Exhibit 53—Thursday, October 5, 1893, Marian Davis to Ellen White

There are some points I would like to ask about the life of Christ. Wasn’t it all through His life on earth, a struggle with Him to restrain His divine power—to keep the level of humanity? Especially in the temptation in the wilderness when Satan came to him saying, If Thou be the Son of God, then for Christ not to assert Himself, not to rebuke the tempter. And in the last temptation, I would like to know if this idea is right—Adam held dominion over the earth, but as subject to Christ. The Son of God was the real, original ruler, and Adam held dominion under him. Adam betrayed to Satan his dominion, but back of that, Christ was the first ruler of the world. Now in the temptation, Satan comes with his stolen title and offers it to Christ, the original ruler, on condition that Christ shall pay him homage. To do this would be to place Satan in supremacy as the original ruler, and Christ to be subordinate to Satan. The intolerable impudence—if I may be permitted the expression—of Satan! It seems as if Christ must have been tempted to blot him out of existence then and there, and bring to an end all his miserable work. Now, if there is anything to this, I wish it might be brought out, that Christ never asserted Himself, He bore all the misrepresentation and assumption of Satan, and just lived—Just let His life shine out, the unfolding of God’s eternal love, as the vindication of Himself, and the eternal refutation of all the claims of Satan. Oh, what a wonderful lesson that has for us, not to vindicate or assert ourselves, but to let principle unfold and develop, to let our life speak, while we are silent.ERWDA 26.6

The lessons on the life of Christ seem to excite general interest. Brother Starr draws quite fully from the manuscript chapters....ERWDA 27.1

I am attending the Bible class now. It breaks up my time some, but since they are considering the life of Christ I want to hear it, as any discussion or presentation of that subject brings it up fresh to one’s own mind.ERWDA 27.2

—White Estate Document File #393a. (Written from Prahran, Melbourne, to Ellen White in New Zealand.)