Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Mrs. White’s Public Addresses

3. Not only did Mrs. White write; she spoke, and her speaking was often on important occasions, and before large Adventist and non-Adventist congregations. Nor was she routinely dependent, as some notable people are, upon a manuscript, in order to be sure that she had something worth while to say to her audience. She generally Spoke extemporaneously, with no more than the Bible before her. ^* Now if she was the woefully benighted person that the critics, with their suppositions, hearsay, and gossip would have the reader believe, how painfully embarrassing it would have been to the Adventist leadership through all the years to have Mrs. White standing before great congregations as one of the chief spokesmen for the movement. EGWC 474.1

But did the church leaders seek to bar nonchurch members from hearing her, lest the movement be brought into embarrassment? No. On the contrary, they sought always to secure for her the largest hearing possible before those who were not church members. And not only in America but in Europe and in Australia. We do not say that her words, when stenographically reported, showed perfect grammar and construction. Rare is the public speaker who, speaking extemporaneously, can stand revealed as free of literary errors in a stenographic report. We simply say that Mrs. White, in her public speaking, compares favorably with other public speakers, as far as the use of the English language is concerned. In public address we look for conformity to ordinary rules of grammar, for vigor and quality of thought, for effective illustrations, and for sequence and fitting climax. Mrs. White had all these. We think she had more. We think that she presented spiritual truths with a force and a vigor and an appeal to the heart that was not found in the sermons of others. There are many still living who can testify to the truth of this statement. ^† EGWC 474.2