An Avid Reader

Ellen White was an avid reader. Her son says she was “a rapid reader,” “read diligently,” was “an interested reader of religious journals,” and sometimes “read aloud” to her husband. He says she was “led to examine books” by impressions from God. Also, her “reading of history refreshed to her mind that which she had seen” in vision. (See Selected Messages 3:462-465.)WDEGWB 4.4

Note how W C White describes her selectivity:WDEGWB 4.5

The revelations which she had received enabled her to grip subjects regarding which she read in a vigorous way. This enabled her to select and appropriate that which was true and to discard that which was erroneous and doubtful (Selected Messages 3:462).

With her limited formal education of only three years, she felt a certain lack. Writing about her desires for her own sons’ education, she no doubt reflected how she had learned:WDEGWB 4.6

If the moments were employed by the children in study that they spend in reading with no particular object in view of benefiting the mind or of obtaining useful knowledge, very many could obtain a good education without ever entering a school room (Letter 28, 1871).

Ellen White had still another interesting reading habit. She wanted her young sons to have good reading, so she gleaned stories from magazines that no doubt came to the Battle Creek publishing house. These stories she pasted into scrapbooks that provided many hours of reading for them.WDEGWB 4.7

What do we learn from her reading habits? It is evident that her reading aided her in writing, but was not the primary source of her messages.WDEGWB 5.1