The first introduced is mention of a couple of sensational slanders leveled against Ellen White which were refuted in the Defense of Elder James White and Wife. Vindication of their Moral and Christian Character. This booklet of 112 pages published in 1870, dealt primarily with James White, explaining and defending his financial transactions in behalf of the church and with individual Adventists. Numerous testimonials confirmed James White’s integrity and generosity. CBPH 85.2
Only 12 of the 112 pages of the book discussed the slanders directed at Ellen White. The ridiculous reports that she had given birth to an illegitimate child and that she had proposed a trade of marriage partners were circulated by some hostile non-Adventist ministers. In both cases they were traced to their source and found to have contained not a grain of truth. This having been demonstrated a hundred years ago, the question may be asked as to why reference is made to it in Prophetess of Health. CBPH 85.3
As we pointed out above, only a small portion of the booklet was devoted to the charges leveled against Ellen White, and that section would have been even smaller, no doubt, had not the The Review and Herald, December 7, 1869, p. 34, issued “an urgent request that all persons who know any evil of Sr. W., or who have, as they think, good authority from others for believing evil of her, to write a definite statement of such things to this Office.” CBPH 85.4