The Testimonies in Bound Sets

In August, two black cloth-bound volumes, a reprinting of the early Testimony pamphlets came from the press. Beginning with 1855, when the first Testimony pamphlet was published, they had been issued in rather small printings, for the church was small. By 1864 ten such pamphlets had been published, but not all were still available at the Review office. Then these counsels were made available again by being reprinted and included as the last section of Volume IV of Spiritual Gifts,. But not in their entirety. Ellen White explained in her introductory remarks:2BIO 319.1

During the last nine years, from 1855 to 1864, I have written ten small pamphlets, entitled Testimony for the Church, which have been published and circulated among Seventh-day Adventists. The first edition of most of these pamphlets being exhausted, and there being an increasing demand for them, it has been thought best to reprint them, as given in the following pages, omitting local and personal matters, and giving those portions only which are of practical and general interest and importance. Most of Testimony No. 4 may be found in the second volume of Spiritual Gifts,; hence, it is omitted in this volume.2BIO 319.2

What was selected for republication filled 160 pages, or about one third of the content of the ten pamphlets. But this did not satisfy the desires of the believers, who declared they wanted all of the testimonies, regardless of the relevancy of some of them. In the summer of 1871 the demands for all of the Testimonies were met, as Numbers 1 to 19 were reprinted in their entirety. The volume was prefaced by James White:2BIO 319.3

During the period of sixteen years Mrs. White has published her Testimonies for the Church in a series of pamphlets, which at this date number twenty. But as the editions of the first Numbers were small, and have long since been exhausted, we are not able to furnish the series complete to the numerous friends who subsequently embraced the views of Seventh-day Adventists. The call for these Testimonies being large, we republish and offer them in this form.2BIO 319.4

And we are happy to do this, inasmuch as the testimonies, given under the trying and ever-changing circumstances of the past sixteen years, ever breathing the same high-toned spirit of scriptural piety, contain in themselves the best evidences of their being what they profess to be.2BIO 320.1

There are in them matters of a local and personal character, which do not have a direct bearing upon our time. But as many have desired it, we give them complete.2BIO 320.2