作者想让你阅读的说明
这部怀爱伦传记的编著(部分内容仍在整理中)，对作者来说是一次坚定信心的经历。这是一项艰巨的任务，但也令人愉快。在一开始或接近一开始时，需要作出以下几项决定: {5BIO 9.1}
那会是什么样的传记呢? {5BIO 9.2}
我们在写给谁看? {5BIO 9.3}
怀爱伦在美国、欧洲和澳大利亚积极传道的25000多天，要用多少页来描述? {5BIO 9.4}
我们从哪里开始讲述? {5BIO 9.5}
除了百科全书的文章和介绍著名女性生活的著作，可获得的关于怀爱伦生平的出版物只有1860年出版的《属灵的恩赐》第二卷，题为《我的基督徒经历、目睹和与第三位天使的信息的兴起和发展有关的工作》;1885年出版的《教会证言》第一卷前112页的《怀爱伦生平概略》;还有在她1915年去世后不久发行的《怀爱伦自传》。当然，前两本书只能把她的一生分别带到了1860年和1885年的出版日期。后者对她的早期生活做了充分的描述，但她对在中年时代阐述较少，而她的晚年就更少提及了。 {5BIO 9.6}
在策划这本传记时，我把怀爱伦的生活很自然地分为六个时期: {5BIO 9.7}
1，早年经历(1827 -1862年){5BIO 9.8}
2，进步之年(1863-1875年)
3，孤独日子(1876 -1891年)
4，澳洲岁月(1891-1900年)
5，榆园前期(1900-1905年
6，榆园后期 (1905-1915年)
我选择从《榆园岁月》开始我的写作，因为在时间上与我们更接近，而且在世的人中有一些认识怀爱伦，他们可以接受采访。此外，在世纪之交迅速出现的问题似乎与目前的教会有特别的关系。 {5BIO 10.1}
这一时期的资料非常丰富，几乎多得不可开交。根据为写作目的而选定的程序，《榆园岁月》共分两卷，这是第一卷。怀爱伦著作托管委员会，托管会办公室会同《评论与通讯》出版协会决定，最好先出版这部分传记，而不是让公众等到整部传记的完成。在此之前从1827年到1900年的经历和资料虽然丰富，但却比较有限，作者的目的是将这部分内容分为四卷。{5BIO 10.2}
作者的宗旨和目的
我定下了写作的宗旨和目标： {5BIO 10.3}
1. 面向一般读者，但是详尽的程度和所提供的文献又能满足学者的期望。{5BIO 10.4}
2. 使读者熟悉怀爱伦，感觉到她是一个真实的人。 {5BIO 10.5}
3. 准确地描绘她在基督复临安息日会作为上帝使者的生活和工作。所以，不是讲述她每天是如何布道的，而是通过精心挑选的重大事件和意外事件，来说明她的毕生事奉和对上帝圣工所作出的贡献。 {5BIO 10.6}
4. 尽可能使这些事件按照逐年的顺序排列，来描绘她的家庭生活、她的旅行、她的软弱和她的力量、她心灵的负担和虔诚奉献的一生。 {5BIO 10.7}
5. 选择并详细介绍意义重大的事件。一年中两到三件事，能很好地说明她的先知使命;描述先知和教会领袖，教会机构以及个人之间的相互影响;叙述传播证言和对这些信息的反应。
{5BIO 11.1}
6. 用一种独特的方式讲述重要的教会历史，因为这是通过上帝使者的眼睛所看到的，或者是与上帝使者相关联的。 {5BIO 11.2}
7. 使作品不但生动有趣，而且能使读者藉着一些经历的演绎，有身临其境之感。{5BIO 11.3}
8. 将异象在所讲述的经历的每一个阶段中所起的重要作用，时时摆在读者面前。{5BIO 11.4}
9. 尽可能让怀爱伦的原稿说话，而不以注释代之。这可以保证担任先知的使者，用自己的表达方式，来准确地传递特别的信息。这样，就把许多重要讲论以一种很有价值的形式，提供给所有读者。{5BIO 11.5}
10. 提供一份怀爱伦及其文字助手在文章与书籍的出品过程所进行的有据可查的文字工作的流水记录。1{5BIO 11.6}
11. 根据所有这些，用一种自然的方式，讲述她坚定信念的特点。 {5BIO 11.7}
在探讨某一时代的时候，她旅行和工作的模式早已通过详述一些典型经历时得以确立;但随着叙述的继续，这些特征的细节要无需赘述了。例如，在描述怀爱伦在榆园定居后的早期前往南加州的旅行时，对火车旅行的情况进行了详细的描述，但在以后的许多次旅行中，并不需要这样的详细描述。这种模式已经在读者的脑海中形成了。 {5BIO 11.8}
作者曾遇到过不同的读者对于所呈现的某些细节的价值有不同的看法。作者认为，这些细节引起了阅读的兴趣，并使人更加了解怀爱伦。所以为了记录起见，这些细节被保留了下来。{5BIO 11.9}
此外，尽管作者对自己与传记主人公的关系感到自豪，但为了客观性的缘故，就像在他的公共服务中一样，他在很大程度上与家庭撇清了关系。他与怀爱伦的关系，就像任何一个对她的工作有充分了解的虔诚的安息日复临信徒一样。他不称她为祖母，而称她怀姐妹、上帝的使者，等等。 {5BIO 12.1}
这部传记的手稿已经准备，以应对怀爱伦著作托管委员会的恳切请求。编撰工作在位于首都华盛顿的基督复临安息日会总会怀爱伦著作托管委员会办公室里进行。这是托管委员会的工作项目之一。我担任行政秘书时部分时间从事这项工作。后来我申请全职著书。{5BIO 12.2}
如此重大的任务不可能在十年内单枪匹马地完成。在责任落在我的肩膀上之前,贝茜.芒特小姐就已在进行艰苦的工作.她预计怀爱伦著作托管委员会准备出版这样一部怀爱伦传记, 接到任务收集传记材料和准备必不可少的传记数据卡片索引。这种对传记的最初贡献是非常有用的。我非常感谢罗恩·格雷比尔的真诚和不懈的努力，他被邀请到怀爱伦著作托管委员会担任我这项任务的研究助理;感谢恪尽职守、工作高效的秘书们，在撰书中忠实地抄写和复制章节;感谢托管委员会的其他工作人员，他们所有人都不时被要求协助文稿的准备工作。 {5BIO 12.3}
如果能把怀爱伦更好地呈现为一个活生生的人，一个妻子和母亲,一个邻居和朋友，一位主的使者，不知疲倦地在讲坛和公共平台上宣扬上帝的信息,经常发出勉言，不停地写作,影响了周围的世界,作者的目标将会在很大程度上得以实现了。 {5BIO 12.4}
怀亚瑟
An Explanation the Author Would Like to Have You Read
The development of this biography of Ellen G. White, parts of which are still in preparation, has been to the author a confidence-confirming experience. It is a large task but a pleasurable one. At or near the outset a number of decisions were called for: {5BIO 9.1}
What kind of biography would it be {5BIO 9.2}
For whom were we writing? {5BIO 9.3}
How many pages would be devoted to treating the more than 25,000 days of Ellen White’s active ministry in the united states, europe, and australia {5BIO 9.4}
Where would we begin the account? {5BIO 9.5}
Aside from articles in encyclopedias and works presenting the lives of notable women, the only available published accounts presenting Ellen White’s life are Spiritual Gifts, volume II, published in 1860 and titled “My Christian Experience, Views and Labors in Connection with the Rise and Progress of the Third Angel’s Message”; an introductory “Biographical Sketch of Ellen G. White,” filling the first 112 pages of Testimonies for the Church, volume 1, published in 1885; and Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, issued just after her death in 1915. The first two, of course, could carry her life only up to publication dates, 1860 and 1885, respectively. The latter treats her early life quite fully, but leaves us with years hardly mentioned in her mid-life and relatively little about her later years. {5BIO 9.6}
