-
- Foreword
- About The Author
-
-
-
- The Place Of The Vision In Confirming The Sanctuary Truth
- The Seventh-day Sabbath
- New Responsibilities
- Careers Changed
- Establishing The Pillars Of Faith
- The Volney Conference
- Bible Study Aided By Special Revelation
- Streams of Light (Story of the Publishing Work: Present Truth and the Review and Herald)
- The Eight-Page Present Truth
- Writing For The Press
- Beginning The Review and Herald
- Difficult Days in Paris
-
- Establishing a Publishing Office in Rochester, New York
- The Publishing House Family
- The Tour East
- Publishing The Visions
- Ellen White's First Book
- Expanding By Tent Evangelism
- The Move To Battle Creek
- A Transition Evidencing The Maturity Of The Church
- The Review Office To Go To Battle Creek, Michigan
- A Power Press For The Review Office
-
- The Battle Creek Conference
- The Autumn Trip East
- Guiding Toward Organization the Vital Need for Church Organization
- Initial Steps Toward Church Organization
- James White Joins In Calling For Gospel Order
- Need For Organization For Publishing Interests
- Adopting A Denominational Name
- Seventh-Day Adventists The Name Chosen
- Winning The Struggle For Church Organization
- Meeting Opposition
- Vision At Roosevelt, New York
- The Battle Creek Church Sets The Pace In Organizing
- The Formation Of The Michigan Conference
- Other States Organize
- Confessions Of Negative Attitudes
- The Call For A General Conference
-
- The Battle Of Manassas
- Eyewitness Account
- The War And The Work Of The Church
- The Tide Begins To Turn
- Governor Blair's Reply
- A Call To Importune God To Stop The War
- The Devastating War Suddenly Ends
- The Clouds Of War And The White Family
- The Extended Eastern Tour In The Summer And Autumn Of 1863
- Diversified Activities In New England
-
- The Otsego Vision
- General Counsels On Health
- First Visit To Dansville
- Active Teachers of Health Reform
- The Health Reformer
- Extremes Taught In The Health Reformer Bring Crisis
- Ellen White's Moderate Positions
- Lifesaving Therapy For The Health Reformer
- Practicing New Light
- Two of The Three White Children Stricken
- Henry: Death From Pneumonia
- Funeral Services In Topsham And Battle Creek
- Willie's Bout With Pneumonia
- Ellen White Tries The Meatless Diet
-
-
-
-
- A Surprise Vacation In The Rocky Mountains
- Caravan to Hot Sulphur Springs
- Crossing The Continental Divide
- A Week at Hot Sulphur Springs
- Calls From California Cut Short The Vacation
- The Whites Discover California
- In San Francisco
- Tent Effort In San Francisco
- Organization Of The California Conference
- Interlude
- Back To Colorado
- At Home In Santa Rosa
- The First Issue Of The Signs Of The Times
- The Separation Ended
- James White Again In The Saddle
- Back In The East For Camp Meetings
- The Fourteenth Session Of The General Conference
- Looking Ahead
-
- Ministry In The Bay Area
- Camp Meeting Versus Writing And Publishing
- Camp Meetings Again
- The Groveland Camp Meeting
- Pioneering In Texas
- At The McDearmon Home
- The Plano Camp Meeting
- Marian Davis Joins The White Forces
- The Home Situation
- Outreach In Missionary Endeavor
- Texas, A Needy Field Of Labor
- Trip By Caravan
- The Caravan Divides
- Still On The Caravan Trail
- On To Emporia
- The Kansas Camp Meeting
- The Health And Temperance Society
- Home Again In Battle Creek
-
-
-
- Oh, To Know What To Do!
