Ellen G. White: The Progressive Years: 1862-1876 (vol. 2)

Plans to Return to the Pacific Coast

The Review and Herald, January 8, 1875, carried on its back page a note from James White in which he said: 2BIO 463.1

We leave for the Pacific Coast in a week or two, to avoid the remains of winter and a Michigan spring, to counsel with the brethren in California relating to publishing and other matters, to speak to our people as the way may open, and write for our periodicals. 2BIO 463.2

God has raised us up to health again, and we solemnly covenant with Him not to abuse it under the cares and labors of a printing establishment in Michigan, California, or anywhere else. We hope to visit all our conferences and home missions during the present year, in company with Mrs. White. We take time for rest, reflection, prayer, and preparation to speak and to write, and design for the future to undertake less, and do better what we attempt to do.—Ibid., January 8, 1875. 2BIO 463.3

During the frantic days that followed for the Whites in getting off to the West—they did not leave Battle Creek until Wednesday, January 27—they got Testimonies 24 and 25 through the press, each containing nearly two hundred pages. These testimonies fill the last one third of Testimonies, volume 3, pages 339-575. Included is the eighteen-page article titled “Leadership,” written sometime in 1874 in response to the George I. Butler presentation at the General Conference session of 1873. 2BIO 463.4