In planning this biography I saw Ellen White’s life divided rather naturally into six eras: {5BIO 9.7}
The Early Years—1827-1862 {5BIO 9.8}
The Progressive Years—1863-1875
The Lonely Years—1876-1891
The Australian Years—1891-1900
The Early Elmshaven Years—1900-1905
The Later Elmshaven Years—1905-1915
I chose to begin my work with “The Elmshaven Years,” for they are closer in time to us, and there are some persons living who knew Ellen White and who could be interviewed. Further, it seemed that the issues that followed quickly on the turn of the century have a particular relevance to the church at present. {5BIO 10.1}
The sources for this period are very full, almost overwhelming. In accordance with the procedures elected for the purpose of this writing “The Elmshaven Years” yields two volumes, of which this is the first. The White estate staff and the board of trustees of the Ellen G. White Estate, in concurrence with the Review and Herald publishing association, have decided that it will be well to release this part of the biography now and not keep the public waiting until the task is completed. Experiences and sources for the preceding years, 1827 to 1900, while profuse, are more limited, and it is the aim of the author to contain that part of the account in four volumes. {5BIO 10.2}
The Author’s Aims and Objectives
I have had before me as aims and objectives: {5BIO 10.3}
1. To write for the average reader, but in such detail and with such documentation as will meet the expectations of the scholar. {5BIO 10.4}
2. To leave the reader with the feeling that he or she is acquainted with Ellen White as a very human person. {5BIO 10.5}
3. To portray accurately the life and work of Ellen White as the Lord’s messenger in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, not by a slavish chronicle of each day of her active ministry, but by a selection, from her experience, of events and happenings that illustrate her lifework and make a contribution to the cause. {5BIO 10.6}
4. As far as possible, to keep these events in a year-by-year development, picturing her home life, her travels, her weaknesses and strengths, her burden of heart, and her very earnest devotional life. {5BIO 10.7}
5. To select and present, in detail, significant events, two or {5BIO 10.8}
three in a given year, that best illustrate her prophetic mission, depicting the interplay between the prophet and church leaders, institutions, and individuals, recounting the sending of testimonies and the response to these messages. {5BIO 11.1}
6. As a secondary objective, to provide a knowledge of the principal points of the history of the church in a unique way as it is seen especially through the eyes of, or in relation to, the messenger of the Lord. {5BIO 11.2}
7. To make the work not only an interesting narrative but a selection of illustrative experiences with which the reader may at times vicariously associate himself. {5BIO 11.3}
8. To keep constantly before the reader the major role the visions played in almost every phase of the experiences comprising the narrative. {5BIO 11.4}
9. Where convenient to the purposes of the manuscript, to let Ellen White speak in her own words, rather than to call upon the author to provide a paraphrase. This ensures an accurate conveyance of the unique and fine points of the messages in the very expressions of the prophetic messenger herself. Thus, many important statements are provided in a form that will be of value to all readers. {5BIO 11.5}
