MR No. 655—Ellen White's Use of Historical Information

Tell her [Marian Davis] I have just one minute ago read the letters in which she has specified the improvements to be made in articles for Volume 1 [Patriarchs and Prophets]. I thank her. Tell her that she has a point about Zedekiah's having his eyes put out. That needs to be more carefully worded—also the rock, when the water flowed—something in reference to this. I think I can make the articles specified more full....8MR 445.1

Well, my dear Willie and Edson and Emma, let us draw very nigh to God. Let us live daily as we would wish we had lived when the judgment shall sit and the books shall be opened, and when everyone will be rewarded according to his works. I am not cast down nor discouraged, but I feel weighed down as a cart beneath sheaves. We have had several days of beautiful weather. It has commenced raining this afternoon. Tell Mary to find me some histories of the Bible that would give me the order of events. I have nothing and can find nothing in the library here.—Letter 38, 1885. (To Edson and Willie White, from Basel, Switzerland, December 22, 1885.)8MR 445.2

May 15, 1887—We have just returned from visiting Zurich. It is a much prettier city than Basel. The old part of the city contains many historical places of interest....8MR 445.3

We rode out in a rowboat upon the Zurich Lake which was narrow but thirty-five miles long. This gave us a good idea of the extent of Zurich and the many cantons situated on the borders of the lake. Zurich is pleasantly situated on the shores of Lake Zurich. This is a noble expanse of water, enclosed with banks which swell upwards, clothed with vineyards and pine forests, from amid which hamlets and white villas gleam out amid trees and cultivated hills which give variety and beauty to the picture, while in the far off horizon the glaciers are seen blending with the golden clouds. On the right the region is walled in with the craggy rampart of the Albis Alp but the mountains stand back from the shore and by permitting the light to fall freely upon the bosom of the lake and on the ample sweep of its lovely and fertile banks, give a beauty to the picture which pen or brush of the artist could not equal.8MR 445.4

The neighboring lake of Zug is in marked contrast to Zurich. The placid waters and slumbering shore seem perpetually wrapped in the shadows.—Manuscript 29, 1887. (Diary, January 1 to May 15, 1887.)8MR 446.1

Released October 26, 1978.