Ellen G. White: The Lonely Years: 1876-1891 (vol. 3)

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: 3BIO 209.5

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. 3BIO 210.1

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?” 3BIO 210.2