- Two Weeks In England
- On To Basel, Switzerland
- Organization Of The Work In Europe
- A Mini-General Conference
- A Profitable Council
- A Visit To Scandinavia
- Visit To Denmark
- A Visit To Sweden
- Christiania, Norway
- Return Trip To Switzerland
- The Visit To Italy
- Marian Davis Joins the Force
- Ellen White's Second Missionary Journey
- Sweden
- Norway—Christiania
- Denmark
- England
- France
- At Valence, France
- Third Visit To Italy
-
-
-
- Haskell Pioneers Work In Australia
- The General Conference Takes Action
- To Go Or Not To Go
- Arrival At Sydney
- Recognized The Printing Presses
- Fourth Annual Session Of The Australian Seventh-Day Adventist Conference
- The Business Session Of The Conference
- A. G. Daniells Elected President
- Ellen White Begins Work In Melbourne
- Ellen White Anointed
- The Bible School Established
- The Bible School Opens
- Growing Stronger
- The Secret Signs
- N. D. Faulkhead And The Convincing Testimony
- Ellen White Gives The Secret Signs
- Faulkhead Resigns From The Lodges
- Another Interview With Ellen White
-
- Voyage To New Zealand
- Ellen White Meets The Hare Family
- First SDA Camp Meeting In The Southern Hemisphere
- The Winter In New Zealand
- A Mother's Anxiety
- Dental Problems
- Determined To Win New Zealand
- A New Approach In Gisborne
- The Wellington Camp Meeting
- Evangelistic Thrust In Australia
- A Union Conference Is Born
- Far-Reaching Influence Of The Brighton Camp Meeting
-
- The Brettville Estate
- Ellen White Explores The School Site
- Report To The Foreign Mission Board
- Making A Beginning
- Work At Cooranbong Brought To A Standstill
- Avondale College: On Hold
- Norfolk Villa In Granville
- Running A Free Hotel
- The Ashfield Camp Meeting
- A Wedding In The Family
- Tasmania
- Starting A College From Scratch
- The Manual Training Department Succeeds
- A Start With Buildings For Avondale College
- The Sawmill Loft Put To Use
- Setting A Target Date For Avondale College To Open
- Ellen White Calls A Work Bee
- The Avondale School Opens
-
-
- The Health Home
- The Successful Treatment Of A Very Critical Case
- A School For Nurses
- Firm Plans For Erecting A Sanitarium
- A Surprise Move
- Medical Missionary Work At Cooranbong
- The Health Food Work
- The Medical And Surgical Sanitarium, And The Use Of Meat
- Long-Distance Counselor
- Meeting Offshoot Teachings
- Good News From America
- The Anna Phillips Experience
- J. H. Kellogg And The Medical Missionary Work
- Meeting The Inroads Of Pantheism
- Correspondence With G. I. Butler
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- The Paradise Valley Property
- The New Well
- The Glendale Sanitarium
- Loma Linda, The Hill Beautiful
- “I'll Consult No One,” Said Ellen White
- The Search For Money
- Ellen White Inspects Loma Linda
- The First $5,000 Payment
- Faith Rewarded: Meeting The Payments
- Two More Payments
- Dedication Of Loma Linda Sanitarium
-
-
- More Than A Prophet
- The Seeds Of Unbelief
- Questions Calling For Careful Answers
- Who Manipulated Her Writings?
- The San Francisco Earthquake
- News Of The San Francisco Earthquake
- The Tour Of Ravaged San Francisco
- Consuming Fire That Followed The Earthquake
- Martial Law
- Destruction In The Central City
- Adventists And Adventist Properties
- The Earthquake Special Of The SIGNS
- The Trip Home To Elmshaven
- Finding A Site For Pacific Union College
- The Buena Vista Property
- The Angwin Property A Better Place
- Ellen White Describes The New School Property
- Faculty And Staff
-
-
-
- Considerations Initiated By Plans For A New Edition
- Finding Sources For The Quotations
- Progress Report To Elder Daniells
- E. G. White Settles The Question Of The D'Aubigné Quotations
- Clarence Crisler's Testimony
- A Review Of What Was Done To The Book
- E. G. White Reads And Approves Changes
- Time Running Out; Important Counsels
- Book Preparation
- Ellen White's Last Trips To Loma Linda
- On Hand for The 1911 Constituency Meeting
- The Visit of Bookmen
- The General Conference Session Of 1913
- “Courage In The Lord”
-
- Frequent Visitors
- Review and Signs Articles
- Her Eighty-Seventh Birthday
- The Accident and Its Aftermath
- The Vision of March 3
- Waning Strength And Death
- Ellen White At Rest; Awaiting The Life-Giver
- Funeral Notice
- The Richmond Funeral
- The Battle Creek Funeral
- The Funeral Service
- The Public Press
- “My Writings Will Constantly Speak”
-
Foreword
In 1913 F. M. Wilcox, editor of the Review and Herald, wrote of Ellen G. White: “The story of her life is the story of this movement. The two are identified in experience” (The Review and Herald, February 27, 1913). Being a seasoned evangelist, a church executive, and then editor of the general church paper, Elder Wilcox was in a unique position to make such an appraisal.WV 14.7
