Selections and Abridgments

Two years before Mrs. White’s death, she and those assisting her in her bookwork, together with representative workers from several distant fields, gave careful study to the needs of foreign lands. They clearly saw that only in the form of selections or abridgments could the people of many of these countries have the benefit of the instruction in her larger books. In talking with her associates about this, she several times expressed her approval of this work. She maintained that it was better for ten thousand people to have a portion of what she had written than for one thousand to have it all.EGWMR 77.6

In many of the foreign lands to which the message is being carried, the people are poor, the cost of translation and publication is large, and there can be at best only a limited circulation of the books thus made available. In addition to this, we must consider that in most of the languages a book will expand from ten to twenty-five per cent in size when translated from the English. These difficulties would rule out from many a needy foreign field the larger Ellen G. White books, were it not for the plan of selecting portions or making abridgments.EGWMR 77.7

In the beginning of this work, initiated during the last two years of her life, Mrs. White took a great deal of satisfaction. The endeavor received her unqualified approval, and the workers were cheered on by her assurance that the Lord had several times presented to her the necessity of making selections from her writings for publication in many foreign lands. Most of the projects which were begun before her decease have been pushed forward to completion, and new tasks in this line have been undertaken by the trustees.EGWMR 77.8

As an illustration of this work, the book The Great Controversy is typical of others. In the English, this book contains 690 pages, and the full book is published in such leading languages as German, French, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, and Japanese. The trustees, with the help of representatives from foreign lands, have developed an abridgment which contains 419 pages, or a reduction of about two fifths. This abridgment has been published in such languages as the Russian, Korean, Icelandic, Tagalog, Panayan, and others.EGWMR 77.9

The Desire of Ages has likewise been reduced from 835 large pages to 690 standard-size pages, in an effort to bring it within a scope that would make its publication possible in many languages. In this abridgment it appears in German, French, and in English for the British people.EGWMR 77.10

It is no small task to select for foreign publication only sixty or sixty-five per cent of the subject matter of such books as The Great Controversy and The Desire of Ages and at the same time maintain the principal lines of consecutive thought and preserve the most precious and practical spiritual lessons. In making these selections, chapters either in their entirety or in part are used. Rarely are paragraphs broken into. The greatest care is exercised in the performance of the work, to make sure that no modification or change is made in the thoughts or teachings of Mrs. White. Diligent, prayerful study is given to this work—first, by experienced workers under the direction of the trustees, and later, by a larger group.EGWMR 77.11

Several others of the larger books have been similarly abridged for foreign use, but those mentioned serve to illustrate this line of work. The trustees have been glad to join the workers of other fields in an effort to make available to their peoples at least portions of the Ellen G. White writings.EGWMR 78.1

As might be expected, those E. G. White books which our colporteurs could place before the general public were published first. Nevertheless progress has been made in issuing that part of the Spirit of prophecy literature intended primarily for the church. The size of the constituency in a given language area and the local economic conditions have had a large bearing on the volume chosen. Selections From the Testimonies in one, two, or three volumes, and some of the other books, have been printed in a number of leading languages.EGWMR 78.2