What about the use James and Ellen White made of the writings of J. N. Andrews and Uriah Smith? ^{20The White Lie, pp. 136, 137, 200, 222-224, 363-365, 371-373.}

W. C. White has aptly summarized the pioneers’ view on this subject:TAWL 3.10

All felt that the truths to be presented were common property and wherever one could help another or get help from another in the expression of Biblical truths, it was considered right to do so. Consequently there were many excellent statements of present truth copied by one writer from another. And no man said that aught which he wrote was exclusively his own. ^{21“Brief Statements,” p. 7.}

Ellen White explained her own use of other Adventist writers in the introduction to The Great Controversy where she says that “in narrating the experience and views of those carrying forward the work of reform in our own time” she had made use of their writings in a way similar to the use she made of the language of historians. ^{22Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, xii.} Thus James White used Uriah Smith just as Ellen White used James White. Outside Adventist circles, the popular historical writer Charles Adams used historian Merle D’Aubigne just as Ellen White used Charles Adams. ^{23Ron Graybill, “Analysis of E. G. White’s Luther Manuscript,” p. 1. Available from the Ellen G. White Estate.}TAWL 3.11