It was a busy and fruitful life that Ellen White lived from 1827 to 1915. It produced a story not fully told until the six-volume biography of Ellen White, written by Arthur L. White, appeared. True biographical sketches and several books had been published down through the years. These began with the seven pages devoted to her experience printed in July 1851 in her first book, a diminutive volume of 64 pages. They have included the 480 page Life Sketches, hurried into the field on her death in 1915. It had to be limited in detail.WV 14.8
In writing the six-volume biography, Elder Arthur White had before him 11 aims and objectives:WV 14.9
1. To write for the average reader, but in such detail and with such documentation as would meet the expectations of the scholar.WV 14.10
2. To leave the reader with the feeling that he or she had become acquainted with Ellen White as a very human person.WV 14.11
3. To portray accurately her life and work as the Lord's messenger in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, not by a slavish chronicle of each day of her active ministry, but by a selection from her experience of events and happenings that illustrate her lifework and make a contribution to the cause.WV 14.12
4. As far as possible, to keep these events in a year-by-year development, picturing her home life, her travels, her weaknesses and strengths, her burden of heart, and her earnest devotional life.WV 14.13
5. To select and present in detail significant events, two or three in a given year, that best illustrate her prophetic mission, depicting the interplay between the prophet and church leaders, institutions, and individuals, and recounting the sending of testimonies and the response to these messages.WV 14.14
6. To provide a knowledge of the principal points of the history of the church in a unique way as it was seen especially through the eyes of, or in relation to, the messenger of the Lord.WV 14.15
7. Not only to make the work an interesting narrative but to provide a selection of illustrative experiences with which readers might at times vicariously associate themselves.WV 14.16
8. To keep constantly before readers the major role the visions played in almost every phase of the experiences comprising the narrative.WV 14.17
9. Where convenient to the purposes of the manuscript, to let Ellen White speak in her own words, rather than providing a paraphrase. This would ensure an accurate conveyance of the unique and fine points of the messages in the very expressions of the prophetic messenger herself. Thus, many important statements are provided in a form that will be of value to all readers.WV 14.18
10. To provide a documented running account of the literary work done by Ellen White and her literary assistants in the production of her articles and books.WV 14.19
11. And in all of this, to present in the narrative, in a natural way, confidence-confirming features.WV 14.20
Mention should be made here of Ellen White's conversation with the angel in connection with the commission that she should present to others what had been opened up to her. Having observed the experience of some especially favored by God, she feared she might become exalted, but the angel of the Lord responded: “If this evil that you dread threatens you, the hand of God will be stretched out to save you; by affliction He will draw you to Himself and preserve your humility” (Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 196).WV 14.21
The sources from which the author worked were voluminous. They included the Ellen G. White diaries, the tens of thousands of pages of her letters and manuscripts, her many articles as they have appeared in the Review and Herald and Signs of the Times and other journals, her books and pamphlets, the correspondence she and her office received through the years, and letters and historical articles in the White Estate Document File. Also, for general historical backgrounds, the Review and Herald in its entirety.WV 14.22
Arthur White's six-volume biography of his grandmother was given wide circulation throughout the world and was so well received that almost immediately requests began coming in to the White Estate for a single-volume abridged edition. Adventist publishers and church leaders throughout the world felt that a work of this kind would meet a real need. Thus, in retirement Elder White asked Mrs. Margaret Rossiter Thiele to reduce the six volumes to one. Her work was submitted to the White Estate, where it was edited by Kenneth H. Wood. If through this volume Ellen White becomes better known as an individual—a wife and mother, a neighbor and friend, as well as the messenger of the Lord, laboring tirelessly in the pulpit and on the public platform in declaring God's messages and in counseling often and writing incessantly, with influence felt the world around—the objectives of the author and of the White Estate will have been met.WV 14.23