Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Literary Assistants Testify

4. There is the personal testimony of Mrs. White’s literary assistant, Marian Davis, who from the year 1879, until her death, in 1904, worked for Mrs. White. Intimately connected with Mrs. White for a longer period than any other of her assistants—except her own son, William C.—Miss Davis should be able to offer valuable testimony. In the year 1900 the story was being circulated that literary assistants were so largely doing Mrs. White’s work that in one instance, at least, she had instructed an assistant to write out a testimony and send it to a prominent member in Battle Creek. Needless to say, Mrs. White declared that there was no truth in this story. Her statement on the matter may be found in a letter to G. A. Irwin. ^* But we are not here concerned with what Mrs. White said in denial, but with a statement that Marian Davis wrote at the time and sent as an enclosure in Mrs. White’s letter to Elder Irwin. Her statement follows: EGWC 475.8

“A report in circulation in Battle Creek has just come to my notice. Lest, through this report, any should be led to reject the instruction and warning of the Spirit of God, I feel it a duty to say what I know in regard to the matter in question. EGWC 476.1

“It is reported that the writing of a testimony for a prominent man in Battle Creek was intrusted to one of Sister White’s former workers, or that she was given matter for him, with instruction to fill out the points, so that the testimony was virtually her work. EGWC 476.2

“I cannot think that any one who has been connected with Sr. White’s work could make such a statement as this. I cannot think that any one who is acquainted with Sr. White’s manner of writing could possibly believe it. The burden she feels when the case of an individual is presented before her, the intense pressure under which she works, often rising at midnight to write out the warnings given her, and often for days, weeks, or even months, writing again and again concerning it, as if she could not free herself from the feeling of responsibility for that soul,—no one who has known anything of these experiences, could believe that she would intrust to another the writing of a testimony. EGWC 476.3

“For more than twenty years I have been connected with Sister White’s work. During this time I have never been asked either to write out a testimony from oral instruction, or to fill out the points in matter already written. The one who is reported to have made the statement was never, to my own knowledge, either asked or permitted to do such a thing. And from my own knowledge of the work, as well as from the statements of Sister White herself, I have the strongest possible ground for disbelieving that such a thing was done. EGWC 476.4

“A word more. Letters are sometimes sent to Sister White making inquiries to which, for want of time, she cannot write out a reply. These letters have been read to her, and she has given directions as to how they should be answered. The answers have been written out by W. C. White or myself. But Sister White’s name was not appended to these letters. The name of the writer was signed, with the words, For Mrs. E. G. White. EGWC 477.1

“Hoping that this statement may bring relief to some minds, I remain, EGWC 477.2

“Yours in the work,
“[Signed] M. Davis.”

While the question Miss Davis is discussing is not the writing of a book but the writing of a testimony, the principle is the same so far as the relation of literary assistants is concerned. EGWC 477.3

5. Another literary assistant, D. E. Robinson, who connected with Mrs. White’s office in 1903 and labored there until 1915, testifies as follows: EGWC 477.4

“In all good conscience I can testify that never was I presumptuous enough to venture to add any ideas of my own or to do other than follow with most scrupulous care the thoughts of the author.”—Quoted in The Ellen G. White Books, p. 8. ^* EGWC 477.5