The Truth About The White Lie

What was H. Camden Lacey’s role in the preparation of The Desire of Ages? ¹⁴

Lacey at one point claimed he was the first Adventist to urge the idea that the Holy Spirit was a person, and that it was because of his influence that Ellen White first referred to the Holy Spirit as “He” instead of “it.” Lacey was wrong in this, since Mrs. White used the personal pronoun “He” to refer to the Holy Spirit in the very first edition of Steps to Christ, published in 1892 while Lacey was still a college student in Battle Creek, and well before Mrs. White or her literary assistants became acquainted with him. ¹⁵ TAWL 6.4

At the time The Desire of Ages was being prepared he was 25 years old; he was at the Avondale School teaching, not Bible, but mathematics, natural science, and elocution. ¹⁶ Lacey himself, in response to an inquiry, wrote that his only contribution to the preparation of The Desire of Ages was to help in the arrangement of the sentences, or paragraphs, or the choice of a more suitable word in the first two or three chapters: TAWL 6.5

Never at any time, was there an alteration of the thought, or the insertion of an idea that was not already expressed in the original text. The resultant copy was always submitted to Sister White herself for final approval.

The entire Desire of Ages as it is now printed is, therefore, I hold, the product of Sister White’s mind and heart, guided by the good Spirit of God. And the “editing” was merely technical. ¹⁷

Elsewhere in the letter he makes clear his understanding of the book: TAWL 6.6

I gladly and with all my heart accept the Desire of Ages as an inspired book; indeed, I regard it as the most spiritual life of Christ, outside the Gospels, ever given to His church.... I have scores of extracts taken from this wonderful book, and from other writings of Sister White. I value them as products of the same “Spirit of Prophecy” as indicated in the Scriptures. And thousands of my hearers in church and classroom will bear witness to that. ¹⁸