Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Did Fannie Bolton Write “Steps to Christ”?

This, in brief, is the sad story of Fannie Bolton, not as hearsay and gossip have it, but as the documents reveal it. Only the merciful God, who knows the limitations of body and mind of all His creatures, should rightly be judge in her case. We have written with no desire to judge or to censure, but only because the name of Fannie Bolton has been so widely and plausibly used by critics. EGWC 481.1

There is naturally one question that arises in anyone’s mind at this point: if Fannie Bolton, wholly unaided, wrote a book like Steps to Christ, in 1892, when a relatively young woman, why did she not write other books to stir the hearts of men and quicken their desire for heaven? It is true that she did write a few poems, some of them of good quality, but we search in vain for anything from her pen that might be a companion volume to Steps to Christ. How strange this flash of brilliance in 1892 that never again threw light across the path of spiritually needy mankind! One of the reasons she was restive working at what she called monotonous tasks for Mrs. White was that she felt that she herself could write. Mrs. White released her. Ever afterward she had opportunity to write, but the writings never came. EGWC 481.2

We have already noted that Miss Bolton began to work for Mrs. White early in 1888. Steps to Christ was published in 1892. We present, now, in parallel columns (1) certain passages from Mrs. White’s writings published previous to 1888 and (2) certain passages from Steps to Christ: ^† EGWC 481.3