Ellen G. White and Her Critics

“Elder E. P. Daniels’ Reply.

“In the Advocate Extra, Prof. McLearn ^* tells a little story which he claims to have heard from a ‘prominent minister in the cars,’ to the effect that Mrs. White met Eld. E. P. Daniels, and said, ‘Bro. Daniels, I have a Testimony for you. The Lord has shown me that you said things, and acted in a manner, unbecoming a Christian minister, when you preached in Parma, Mich.;’ and that Bro. Daniels replied, ‘You must be mistaken; for I never preached in Parma in my life.’ This, of course, is a very nice little story for our opposers to use; and they have a great fondness for such, and take no end of pains to circulate them. This is just about as true as many others they circulate. It is but justice to Bro. Daniels that he should have a chance to reply to it. The following from his pen is to the point. EGWC 491.7

G. I. BUTLER.

“TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.”

“The story is in circulation that at an audience granted me by Mrs. White, I was informed by her that in a temperance lecture given by me in the village of Parma, I had used language unbecoming a Christian minister, and deported myself in a manner disgraceful to the pulpit, and that God had shown this to her in vision, all of which I then and there denied. This story I deny publicly, as I have several times already done in private. Mrs. White never told me that she had ever seen anything of this kind in vision, either about me or any one else. Through a misunderstanding, I happened to be the person rebuked, in the place of the one for whom the rebuke was intended, and who justly merited it. Were all the facts known, it would leave no room for even the slightest disrespect for the motives that influenced her, as she had, as she supposed, the best of reasons for believing that her informant had told her the truth. And indeed he had, but had made a mistake in the name of the person; all that she had said was true of another, though the incident did not occur at Parma. More than this, Mrs. White told me plainly that this report came from a gentleman whose acquaintance they had formed when traveling in the West. EGWC 492.1

“Those who fight against Mrs. White and spiritual gifts would do well to forge their weapons of something more substantial than flying reports. EGWC 492.2

“E. P. DANIELS,

“July 25, 1883.
Rankin Post Office, EGWC 492.3

Genesee Co., Mich.”
—Review and Herald Supplement, Aug. 14, 1883, p. 10.

In this larger context, how different the matter looks. Mrs. White sent no testimony to Daniels. Just what she said to him, in person, we do not know, for there is no record. But the record does reveal that she made no pretense of having received any kind of revelation that he had done thus and so, that instead she said that the “report came from a gentleman” she had met. It is difficult to see how she could have been more frank. In view of the fact that the available record gives no support to the charge that she professed to speak to him by revelation, or as a result of special insight at the moment, or that the Lord had sent her to him with rebuke; and in view of the fact that we have no text of her conversation with Daniels, how can the critic cite this as an exhibit of Mrs. White’s being “influenced to write testimonies”? EGWC 492.4

For good measure he seeks to show how unheavenly is Mrs. White’s status by adding immediately: “When God rebukes a man he does not rebuke the wrong man. When he sent the prophet Nathan to David with the message, ‘Thou art the man,’ he hit the right man.” But Mrs. White did not here claim that God “sent” her with a testimony to E. P. Daniels! EGWC 493.1