 100.3

There are, of course, letters to her own sons. Those written to them while they were young can be understood by any young person. Writing to Henry and Edson when they were ten and eight she said, “You can be little Christians.”—Letter 3, 1858. In another letter to Henry when he was 12, she urged, “Do right because you love to.”—Letter 5, 1859. WEWMM 100.4

Letters to her son Edson, especially in his teen years, often are very pointed. She talks plainly of dishonesty, expresses concern about the careless use of money, and cautions regarding his association with others. Yet all of this rather straight counsel is written in the framework of concern and love. WEWMM 100.5

A similar project led me to search through all of the unpublished letters and manuscripts looking for comments on Bible characters. This was done in preparation for the 1971 Morning Watch book—Conflict and Courage. I scanned thousands of pages. Often I found myself going far beyond the parts originally intended. With this project, as with several others, I was impressed with her consistency and integrity of spirit, but even more than that. I know from this reading that I have been listening to a prophetic voice that I also hear when I read the Bible. WEWMM 101.1

Ellen White does not speak hesitantly. She does not hedge. Even as the apostle Paul, she knows whom she believes, and speaks with certainty whether in a letter of the 1840’s written in exuberant teen-age style, or in correspondence of later years that reflects the maturity of long experience. WEWMM 101.2

Ellen White’s attitude toward her work appears hundreds of times and in a great variety of ways. She considered that what she had written was, in some sense, beyond herself. She often seemed to take a detached attitude toward what she had written. In 1870, for example, she wrote, “I have been looking over the Testimonies given for Sabbathkeepers, and I am astonished at the mercy of God and His care for His people in giving them so many warnings, pointing out their dangers, and presenting before them the exalted position which He would have them occupy.”—Testimonies for the Church 2:483. WEWMM 101.3

This detachment obligated her to follow the advice herself. The same concept helps us to understand a few statements from her pen, such as the following, that might at first notice be misunderstood: “The Holy Ghost is the author of the Scriptures and of the Spirit of Prophecy. These are not to be twisted and turned to mean what man may want them to mean, to carry out man’s ideas and sentiments, to carry forward man’s schemes at all hazards.”—Letter 92, 1900. WEWMM 101.4

“When before the people there seems to be presented before me the most precious things of the gospel and I participate in the gospel message and feed upon the word as much as any of the hearers. The sermons do me good, for I have new representations every time I open my lips to speak to the people.”—Manuscript 174, 1903. WEWMM 101.5

Her personal response was the same way when she read her own books. She once commented, “The book The Great Controversy, I appreciate above silver or gold.”—Colporteur Ministry, 128. WEWMM 102.1

Once in her later years as she read the book The Desire of Ages, she commented on the inspiration she received from reading its pages. WEWMM 102.2

Another statement is perhaps even more interesting. In it she even expresses surprise at what she had written: “In the night I am aroused from my sleep, and I write in my diary many things that appear as new to me when read as to any who hear them. If I did not see the matter in my own handwriting, I should not think my pen had traced it.”—Letter 118, 1898. WEWMM 102.3

I believe a major reason why some people lack confidence in the writings of Ellen White is ignorance of the facts. I believe—as with all truth—that the claims of Ellen White as a messenger of God not only stand study, but demand it. I do not believe any person will be disappointed with such study if he determines from the beginning to follow the truth as he finds it. I can personally attest to my study as being a great adventure, daily strengthening my confidence in God’s leading of His remnant church through the gift of prophecy. WEWMM 102.4

Takoma Park, Maryland
July 5, 1972