THESE writings of Mrs. White are literature. But they were not produced by ordinary literary method.

The writer was called from early youth to give to others what had been revealed to her; and along with the thoughts presented to her came a gift of expression befitting the themes. It was not that she was told word by word the language by which to express the thought. Views, scenes, were caused to pass before her, and a burden of conviction laid upon her as to Bible truths and counsels needed. In early years she explained it thus:

"Although I am as dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in writing my views as I am in receiving them, yet the words I employ in describing what I have seen are my own."Quoted in The Review and Herald, Oct. 8, 1867.

Thus she would tell and retell the message, seeking to make it clearer and more complete in detail when that might be helpful. A new edition of a book might be enlarged, portions omitted to give place to more complete presentation in other portions, or changes in expression made to render the thought clearer. The small book of an early edition sometimes grew into a large book in later times as circumstances might call, or as new and fuller views were imparted by the Spirit.

From earliest years opposers were ready to charge "suppression" or change of view if a later edition varied from an earlier. But the work of passing on the volumes of counsel and Bible Exposition went forward for seventy years, the agent in the exercise of the gift pursuing her way in the spirit of obedience to that first counsel of 1844: "Said the angel, 'If you deliver the messages faithfully, and endure unto the end, you shall eat of the fruit of the tree of life and drink of the water of the river of life.'"

Much material that went into the published books was originally written in counsels to individuals, or to committees or boards. A message might be given for some worker or leader. Page after page would Mrs. White's pen trace, of counsel and exhortation, of encouragement and warning to that person. In one letter lessons might be drawn from the life of Abraham, or from the experiences of David, or Daniel, or Paul. Thus here was matter exactly fitted to make part of a chapter in this book or that, as the time came for the compilation of a permanent volume.

That pen was busy through the years, sending messages uncounted to workers and people, and producing the finest expositions of Bible themes, needing, of course, the amplifying and working over and over, and the additions of matter from the same pen, to make the connected and complete discourse or narrative of a choice volume.

These letters, or testimonies, as they are called, were written at home and abroad, in the midst of general meetings, or in hours caught in travels by rail or steamship, in homes where the writer might be a visitor-all through the seventy years it was going on.

Who, ordinarily, could make up chapters for such books from copies of one's letters? Every person in official work has written letters, year after year. In making an unflattering comparison, I should speak only of my own letters, if I may be excused for doing so. In two terms of service I worked as Mission Board secretary for almost twenty-five years. Naturally, I was called to write, write, by stenographic dictation, to workers at home and in every part of the earth. I did my best. But all the literary talent in our denomination could not make a worth-while chapter for a book out of all the copies of my letters that are stacked up somewhere at headquarters. We don't write that kind of letters. But when this agent was moved by the Spirit to write letters, there was something not discoverable in any natural way of letter writing. That is how we now and then find some of the choicest paragraphs or pages in the printed volumes in some letter of older date that was manifestly hurriedly written and hastened on to someone in need of counsel.

Sometimes the place from which a message comes adds significance to it. For instance, there is the closing section of volume 5 of the Testimonies. It is entitled, "God's Care for His Work." When that writing came out in 1889, it seemed to me the finest prose in our language on that theme. It is a wonderful piece of writing. And only recently I learned from what place some of these paragraphs first came to us. Going over the old file of the Review and Herald for 1887, looking for some other item, I saw that the basis of this section, "God's Care for His Work," was an article sent from the old Waldensian valleys of the Italian Alps. Mrs. White was down in Torre Pellice in 1886, amid scenes hallowed by memories of papal persecutions, when the Waldenses and others found refuge in the mountain fastnesses. From Torre Pellice it was that Mrs. White sent an article to the Review (January 11, 1887), reviving in our hearts a trust in God for such times of trial and persecution. In paragraphs that blaze like beacons from old Waldensian campfires in the Alpine mountains, we are exhorted:

"We are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Prophecy is fast fulfilling. The Lord is at the door. There is soon to open before us a period of overwhelming interest to all living....

"But God's servants are not to trust to themselves in this great emergency. In the visions given to Isaiah, to Ezekiel, and to John we see how closely heaven is connected with the events taking place upon the earth and how great is the care of God for those who are loyal to Him. The world is not without a ruler. The program of coming events is in the hands of the Lord. The Majesty of heaven has the destiny of nations, as well as the concerns of His church, in His own charge....

"Brethren, it is no time now for mourning and despair, no time to yield to doubt and unbelief. Christ is not now a Saviour in joseph's new tomb, closed with a great stone and sealed with the Roman seal; we have a risen Saviour. He is the King, the Lord of hosts; He sitteth between the cherubim; and amid the strife and tumult of nations He guards His people still. He who ruleth in the heavens is our Saviour. He measures every trial. He watches the furnace fire that must test every soul . When the strongholds of kings shall be overthrown, when the arrows of God's wrath shall strike through the hearts of His enemies, His people will be safe in His hands." Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 753, 754.

