Ellen G. White and Her Critics

The Honorable Motives for Deletions

The foregoing, it seems to us, provide ample proof that deletions in Mrs. White’s early writings ought not, to be explained in terms of the grave charge before us. This frees us to look for honorable motives, which are not difficult to find. Consider these facts: EGWC 281.4

a. Deletions may be made to save expense. The pioneers were pathetically poor. They really had no money with which to print, except as they took it from funds that should have been used to provide food and clothing. It was in those darkest days there came from the press the sixty-four-page pamphlet entitled A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, a name we shorten to Experience and Views. The printing of this was the first endeavor to gather into one publication a real collection of Mrs. White’s earliest writings. And it is the text of some of her visions as given in this pamphlet that has drawn most of the fire from critics regarding deletions. EGWC 282.1

The range and the purpose of this pamphlet is clearly stated by Mrs. White in the opening paragraph. She says: EGWC 282.2

“By the request of dear friends I have consented to give a brief sketch of my experience and views, with the hope that it will cheer and strengthen the humble, trusting children of the Lord.”—Page 3. EGWC 282.3

Note that phrase: “a brief sketch of my experience and views.” While any publisher would describe this sixty-four-page pamphlet as the first edition, or more accurately, the first collection, of her writings, no publisher, indeed no one who allows an author’s words to have their ordinary meaning, would conclude that this first edition contained all that the author had written up to that time. A “brief sketch” is something far short of a complete presentation of an author’s writings. EGWC 282.4