THE books that have come to the Seventh-day Adventist Church through Mrs. E. G. White carry their own credentials. They touch human needs in a spiritual way that is unique in devotional literature. The only explanation is that given by the writer of the books, who said: "I have written many books, and they have been given a wide circulation. Of myself I could not have brought out the truth in these books, but the Lord has given me the help of His Holy Spirit."--ELLEN G. WHITE, quoted in The Review and Herald, July 26, 1906.

Many a reader, knowing nothing of the author's experience, has felt that these books, showed some special spiritual gift on the writer's part. I give a few examples to illustrate, gathered from here and there, impressions of Catholic readers as well as Protestant.

At a conference in the city of Washington one of our laymen said: "I loaned the book Steps to Christ to a young woman in business. She returned it, saying she had never read such a book before. 'It seemed to me it was inspired,' she said."

In far Lithuania, one of the Baltic states of Europe, a colporteur called at a Catholic home: "The wife ran in," he said, "and brought out a book. 'This is our Bible,' she said, holding it up triumphantly. I took it, and saw at once it was our book Steps to Christ."

One denunciation of that little book is equally a testimony to the exceptional power of its simple message. In one country of Eastern Europe, our workers told of a great poster put up by an archbishop. It read: "Adventist Literature Forbidden! Of the books sold by the Adventists, the book, Steps to Christ, is the worst of all."

On the other hand, in New England, a Catholic man lent a French Steps to Christ to a friend, who wrote to the office of our Book and Bible House: "I have a book, Vers Christ, given me by a Roman Catholic friend, who said it was the best thing he ever read written by human hand."

At a conference in northern California an old schoolmate of long ago, Mr. Axtell, told me: "While living in Arizona, I loaned the book Christian Education, to a public school man. He returned it, saying: 'That book reads as if it were inspired."'

A nurse in New England was invited by a wealthy and cultured lady, whom she had met in one of our medical institutions, to spend a holiday at the lady's summer home at the seaside. Our nurse took along for reading the book Education. I was told the story:

"The lady of the house saw the book, and read it. 'The author of this book must have been a woman of exceptional education,' the lady said. 'No,' replied the nurse, 'not at all. It was the very reverse. She was called into religious work as a young girl, with only common-school instruction.' 'Then she must have written by inspiration,' was the comment of this highly educated lady, who was able to appreciate the exceptional character of the book."

Only recently a clergyman, a Yale University man, with London University post graduate study, happened into a ministerial class in one of our colleges. He said he was of the liberal school of thought. He picked up and examined a copy of Testimonies to Ministers, which the class was using. He later said to our teacher:

"I have looked through this book and I find it is the very best material you could place in the hands of young men studying for the ministry. These young people should count themselves fortunate in having such instruction. I have read some of Mrs. White's works. With the limited education that she had, no one could write such books as she has written unless inspired of God."

How can one explain it? The only explanation is that the Lord, who called Mrs. White to the service, in a special way qualified His servant to deliver the messages of instruction. The critics may depreciate the human agent, but the more that is done, the more highly they exalt the fruitage of the gift. "By their fruits ye shall know them." The fruit of the gift in the large number of her printed books is one of the evidences of the genuineness of the gift that leaves the opposer baffled; for no one can explain how a person with little educational training could, without special aid, write on these educational principles in such a way.

Some years ago, in Australia, a worker connected with our publishing house there told me how a leading minister of the country met him.

"Look here, Mr. Anderson," the minister said, "I know that Mrs. White never wrote these books you are selling under her name."

"But who do you think did write them?" our worker asked.

"Some of you men in the publishing house wrote them," was the answer.

"Why, bless you," our representative said, "we haven't a man in the denomination who could write a book like one of these."

That. is true. We have had men who have written good books, useful books, from the days of the pioneers on. But no man among us ever wrote so much as a chapter approaching these writings. There is a different quality, a different touch here.

In England, W. E. Read told me: "We have heard again and again of ministers in the popular churches who have read from Mrs. White's writings in the pulpit. One minister said he could always tell her writings in our papers, even without seeing the signature. There was a 'different touch,' he said."

In one of the fields of the British West Indies, some time ago, a local worker told me an incident: "The dean of the cathedral," he said, "warned that Mrs. White was a 'false prophet.' But later he preached at a special service in the cathedral, and read nearly all of one chapter from the book The Acts of the Apostles."