One would go far to find a finer piece of modern writing than these paragraphs of trust from out the Waldensian valleys. From lands far and near, from stopping places where the unsettled conditions and upset of travel would ordinarily forbid thoughtful writing, this pen continued the flow of inspiring comment and counsel for seventy years.

No; let no one get the idea that because Mrs. White was called as a young girl, with but limited school training, she had not a remarkable use of language in which to express the messages given. She was all her life in a school of rare experience. The eldest among us cannot remember a time so early that this woman's voice did not speak the messages in eloquent and choice language. Professor M. E. Cady, one of our veteran educational leaders, once commented on this as follows:

"In later years while at a camp meeting near Boston, Dr. Emerson, president of the Emerson School of Oratory, heard Mrs. White speak. He remarked that her voice was remarkable for its resonant quality and its flexibility. He further said that from the beginning to the end of the sermon the speaker did not violate a single rule governing correct expression."Quoted in The Review and Herald, Sept. 12, 1929.

Early workers who were in Australia with Mrs. White tell of an illustrative incident there. Mrs. White spoke one day at a camp meeting, reading her message from a pen-written manuscript. After the meeting three ladies-not Adventists-asked Mrs. White if they might take the manuscript home for examination. The request was granted. When the spokesman brought it back, she said: "We had been told by unfriendly critics that you could not write proper English. But here we have seen this writing in your own hand, and find it in good English. We know your critics are unfair."

Many years ago an opposer suggested to me t hat the newly published book, The Desire of Ages, was probably written by one of Mrs. White's helpers.

"No," I replied at once. "You must remember that Mrs. White comes in before us in committees and councils, and speaks offhand and at length in the same language the same high thoughts, the same eloquent and graphic, moving sentences. You know that no helper she ever had could do that."

It is absolutely true. Anyone who really knew Mrs. White in service recognized these finest things in her books as indeed really identifying marks of her own personal touch.

This is not to suggest for a moment that possession of this gift ensured grammatical accuracy or expertness in punctuation or capitalization, or in all the technical niceties of the traditional literary method. The chosen agent was concerned with the vital thing of delivering the messages faithfully.

Of the help she had in a literary way from James White as they traveled among the churches in the early years, she wrote:

"We traveled extensively. Sometimes light would be given to me in the night season, sometimes in the daytime before large congregations. The instruction I received in vision was faithfully written out by me, as I had time and strength for the work. Afterward we examined the matter together, my husband correcting grammatical errors, and eliminating needless repetition. Then it was carefully copied for the persons addressed, or for the printer."-The Writing and Sending Out of the Testimonies to the Church, p. 4 (from a letter written in 1906).

Anyone looking at the long list of books written by Mrs. White can see that no one person could ever have done all the gathering and arranging and copying and recopying of material necessary in preparing all those books for the press. It would be physically impossible-the more so for one like Mrs. White, with demands upon her time and service wherever she went. As Baruch was a valued scribe and copyist for Jeremiah the prophet, so helpers were essential for the large task involved in Mrs. White's work. She herself wrote of the valued service of these associates. Of one who was helping on book work at the time, she once wrote:

"She takes my articles which are published in the papers, and pastes them in blank books. She also has a copy of all the letters I write. In preparing a chapter for a book, M---- remembers that I have written something on that special point, which may make the matter more forcible. She begins to search for this, and if when she finds it she sees that it will make the chapter more clear, she adds it. The books are not M----'s productions, but my own, gathered from all my writings. M---- has a large field from which to draw, and her ability to arrange the matter is of great value to me. It saves my poring over a mass of matter, which I have no time to do."

How impossible for any author, in the ordinary way of literary work, to produce such devotional and expository volumes after this manner! It sets the seal of a special divinely imparted gift upon the work.

Opposers, as I have said, have sometimes charged that these helpers did the writing. Think of it! The bitterness of opposition has led men who attacked this gift to make charges that would cover the record of these Christian helpers with infamy. If the helpers could have spent years writing matter to be passed off as written by someone else, they would have been deceivers unworthy of a place in a Christian work. Many have known these helpers. I have known most of them personally. True souls, their help was considered invaluable. But as one helper has come and another gone, through the long years, the work of that pen has gone on unvaryingly. Not one helper who came had ever written things like these before coming. Not one who has passed on to other work has ever written things like these afterward. There is a gift here, a gift to the church, that builds up the church and the movement as only a divinely imparted gift could do.