Testimonies for the Church, Volumes 1 to 4

From the publication of the first Testimony pamphlet in 1855, important instruction, admonition, encouragement, and reproof reached the church through thirty-one Testimony pamphlets, each of sixteen pages to 240 pages. In 1878 the General Conference session voted that these materials should be kept in print and made available to the church in a more permanent form.3BIO 217.4

In the early 1880s the publishers and Ellen White were faced with dwindling stocks. In late 1881 Marian Davis and Willie and Mary White began giving attention to what might be needed in the way of revising the wording, correcting imperfect grammar, or making clear the meaning intended by Ellen White. As the work was done, type was set and printing plates were made.3BIO 217.5

While W. C. White was in Battle Creek at the 1881 General3BIO 217.6

Conference session, Mary wrote to him: 3BIO 218.1

Yours from Battle Creek containing instruction concerning the Testimonies came to hand last evening. Your suggestion to insert the volume and number in running title we all think good....

With regard to changes, we will try to profit by your suggestions. The fear that we may make too many changes or in some way change the sense haunts me day and night.—MKW to WCW, January 7, 1882.3BIO 218.2

Three weeks later Mary wrote a progress report: “There are now a little more than three hundred pages of the first volume of Testimonies electrotyped [in printing plates]. There is some more in type and much more prepared.”—MKW to WCW, January 29, 1882. Work on this task progressed as other tasks allowed. On November 29 Mary wrote of what seemed to her and others of the need for some explanatory notes, and suggested following the style of Geikie in numbering such notes. In May, 1883, she was working on a subject index for volume 1 of the Testimonies, which she thought would “be of great value if done right” (MKW to WCW, May 13, 1883).3BIO 218.3

When W. C. White and his mother went to the General Conference session in Battle Creek in November, 1883, he took with him a report of the work in preparing the Testimonies for publication in convenient permanent form. He called for a resolution of explanation and General Conference support. Here is the action taken on the last day of the session:3BIO 218.4

Whereas, Some of the bound volumes of the Testimonies for the Church are out of print, so that full sets cannot be obtained at the office; and—3BIO 218.5

Whereas, There is a constant and urgent call for the reprinting of these volumes; therefore—Resolved, That we recommend their republication in such a form as to make four volumes of seven or eight hundred pages each.3BIO 218.6

Whereas, Many of these testimonies were written under the most unfavorable circumstances, the writer being too heavily pressed with anxiety and labor to devote critical thought to the grammatical perfection of the writings, and they were printed in such haste as to allow these imperfections to pass uncorrected; and—3BIO 218.7

Whereas, We believe the light given by God to His servants is by the enlightenment of the mind, thus imparting the thoughts, and not (except in rare cases) the very words in which the ideas should be expressed; therefore—3BIO 219.1

Resolved, That in the republication of these volumes such verbal changes be made as to remove the above-named imperfections, as far as possible, without in any measure changing the thought; and further3BIO 219.2

Resolved, That this body appoint a committee of five to take charge of the republication of these volumes according to the above preambles and resolutions.—Ibid., November 27, 18833BIO 219.3

Butler appointed the committee, as follows: W. C. White, Uriah Smith, J. H. Waggoner, S. N. Haskell, and himself (Ibid.).3BIO 219.4