In one of the large cities of America a man was looking over books in a secondhand bookstore: "He asked for the religious books, and was directed to a miscellaneous assortment in the back of the store. He remarked to the proprietor that he saw none in which he was interested. Being asked what author he preferred, he said, 'Mrs. E. G. White.' 'Oh,' said the proprietor, 'that's different. Her writings are not classed with those back there at all. We have them here in the front, with the Bibles. They are in a class by themselves."'-Pacific Union Recorder, July 25, 1934.

This reminds me of a conversation with A. W. Anderson, of Australia. He told me he was once talking with the leading bookseller of that country:

"What a remarkable lady that Mrs. White was! Her books are absolutely wonderful!" said the merchant.

"What do you know about them?" Mr. Anderson asked.

"Occasionally we get them in our secondhand department," was the reply, "and I have looked them over. I think they are wonderful books."

Mr. Anderson then explained that the author began her work with no literary training and with no education to form the basis for literary work.

"There is only one explanation for that sort of thing," the merchant replied, "and that is inspiration."

There is the book The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan, which has had a remarkable appeal to the unlearned and the learned. Years ago, in Finland, I met a peasant farmer who had come from near the Arctic Circle to attend a conference for the first time. It was The Great Controversy that had led to his conversion. "I felt that it was inspired," he told me, "as I read its pages."

To a Catholic businessman of Argentina, South America, a man of education and culture, a colporteur had sold a copy of this book. Later, meeting the colporteur, the purchaser said:

"You have brought me great happiness. I have read nearly the whole of the book The Great Controversy. I believe it is the truth. I do not know the author, but she must have been divinely inspired. I would not sell that book for fifty dollars, no, not for one hundred dollars, if I could not get another."

A leading lawyer in one country, referring to The Great Controversy, said: "That book was not written by education, but by inspiration."

A young lady colporteur, of Virginia, told me a story of this book that illustrates the manner in which the author wrote it. The young woman said, in effect:

"I sold a copy of The Great Controversy to the wealthiest person in a certain town, the most influential woman there. She wanted it for a sister who was a Catholic. But first the woman read it herself. When I met her later, she said: 'That is a most wonderful book. I never read anything like it. It seemed to me as I read I could see the very picture of the scenes written about.' And I said to her: 'That is just how this writing is different. The author is describing scenes that she has seen pass before her under the influence of the Spirit of God."'

Our colporteur sister gave a remarkably true answer on the spur of the moment. She was evidently familiar with Mrs. White's statement in the introduction to this book: "Through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the scenes of the long-continued conflict between good and evil have been opened to the writer of these pages."

The author was writing as an eyewitness. First, in 1848, the scenes of the great controversy had been caused to pass, in part at least, before the eyes of the young woman. Then, she tells us, they were repeated ten years later, while attending a meeting in Ohio. She wrote of this:

"In the vision at Lovett's Grove [Ohio, in 1858], most of the matter which I had seen ten years before concerning the great controversy of the ages between Christ and Satan, was repeated, and I was instructed to write it out."-Life Sketches, p. 162.

It was not by any ordinary method of authorship that these writings came forth through the years. Long did the pressure to write sometimes crowd upon this servant of God, awaiting the time, in a busy, active life, when that pen could trace on paper, in the rolling-letter style of her handwriting, the things that the Spirit of God had instructed her to relate.

We do not have to defend this gift; it is our defense. An old West Indian man, aged seventy-eight, had the right idea of these books. He was always seen carrying the book Christ Our Saviour wherever he went.

"I love this book," he said. "When people ask me the reason for carrying it about with me, I reply: 'Oh, this book is my bodyguard.' From the time I started to read it, I have been a changed man. I do not know how the change came about. One thing I know, I changed since I started to read it."

Here is an item from the non-Christian land of Japan. The book Patriarchs and Prophets was officially commended to the public. Manager H. P. Evens, of our Japanese Publishing House, wrote: "Of all our books in Japan, this is the only one to be recommended to the public by the Imperial Department of Education. This is indicated on the title page, at the top, in large black characters."

Colporteur Leader Kraft, who accompanied the Japanese colporteur to the department, told me: "The official himself volunteered to give the recommendation. The department has put copies in schools and libraries, and many thousands of copies have been sold in Japan."

