Patriarchs and Prophets

Patriarchs and Prophets was in the development stage while Ellen White and her staff were in Basel, but it was laid aside in April, 1887, to give priority to The Great Controversy. But it was not forgotten, and when Ellen White and her staff could give time to it, the work advanced, if slowly. At this point she had occasion to write to Canright, who had just left the church. In doing so, she mentioned this book:3BIO 443.2

I have been writing upon the first volume of Great Controversy [Patriarchs and Prophets], and it makes me feel very solemn as I review these important subjects—creation and the events from the fall of Satan to the fall of Adam. The Lord seems very near to me as I write, and I am deeply moved as I contemplate this controversy from the beginning to the present time. The workings of the powers of darkness are laid clearly before my mind.—Testimonies for the Church, 5:572, 573.3BIO 443.3

In January, 1887, W. C. White wrote from Switzerland to G. I. Butler:3BIO 443.4

Mother is doing her best to complete her manuscript on Old Testament History, and Sister Davis is making good progress in preparing it for the printer. I tell you, my brother, it will be a splendid book. It will have twice as much matter as Spirit of Prophecy, volume 1, and it will accomplish a great deal more in the matter of teaching present truth. I think it will stand next to volume 4 in value and usefulness.—A-2, WCW, p. 93.3BIO 443.5

He added, “I wish she had time to prepare her book on the Life of Christ before leaving here, for when we reach America I fear she will have but little time to write.”3BIO 443.6

Patriarchs and Prophets was published by the Pacific Press in 1890, and was handled like The Great Controversy. The text was introduced by a statement explaining the current function of the Spirit of Prophecy in the church. This excellent eight-page presentation was written by Uriah Smith. The Review and Herald, August 26, 1890, announced the availability of the book.3BIO 443.7

It contained fifty-one illustrations, many of them full-page, prepared expressly for the volume. It contained also eight pages of appendix notes prepared by others than Ellen White.3BIO 444.1

On November 24, Ellen White wrote of the two companion books:3BIO 444.2

God gave me the light contained in Great Controversy and Patriarchs and Prophets, and this light was needed to arouse the people to prepare for the great day of God, which is just before us. These books contain God's direct appeal to the people. Thus He is speaking to the people in stirring words, urging them to make ready for His coming. The light God has given in these books should not be concealed.—Manuscript 23, 1890.3BIO 444.3

Ellen White did not get to work on the life of Christ before leaving Europe, as W. C. White had wished she might. The single-volume Life of Christ, translated from materials from The Spirit of Prophecy, volumes 2 and 3, was making its way in Europe, and an English edition was contemplated, but as with Patriarchs and Prophets and The Great Controversy, any thought given to this conjured up pictures of expanding the materials—and that had to wait for another time. In the interim, a letter from H. P. Holser mentioned a significant development in the distribution of the Life of Christ in the Scandinavian countries. The situation that prompted Holser's letter was to be given careful consideration in book preparation during the next decade. From W. C. White's letter of December 13, 1888, to Holser, we pick up the reference to the problem:3BIO 444.4

I am glad to hear what you say about the continued demand for the Life of Christ. I am sorry it is receiving adverse criticism from the newspapers, for although your sales seem to continue, I fear this will be against other works which you may print.3BIO 444.5

At a late meeting of the book committee a vote was passed requesting that this book be revised, leaving out those portions which strike the new reader as flights of the author's imagination, and unsustained by Scripture—and fit it to be used as a pioneer work. You may say we are two years too late for this, but I suppose there are very large sections of Germany and France, besides the colonies and the islands of the sea, that have not been canvassed as yet.—D WCW, p. 60.3BIO 444.6

The extra-scriptural materials introduced by Ellen White as the result of the views given her in vision on the life of Christ were at the seat of the problem. White alluded to this in a letter written to E. W. Whitney in Europe on December 13, 1888.3BIO 445.1

The book committee recommends that the Life of Christ shall be revised, adapting it for use as a pioneer book and removing those things which create so many queries with the new reader.— Ibid., 59.3BIO 445.2

These points had a bearing in the preparation of Patriarchs and Prophets and would be kept in mind a decade later in the preparation of The Desire of Ages.3BIO 445.3