The “Early Writings” Charges Answered

The answer can be brief and direct:EGWC 274.1

a. The publishers of Early Writings in 1882 did not claim that it contained all of Mrs. White’s early writings. Instead, they stated in the preface that they were publishing a “second edition” of a certain “little book,” entitled Experience and Views, which, they added, was “first published in 1851.” No statement could be more accurate. Hence James White’s preface to the 1851 edition could only be decribed by them as “Preface to first edition.” And all of this “first edition” is faithfully reprinted in 1882, as the publishers declared. There is nothing in the 1882 Preface that suggests that Early Writings contains all of her early writings. Instead, the publishers specifically state which of her early writings they are reprinting. The plausibility of this whole charge disappears when it is laid alongside the text of the 1882 Preface.EGWC 274.2

b. In the light of these facts the question as to what should be considered the true first edition of Mrs. White’s writings really becomes irrelevant. But since the critics claim that the 1847 tract, A Word to the “Little Flock,” was the first edition of Mrs. White’s writings, let us give the facts that bear on this claim. The tract opens with an explanatory note regarding its contents, which we quote in part:EGWC 274.3

“The following articles were written for the Day-Dawn, which has been published at Canandaigua, New York, by O. R. L. Crosier. But as that paper is not now published, and as we do not know as it will be published again, it is thought best by some of us in Maine, to have them given in this form.”—Page 1.EGWC 274.4