There is a voice in these writings that speaks with special force to even the non-Christian mind.

When The Desire of Ages was brought out in Great Britain, a society lady in Edinburgh read a copy. She was agitated. She said to our people: "You are a small people. You ought not to have the circulation of a book like this. It ought to be in the hands of the big London publishers. It seems inspired."

She did not understand that our method of sale through colporteurs gave us a means of reaching more homes with a religious book than the big publishers would be likely to reach. (By the way, this method of book distribution was developed under instruction that came to us through inspiration.)

Early in the American sale of the life of the Saviour, The Desire of Ages, a lady in Massachusetts purchased a copy. For ten years it lay unread on the shelf. Then, in a time of spiritual discouragement she picked it up. She wrote to the author:

"As soon as I began to read it, I felt as never before how real it was. Where before it had seemed like ancient history, it now seemed as if it were today that it all happened. Peace came to my troubled soul, and my eyes were opened to God's mercies as never before. I see in Him a living personal Saviour who is with me all the time. I have consecrated my life to His service."

As the scenes of that life on earth were made real to the author by the Spirit, the story was made very real for the reader. It is an illustration of the special helpfulness of this gift in the opening of Bible themes.

It is a marvel how Mrs. White was able to bring out this great book, The Desire of Ages, during those busy years in Australia. Everything in the upbuilding of a new work in a great field drew upon her sympathies and her time. And in those years, at least from 1892 to 1895, there came to the General Conference headquarters in America the finest instruction for ministers and workers that we ever had given to us in a short series of years. Older workers will recall the envelope-size booklets in which the late beloved 0. A. Olsen, then president of the General Conference, passed these counsels on to us. It was in itself a vast volume of instruction, much of which was probably included in larger books at a later time. And all the time workers at the headquarters in America knew that Mrs. White was struggling to find time to work on The Desire of Ages. Of her feeling toward this task she wrote to 0. A. Olsen in 1892:

"I walk with trembling before God. I know not how to speak or trace with pen the large subjects of the atoning sacrifice. I know not how to present subjects in the living power in which they stand before me. I tremble for fear lest I shall belittle the great plan of salvation by cheap words. I bow my soul in awe and reverence before God and say, 'Who is sufficient for these things?' "-Letter 40, 1892.

It was in that spirit that Mrs. White made more real to us the gospel narrative. Let us quote two portions-a view of the world when the Saviour came in the flesh, and a view of the triumphant return to heaven after the atoning sacrifice had been made. Those who have read the book the most, will read these scenes again with greatest pleasure.

When the world's need was greatest, the revelation of the Gift was made:

"The deception of sin had reached its height. All the agencies for depraving the souls of men had been put in operation. The Son of God, looking upon the world, beheld suffering and misery. With pity He saw how men had become victims of satanic cruelty. He looked with compassion upon those who were being corrupted, murdered, and lost. They had chosen a ruler who chained them to his car as captives. Bewildered and deceived, they were moving on in gloomy procession toward eternal ruin,--to death in which is no hope of life, toward night to which comes no morning. . . .

"Sin had become a science, and vice was consecrated as a part of religion. Rebellion had struck its roots deep into the heart, and the hostility of man was most violent against heaven. It was demonstrated before the universe that, apart from God, humanity could not be uplifted. A new element of life and power must be imparted by Him who made the world....

"And when the fullness of the time had come, the Deity was glorified by pouring upon the world a flood of healing grace that was never to be obstructed or withdrawn till the plan of salvation should be fulfilled." -The Desire of Ages, pp. 36, 37.

Other books there are, well written, that keep the way of the historical narrative, with much useful information. But in this book we are out with Jesus among the people. We listen to His gracious words, and we find the balm of Gilead for the healing of our souls.

Then, as Jesus returned to His Father's presence, we see new glories as this pen opens the Scriptures to us:

"All heaven was waiting to welcome the Saviour to the celestial courts. As He ascended, He led the way, and the multitude of captives set free at His resurrection followed. The heavenly host, with shouts and acclamations of praise and celestial song, attended the joyous train.

"As they draw near to the city of God, the challenge is given by the escorting angels--

'Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates;

And be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors;

And the King of glory shall come in!'

"Joyfully the waiting sentinels respond--

'Who is this King of glory?'

