Volume 4—The Great Controversy—Finally Ready

A back-page note in The Review and Herald, October 2, 1884, reported that volume 4, “so long looked for, is now out.” It was published simultaneously by both the Pacific Press and the Review and Herald in editions of five thousand copies each. Before the end of the year, the first printing on the West Coast was sold out. Another milestone in Ellen White's writing was now passed. The book was sold to both Seventh-day Adventists and the general public, and fifty thousand copies were distributed with in three years’ time.3BIO 249.1

Just as soon as G. I. Butler had found time to read the new book, he wrote for the Review and Herald:3BIO 249.2

The last volume of this remarkable series is now before the public. We rejoice to welcome its appearance, as we have for years greatly desired to peruse it. We have just had the privilege of reading it through, and take pleasure in giving our impressions of it to the readers of the Review.3BIO 249.3

It is a high commendation, in view of the excellence of the three preceding volumes of the series, to say that volume 4 equals them. But we can say without hesitation that it far excels them in interest to us. They relate to the past whose history is largely given in the Bible and other books. Much of this relates to the future.—December 2, 1884.3BIO 249.4