10. To provide a documented running account of the literary work done both by Ellen White and her literary assistants in the production of her articles and books. {5BIO 11.6}
11. And in all of this, to present in the narrative, in a natural way, confidence-confirming features. {5BIO 11.7}
In dealing with any given era, the pattern of travels and labors is established early by going into detail in narrating certain experiences, but as the account continues, much less such detail is called for. For instance, in describing Ellen White’s early trips to Southern California after taking up residence at Elmshaven, circumstances of the trip by train are elaborated on, but such elaboration is not called for with each of the many later trips. The pattern has been set in the mind of the reader. {5BIO 11.8}
The author has encountered some differences of opinion in the minds of different readers as to the value of some of the details presented. It is his opinion that they make a major contribution to reading interest and rather intimate acquaintance with Ellen White, so they have been retained for the sake of the record. {5BIO 11.9}
Also, the author, although he takes pride in his relationship to the subject of the biography, in the interests of objectivity has, as in his public ministry, largely disassociated himself from family ties. He has endeavored to relate himself to Ellen White as would any earnest Seventh-day Adventist in possession of a good knowledge of her work. He refers to her, not as grandmother, but as Ellen White, Sister White, the Lord’s messenger, et cetera. {5BIO 12.1}
The manuscript for this biography has been prepared in response to the earnest request of the Trustees of the Ellen G. White Estate, the work being done in the offices of the Estate at the headquarters of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, in Washington, D.C. it has been a project of the Ellen G. White Estate, to which I at first gave part time while serving as secretary, and then was released at my request to devote as nearly full time as possible to the work. {5BIO 12.2}
A task of such proportion as this could not have been accomplished singlehandedly within a decade. Even before the responsibility of writing fell on my shoulders, there was the painstaking work of Miss Bessie Mount, who, in anticipation on the part of the White Estate of preparing such a work on the life of Ellen White, was assigned the task of assembling biographical materials and preparing a card index to biographical data. This initial contribution to the biography has been most useful. I am deeply grateful for the sincere and tireless labors of Ron Graybill, who was called to the White Estate to serve as my research assistant in this task; to dedicated and efficient secretaries who have faithfully copied and recopied chapters in preparation; and to other members of the White Estate staff, all of whom have from time to time been pressed into service to assist in the preparation of the manuscript. {5BIO 12.3}
If Ellen White becomes better known as an individual—a wife and mother, a neighbor and a friend—as well as the messenger of the Lord, laboring tirelessly in the pulpit and on the public platform in declaring God’s messages and in counseling often and writing incessantly, with influence felt the world around, the objectives of the author will have been largely met. {5BIO 12.4}
Arthur L. White
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