Chapter X

People enjoyed conversing with Ellen White. She kept abreast of world happenings; she was alert to the historical significance of places she visited on her journeys; she was intensely interested in every facet of the advancement of the cause; and she loved people and was interested in their welfare, physical and spiritual. She conversed freely on the activities in and about the home, the members of the family, the trips to town, the welfare of the animals on the farm, the weather. But she was not one to engage in gossip. In her conversation she watched for opportunities to drop a word that would encourage or help.EGWP 13.1

Those who visited with her were quick to discern that being favored with the gift of prophecy did not divest her of her natural abilities of reasoning, devising, reading, or communicating. As anyone, she could engage in a discussion of ordinary matters, and neither she nor those she conversed with understood that her words in these circumstances were inspired. The many visions surely had a bearing on her reasoning and decisions, but she was not shorn of the use of her ordinary faculties, nor was she relieved from responsibility for their use.EGWP 13.2

And also in her letters, those portions dealing with everyday matters carried no special weight of inspiration. She would report on the weather, the happenings in the family, her feelings, and the plans for journeys. She noted thatEGWP 13.3

there are times when common things must be stated, common thoughts must occupy the mind, common letters must be written and information given that has passed from one to another of the workers. Such words, such information, are not given under the special inspiration of the Spirit of God. Questions are asked at times that are not upon religious subjects at all, and these questions must be answered. We converse about houses and lands, trades to be made, and locations for our institutions, their advantages and disadvantages. ^{1Selected Messages 1:39.}

But sometimes in her conversation and often in her letters she would present instruction and light given to her by God. Where, then, did she and her contemporaries—and where do we today—draw the line? In the same manuscript just quoted, she established the criterion: the line was drawn between the “common” and the “sacred.” ^{2Selected Messages 1:38-39.}EGWP 13.4

She constantly exercised diligent care to avoid setting forth her own ideas in such a way that they could be taken as being of divine origin. Time and again when she had no light from the Lord in regard to a matter on which she was questioned, she refrained from giving an answer. In 1914, when a doctrinal question was placed before her, she replied, “Please tell my brethren that I have nothing presented before me regarding the circumstances concerning which they write, and I can set before them only that which has been presented to me.” ^{3Quoted in C. C. Crisler letter to E. E. Andross, December 8, 1914.}EGWP 13.5