Ellen G. White and Her Critics

The Nature of Mrs. White’s Confession

Mrs. White plainly declares: “I did wrong.” We do not have to read the critic’s writings to discover that. In fact he turns to her currently published works to discover his choicest charge of “influenced” testimony writing. But did Mrs. White say that her doing “wrong” consisted in letting someone invent a testimony that she signed, or in having an alleged vision to further someone’s interests, as is implied in the charge? The answer is evident from her statement. But note how the critic hides this fact. We give in parallel columns his quotation of the key sentence, and the full text, printing in boldface the key clause he omitted. EGWC 501.1

Critic’s Quotation	Full Text of Original
“Under these circumstances I yielded my judgment to that of others, and wrote what appeared in No. 11 in regard to the Health Institute.... In this I did wrong.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:563.	“Under these circumstances I yielded my judgment to that of others, and wrote what appeared in No. 11 in regard to the Health Institute, being unable then to give all I had seen. In this I did wrong.”

The clause: “Being unable then to give all I had seen,” is the key to the whole passage. But the critic suppressed it. ^* It is easy to understand why he did so—this clause exposes the falsity of his charge. But what is not easy to understand is this: How he, and others who have taken him as their source and guide, can, with sober faces, set out to charge Mrs. White with suppression! EGWC 501.2