Ellen G. White and Her Critics

George I. Butler’s Statement

When Early Writings was published, George I. Butler, president of the General Conference, wrote an article in which he mistakenly declared that the book contained “the very first of the published writings of sister White.”—The Review and Herald, December 26, 1882, p. 792. A critic quickly took hold of this and charged that Butler claimed that Early Writings contained “all her early visions.” EGWC 273.1

Butler corrected his error of statement in an article in which he said in part: EGWC 273.2

“We want the reader distinctly to notice that we did not claim [in the The Review and Herald, December 26, 1882] that Early Writings contained ‘all her early visions,’ as Mr. ------ tries to make us say. This we have never said. We did suppose, however, at the time, that ‘Experience and Views,’ and the ‘Supplement’ to the same, contained her earliest ‘published writings,’ but were mistaken. There is quite a difference between this and what Mr. ------ undertakes to make me say, that the book in question contains ‘all her early writings.’ I stated in that article that many of our people ‘desired to have in their possession all she had written,’ and that this republication of ‘Experience and Views’ and ‘Supplement’ was undertaken because of this desire, but did not say this comprehended all she had written in the early part of this work, or that they were ‘all now republished,’ as he says.”—Review and Herald Supplement, Aug. 14, 1883, p. 4. EGWC 273.3