Filing the Manuscripts

While in Australia, instruction was received from the Lord regarding the care of the manuscripts. In response to the message, “Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost,” special effort was put forth, about the year 1898, to gather together all the manuscript matter within reach, and this was placed on file in more systematic and accessible form. The manuscripts were grouped according to years, and then classified and numbered. After the institution of this filing system, the manuscripts were each given a designating file credit at the time of final copying, which indicates its location in the file and serves as a source reference for the card index to the file.EGWMR 80.9

The documents which comprise the manuscript file have been divided into two general groups of about equal number. Letters, addressed to individuals, churches, institutions, or groups of laborers (or in other words, letters by nature), were placed in the letter file section. General article matter, sermons, and interviews were classified as manuscripts, and were filed in the manuscript section. This phase of the classification is indicated in the file credit borne by each document.EGWMR 80.10

There are three items of information indicated in each E. G. White manuscript file credit. First, the general classification of the document, whether a letter or a manuscript; second, the serial number it carries in the file for a given year; and third, the year in which the document is filed, which in most cases is the year of writing.EGWMR 80.11

Analyzing the file credit, “H 64, 1906,” we find the document to be a letter, “H” being the initial of the person addressed, filed as letter number “64” in the “1906” file drawer. The term “Letter” may be substituted for the prefixing initial, and the credit would read, “Letter 64, 1906.” In like manner “MS 117, 1908” would indicate a “general manuscript,” number “117,” filed in the “1908” file drawer.EGWMR 80.12

Inasmuch as the two component groups, manuscripts and letters, form one file, we speak of the combined assemblage as the manuscript file.EGWMR 80.13

While this is marked as covering the years 1847 to 1915, we have comparatively few original Ellen G. White documents of the very early years. For many years all the letters and manuscripts sent out were in the handwriting of the author or were copied by hand. Therefore, the preservation of these documents necessitated either the laborious work of making two copies or of inducing the recipient to make a copy and return the original. Consequently, it is not strange that the files for the early years are meager and incomplete.EGWMR 80.14

Early in 1885 a Caligraph, as one of the early makes of typewriters was called, was purchased in Healdsburg, California, and most of Mrs. White’s letters after this were transcribed on the machine and were copied into letter press books; consequently, we have reason to believe that the files for the thirty-year period from that time till she died in 1915 are very nearly complete.EGWMR 80.15

Questions which very naturally arise in the mind at this point are these: Of what value are these files today? How are they related to what appears in print? and, What use is made of the documents found therein?EGWMR 80.16

A considerable portion of the matter found in the manuscript file was selected for publication by Mrs. White, in conjunction with her associates, and appeared in many periodical articles and the later published works. Much of the matter, therefore, is in print.EGWMR 80.17

Many lines of instruction given during the seventy years of Mrs. White’s work were repeated again and again. In most cases these are well represented in works now in print; consequently, if the manuscripts which, duplicate this instruction were now to be published, there would be a repetition of general subject matter already available to all.EGWMR 81.1

Two other classes of matter which compose the manuscript file might be spoken of as that which is local as to time and that which is local as to place. Instruction was often sent out to meet some current issue or crisis in the work, and was thus limited as to time. When the particular issue was past, there was not necessarily a general need for the instruction, unless a similar crisis were to arise. When such an issue arises, then the instruction given in the years past, meeting issues similar in principle, is equally applicable. An illustration will make this point clear.EGWMR 81.2

All through the years, from 1844 to the close of her life, Mrs. White was called upon to meet fanaticism. Much general instruction along this line appears in print, but there are also some specific statements meeting various fanatical movements, which, because the issues seemed mostly local as to time, or because of limited space in the E. G. White books, were not included in the published works.EGWMR 81.3

However, if a fanatical movement should arise today, similar to those which have been met in the past, that instruction meeting those past manifestations would become applicable because of the similarity in the underlying principles in the movements.EGWMR 81.4

Manuscripts addressed to laborers in a particular field, and giving instruction regarding their work in that field, are spoken of as local as to place. This may be illustrated by the instruction sent to those in charge of the work at the St. Helena Sanitarium. More than 200 pages of manuscripts covering a period of thirty years fall into this grouping. While this is considered of great value by those engaged in the administration of the work at the St. Helena Sanitarium, and they have copies in typewritten form, yet there is no general call for this instruction which is localized in character.EGWMR 81.5

A fifth class of communications found in the manuscript file is that made up of letters which were strictly confidential—messages of a personal nature from the Lord to those engaged in forwarding the work—messages of courage, of counsel, of warning, and sometimes of reproof. These documents have no legitimate general field of circulation, the principles of instruction having been largely covered by published articles of a less personal nature.EGWMR 81.6

The trustees have recognized that there were in the manuscript files certain lines of instruction not so well covered by the publications in circulation at the time of Mrs. White’s death. This point may be made clear by referring to one posthumous publication.EGWMR 81.7

Much of the valuable counsel regarding medical missionary work was written at a time when there were but few medical institutions or physicians among our people. A large part of this counsel was therefore limited in its circulation to a few leaders in the medical work, not having been put into print for general reading. In view of the rapid and large growth of the medical department of our work, not only in professional lines, but as an important branch of lay evangelism, the trustees, recognizing the value of such instruction for all our people, authorized the gathering of this material for publication and general circulation. As a result, in 1932 Medical Ministry appeared, bringing within the reach of all who care to secure it, valuable instruction not so fully covered in previous volumes.EGWMR 81.8

On the other hand, there is not, as some have thought, a large amount of unpublished matter representing lines of instruction of general importance not now covered by the published works. All through her life Mrs. White labored untiringly to bring forth in published form the instruction given to her for the church. Near the close of her work she was able to say:EGWMR 81.9

“Through nearly the whole of my long experience I have endeavored, day by day, to write out that which was revealed to me in visions of the night. Many messages of counsel and reproof and encouragement have been sent out to individuals, and much of the instruction that I have received for the church has been published in periodicals and books, and circulated in many lands.”—The Writing and Sending Out of the Testimonies to the Church, 12.EGWMR 81.10

A study of the Ellen G. White writings, published and unpublished, reveals that the most important phases of instruction are comprehensively covered in the available works.EGWMR 81.11