Exhibits Relating to the Writing of The Desire of Ages

Exhibit 90—Friday, July 24, 1936, H. Camden Lacey to an Adventist Minister in New York

The enclosed copy of your amazing letter to Elder W. C. White has been forwarded to me to answer. ERWDA 46.14

First, let me say unqualifiedly, and as before God as witness, that I never made the statement—at any time or to anyone—which you refer to when you say “that Elder Lacey while he was here has been telling various ones that he and not Sister White is the author of Desire of Ages.” I never made such a statement. ERWDA 46.15

Secondly, 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. In my own Bible, on extra sheets gummed in at the front and the back, 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 indited the Scriptures. And thousands of my hearers in church and classroom will bear witness to that. ERWDA 46.16

You ask for “a brief statement of the facts in the case.” They are these: ERWDA 47.1

Miss Marian Davis, who was entrusted with the preparation of Desire of Ages, frequently came to me in 1895 and 1896 asking help in the arrangement of the material which she gathered from Sister White’s various manuscripts. Sister Davis was a warm personal friend of mine, and I did the best I knew how to aid her, especially in the first chapter. As I recall it, this help was only in the arrangement of the sentences and paragraphs, or the choice of a more suitable word. Never at any time, was there any 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. ERWDA 47.2

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. ERWDA 47.3

If I mentioned these facts to anyone in New York, it must have been in consequence of some situation arising like the present—the revival of that preposterous rumor dating back to the Bible Teachers’ Council of 1919 in Washington, when I was first charged with saying that I had written the book. There was no foundation then or since for such a ridiculous and malicious charge. ERWDA 47.4

Further, let me say that so far from belittling or disparaging the Testimonies, I have ever upheld them, and quoted largely from them in my public ministry. It was because of that that the Greater New York Book and Bible House gave me, for the Temple Church in 1930 an entire set of the writings of Sister White; and at the time the gift was made, that thought was expressed by the donor. ERWDA 47.5

In conclusion, may I ask, Brother C _____, why you did not come to me personally when you first heard these rumors which you say you have heard “ever since you came to labor in New York City.” We were associated in Christian work together for several years in that great center, and there was abundant opportunity for you to come to me as a brother minister and ask for the facts then. Had you done that, just a kind thing for any Christian to do, these malicious rumors would have been strangled at their birth. Has not your failure to do so made you a partner in this misrepresentation? ERWDA 47.6

Some amends may perhaps yet be made by your going at once to each “reporter” and showing him this letter. ERWDA 47.7

I am sending a copy to Elder White, and another copy, with your letter, to Elder M. N. Campbell. ERWDA 47.8

—White Estate Document File #508. (Written from Loma Linda, California.)

Exhibits Compiled by

Ron Graybill and Robert W. Olson

Ellen G. White Estate

Washington, D. C.

May 23, 1979