Ellen G. White’s Attitude Toward Her Work

28. Testimony Expressed in Her Own Words

“Although I am as dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in writing my views as I am in receiving them, yet the words I employ in describing what I have seen are my own, unless they be those spoken to me by an angel, which I always enclose in marks off quotation.”—The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867 (In Selected Messages 1:37) EGWATHW 13.7

W. C. White’s statement endorsed by Mrs. White: “Mother has never laid claim to verbal inspiration, and I do not find that my father, or Elder Bates, Andrews, Smith, or Waggoner put forth this claim. If there were verbal inspiration in writing her manuscripts, why should there be on her part the work of addition or adaptation? It is a fact that Mother often takes one of her manuscripts, and goes over it thoughtfully, making additions that develop the thought still further.”—W. C. White before General Conference Council, Oct. 30, 1911. EGWATHW 13.8

General Conference Action—1883: “We believe the light given by God to His servants is by the enlightenment of the mind, thus imparting the thoughts, and not (except in rare cases) the very words in which the ideas should be expressed.”—General Conference Proceedings, The Review and Herald, November 27, 1883. [Witness, p. 54] EGWATHW 14.1