"This they say, not because they know not who He is, but because they would hear the answer of exalted praise--

'The Lord strong and mighty,

The Lord mighty in battle!

Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates;

Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors;

And the King of glory shall come in.'

"Again is heard the challenge, 'Who is this King of glory?' for the angels never weary of hearing His name exalted. The escorting angels make reply-

'The Lord of hosts;

He is the King of glory.'

[Psalm 24:7-10.]

"Then the portals of the city of God are opened wide, and the angelic throng sweep through the gates amid a burst of rapturous music.

"There is the throne, and around it the rainbow of promise. There are cherubim and seraphim. The commanders of the angel hosts, the sons of God, the representatives of the unfallen worlds, are assembled. The heavenly council before which Lucifer had accused God and His Son, the representatives of those sinless realms over which Satan had thought to establish his dominion-all are there to welcome the Redeemer. They are eager to celebrate His triumph and to glorify their King.

"But He waves them back. Not yet; He cannot now receive the coronet of glory and the royal robe. He enters into the presence of His Father. He points to His wounded head, the pierced side, the marred feet; He lifts His hands, bearing the print of nails. He points to the tokens of His triumph; He presents to God the wave sheaf, those raised with Him as representatives of that great multitude who shall come forth from the grave at His second coming. He approaches the Father, with whom there is joy over one sinner that repents; who rejoices over one with singing.

"Before the foundations of the earth were laid, the Father and the Son had united in a covenant to redeem man if he should be overcome by Satan. They had clasped Their hands in a solemn pledge that Christ should become the surety for the human race. This pledge Christ has fulfilled. When upon the cross He cried out, 'It is finished,' He addressed the Father. The compact had been fully carried out. Now He declares: 'Father, it is finished. I have done Thy will, 0 My God. I have completed the work of redemption. If Thy justice is satisfied, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am"' (John 19:30; 17:24).

"The voice of God is heard proclaiming that justice is satisfied. Satan is vanquished. Christ's toiling, struggling ones on earth are accepted in the Beloved' (Ephesians 1:6). Before the heavenly angels and the representatives of unfallen worlds, they are declared justified. Where He is, there His church shall be. 'Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other' (Psalm 85:10). The Father's arms encircle His Son, and the word is given, 'Let all the angels of God worship him' (Hebrews 1:6).

"With joy unutterable, rulers and principalities and powers acknowledge the supremacy of the Prince of life. The angel host prostrate themselves before Him, while the glad shout fills all the courts of heaven, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing' (Revelation 5:12).

"Songs of triumph mingle with the music from angel harps, till heaven seems to overflow with joy and praise. Love has conquered. The lost is found. Heaven rings with voices in lofty strains proclaiming, 'Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever' (Revelation 5:13)."-The Desire of Ages, pp. 833-835.

The writings by this gift are different. All gifts are needed. Books by many hands must have their mission. No one gift suffices. But the ministry of the gift of prophecy through the writings of a humble agent who had no preparation in the natural way for such service is ever a token of the leadership of the living God in the church.

This review must end with but one more citation. It is from a teacher of literature who speaks from a literary viewpoint only. It is worth while hearing one word on that side. One of our members in Massachusetts reported having taken some university extension work there. Abbreviated, our student's story is this:

"One day our teacher, who had just returned from an extended study of literature in Europe, asked each member of the class to come next day with three quotations from a favorite author. The name was not to be given, and the class was to be asked to name the author by the selection read.

"I was the first one called on, and although there were forty-eight in the class, no one else was called upon. The entire time was taken up in discussing the three quotations I presented-passages from The Desire of Ages. No one could name the author. Then to my happy surprise, the teacher said:

"'Well, class, that is from the pen of Mrs. E. G. White.' She spoke at length, saying she knew nothing of the author's religion, but she felt able to declare herself as to literature; and she said it was a pity Mrs. White's writings were not better known in the literary world. She said she was going to make a strong statement, but she meant every word. Of all the writings she knew, outside of the Bible, there were none so full of beauty, so pure, and yet so simple, as the writings of Mrs. E. G. White."

It is not as literature that we treasure these writings. Yet the spiritual truths, that are the vital thing, are expressed in language fitting to the high themes continually presented.

The writings of Ellen G. White carry their own credentials.