Introduction—The Prophetic Gift and Ellen G. White
xxv
All of these developments were guided by the many oral and writ-
ten counsels that God gave this people through Ellen White.
Most of the early communications were written out in the form
of personal letters, or through articles in the Present Truth, our first
regular publication. It was not until 1851 that Mrs. White issued
her first book of sixty-four pages, entitled A Sketch of the Christian
Experience and Views of Ellen G. White.
Beginning in 1855 a series of numbered pamphlets was published,
each bearing the title of Testimony for the Church. These made avail-
able messages of instruction and correction which, from time to time,
God chose to send his people. To meet the continued demand for this
instruction, the first thirty pamphlets were republished in 1885 in the
form of four bound books. With the addition of other volumes, which
appeared from 1889-1909, these now constitute a set of nine volumes
known as Testimonies for the Church.
Four children were born to the Whites. The eldest boy, Henry,
lived to the age of sixteen; the youngest boy, Herbert, died at the age
of three months. The two middle boys, Edson and William, lived
to maturity. Each engaged actively in the work of the Seventh-day
Adventist denomination.
In response to the request of the General Conference, Mrs. White
went to Europe in the summer of 1885. There she spent two years in
strengthening the newly developed work on the continent. Making her
home in Basel, Switzerland, she traveled extensively through Southern,
Central, and Northern Europe, attending the general gatherings of the
church.
After four years back in the United States, Mrs. White at the age
of sixty-three, in response to the request of the General Conference,
sailed to Australia. There she ministered for nine years, aiding in
pioneering and developing the work, especially in educational and
medical lines. Mrs. White returned in 1900 to make her home in the
western part of the United States, at St. Helena, California, where she
lived until her death in 1915.
During Mrs. White’s long service of sixty years in America and
ten years overseas, she was given approximately 2,000 visions which,
through her tireless effort in counsel to individuals, churches, pub-
lic gatherings, and General Conference sessions, largely shaped the