Chapter 7—The Witness of Contemporaries

Let us turn our attention to another kind of evidence, to the people who surrounded Ellen G. White. For seventy years she was the centre of great activity. She was a lady who lived an unusually busy life. Her work took her to Europe, to Australia, and to many parts of the United States. She was known to thousands, yes, hundreds of thousands of people.DGRGC 94.1

Now these thousands become her contemporaries, and we do well to stop right here and find out what recognition she was accorded by her contemporaries. This becomes a most interesting study, and certainly a very good type of evidence by which we may judge her and measure the scope, the nature of her work.DGRGC 94.2

There are three kinds of contemporaries:DGRGC 94.3

1. Those interested in the subject who approve and accept it. That is one class of people. Another class would beDGRGC 94.4

2. Those interested in the subject but who disagree or disapprove and who deny or reject it. The third would beDGRGC 94.5

3. Those disinterested who may either accept or reject it. These three kinds of people are contemporaries to each and every one of us.DGRGC 94.6

Ellen G. White had all three kinds about her and for a period of seventy years. So that if people were looking for something, some reason to reject her and reject her work, a period of seventy years would certainly give ample opportunity to find something wrong, if there were something wrong to be found. The more so since she produced so many words, about twenty-five million, enough words and enough things written about, so that men could criticize and find fault with her if there were faults to be found.DGRGC 94.7

Now for a very short life and for a very short period of work, it might be difficult to use the testimony of contemporaries. But in a long life of service like seventy years, and in such an abundance of material as that which came from her pen there seems to be no lack of evidence upon which to base a judgment.DGRGC 94.8

Let us first use the testimony of those who were interested and who accepted or approved. It is only reasonable, that if I want to know something about a man, say, the president of the General Conference, I would do well to go to his very closest associates and to his most intimate friends. I suggest that they should be able to make an appraisal of him and his work. If I would know the facts about Ellen G. White I would certainly not think of going to D. M. Canright or a man by the name of Jones who used to be around these parts here in Southern Asia and who now has much to say against Ellen G. White. I would not go to them to get my first and most intimate appraisal of Ellen G. White. Would you? Would that be fair?DGRGC 95.1

So it is only reasonable that we should go to a man’s friends with whom he has been most closely associated, to those who know him best and most intimately. For this reason I want to begin with that group of people—the friends, those intimately connected with Ellen G. White.DGRGC 95.2

George I. Butler, the president of the General Conference in 1883, was most certainly very closely associated with Ellen G. White. We should be interested in what he had to say concerning her as one of her contemporaries. In the Review and Herald, a supplement dated August 14, 1883, this is what he said:DGRGC 95.3

“The majority of our people believe these visions to be a genuine manifestation of spiritual gifts, and as such to be entitled to respect. We do not hold them to be superior to the Bible, or in one sense equal to it. The Scriptures are our rule to test everything by, the visions as well as all other things. That rule, therefore, is of the highest authority; the standard is higher than the thing tested by it. If the Bible should show the visions were not in harmony with it, the Bible would stand, and the visions would be given up. This shows plainly that we hold the Bible the highest, our enemies to the contrary, notwithstanding.”DGRGC 95.4

Now to my mind, that is a very fair appraisal of the writings of Ellen G. White, and an appraisal made by a man who was the president of the General Conference in 1883, a man who was closely associated with her and her works over a period of many years, and he knew her and her works as few people could, for in his position he stood between her and the people inside and outside the church.DGRGC 95.5