Correspondence and Interest in Correspondence

In a May 13 letter to Edson, W. C. White, in describing their mother's waning strength, explained, “Instead of writing several letters a day as in the olden time, Mother writes only two or three a month nowadays.”6BIO 364.3

Mother's health is quite changeable. Some days she reads a little too much, then does not sleep at night and the next day is very feeble. Perhaps the next night she will rest well and feel of good courage and ambitious the next day.6BIO 364.4

A few weeks later, Ellen White was writing to her close friends the Haskells:6BIO 364.5

I must write you a short letter today. I have begun several letters to you, but have not succeeded in finishing any. I hope you will not cease to write to me, even though I do not write often. I am always interested in your work, and always glad to hear from you.6BIO 364.6

We are all very busy, doing our best to prepare the new book for publication. I want the light of truth to go to every place, that it may enlighten those who are now ignorant of the reasons for our faith.—Letter 28, 1912.6BIO 365.1

While direct correspondence between Ellen White and workers and laymen in the field had ground almost to a halt, she did not lose interest in what was happening in the denomination. Her son shared interesting correspondence with her. As through the previous years, church leaders communicated with her largely through W. C. White. In one letter to Elder Daniells, White tells of how his mother and others had read his recent letters “with deep interest” (WCW to AGD, January 19, 1912). A few weeks later he wrote to Daniells:6BIO 365.2

I have several very interesting letters from you which I have read with much interest, as has Mother, Elder Irwin, and others who are connected with our work.—WCW to AGD, February 29, 1912.6BIO 365.3

Of a ten-page letter written in early May, he noted: “I can assure you that Mother and I were very glad to read what you have written.”—WCW to AGD, May 14, 1912. Through the year 1912, Daniells wrote nineteen letters to W. C. White, and White wrote twenty-two to him; very often Ellen White was privy to this exchange of correspondence. Daniells opened his letter of December 31, 1912, with the words, “I was just squaring myself to write you another ‘book of Daniel’ when it was decided by our brethren here in Washington to call a special meeting of the General Conference Committee, to convene at Mountain View, January 19.” So, he said,“As I shall see you soon, and have an opportunity, I hope, to talk with you about many things which I wish to place before you, I shall write little more at this time.”6BIO 365.4

And we find evidence of Ellen White reading some of W. C. White's outgoing letters. On October 31, 1912, he wrote in a careful way to S. N. Haskell, countering the verbal-inspiration theory Haskell was inclined to. At the lower left-hand corner of the last page, Ellen White wrote with her pen: “I approve of the remarks made in this letter. Ellen G. White.”6BIO 365.5