The How and Why of this Book
Eventually all of us reach the age when we must slow down a bit
and turn over our work to younger hands and hearts. When that time
comes, because of changing emotional, physical, and spiritual needs,
some of us may need to secure help and counsel from experienced
clergy, medical practitioners, and gerontologists. Fortunately, such
help is abundant in the world today. Hundreds of helpful books,
magazines, and lecture series are available for people fifty and above,
and for retirement clubs now springing up around the world.
The presses of the Seventh-day Adventist church have prepared
several volumes aimed at senior readership, and all of them are good,
but never before have the resources and help contained in the writings
of Ellen G. White been brought together in a book aimed especially at
the needs of senior citizens.
In the present volume Ellen White offers many inspired and in-
spiring answers to questions raised by golden-agers. These gems of
thought have been gleaned from her letters, manuscripts, books, and
periodical articles, many of which were written after she was 65—the
23 years from 1892-1915.
Ellen White lived life to the full until she was 87. At the age of
64, when most people are approaching retirement, she was serving
in Australia as counselor and missionary, along with other stalwart
pioneers of the church, to help gain a foothold for the Lord’s work on
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that island continent.
In her newly built home on the campus of the School for Christian
Workers (now Avondale College) she wrote her absorbing biography of
Jesus’ life on earth, The Desire of Ages. When she was not writing, she
was preaching in the churches, meeting with conference committees,
and offering counsel. When she urged, “build a college after the Lord’s
pattern,” Australasian Missionary College arose. Again, when she
counseled, “bring to birth a representative sanitarium in the suburbs
of Sydney,” a medical institution was built. In the creation of these
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