这本用怀爱伦的文稿编辑的灵修书采用了与以往不同的方案，不是围绕中心的主题，而是按照一年中日期的顺序，略为随机地从怀爱伦在该日的著作和讲章中选出合适的属灵信息。文章通常是一个连贯的整体，从怀爱伦七十年服务中的四十六年所写的资料选出来。众多劝勉和鼓励的信函、讲章，以及文稿为广泛有益的题目提供了充足的选材机会。
这种方式展示了在上帝特选信使的服务中一些有趣而往往非同寻常的状况。比如我们注意到她撰写重要的勉言，往往是在凌晨家里其他人都在沉睡的时候。1905年就是如此。元旦正好是星期日，新年来到不过一个小时，怀爱伦就起身到她的写作室开始她一天的写作活动了。就此她写道：
“早上很冷。我点了火，跪在主面前祷告。我心理负担很重，求主耶稣指导我，引领我。今天早上我应该写什么？”……
“我需要那位大向导管束我的心。我先写什么呢？……我感到多么需要圣灵的引导啊！”（《文稿》1905年173号）
当时她在榆园二楼东首颇为舒适的写作室里──这是许多安息日复临信徒所熟悉的地方。那天早晨圣灵首先把她的心引到奥克伍德学院的学生们身上。于是为他们写了四页勉励的信息。在此前的年间，她曾在各种不同环境之下从事写作，比如她在澳大利亚库兰邦阳光充足的寓所；她在瑞士巴塞耳中央出版社二楼的公寓里；她在北加利福尼亚州学院附近赫尔兹堡的住宅和她在巴特尔克里克的家中。早年在巴特尔克里克，因为家里地方小，孩子和客人又多，她只好在《评论与通讯》出版社图书室的一个角落里写作。
搭乘火车、轮船或马车并没有阻碍她写作。本书最后附有她的生平简介，记录了她的活动和出行，为若干读物提供了总的背景。
怀爱伦在工作的早期就决定把对个人的劝勉收入她出版的书籍里面，因为写给某一个人的“警告和训诲”，往往包含着完全适合于另一个人的原则和勉言（见《证言》卷五658、659页）。她蒙赐予的亮光不是专为某一个需要劝勉的人。
一九O五年，她七十七岁了，快到结束她一生与人大量通信的时候了。她写道：“我正靠着上帝的帮助努力写信，不仅帮助收信的人，也帮助其他许多需要的人。”（《信函》1905年第79号）
这些信函可能完全是给某一收信人的重要信息，如果是给一位熟人的，或许还包含一些零碎话题，以及根据她多年异象所得的属灵真理。从怀爱伦数千封这样的信函中所作的选择，使本书充满宝贵的阅读资料。有些信是写给总会会长的、有些信是写给区会行政人员的。有一封信是写给一位疲惫母亲的；有些信是写给疗养院经理、医生、受到严重试探的人、青年人和处于黄金年华的圣徒的；有些信是写给《评论与通讯》管理人员的编辑的；有些信甚至是写给她自己儿子的。他们也其他安息日复临信徒一样，需要鼓励和劝勉；还有几封信是写给女性工人或工人妻子的。
本书还辑录了为应付各种局势而写的普通文字，以及她大量的日常文稿和日记。这些材料充满属灵的教训、鼓励和劝勉。数以百计的证道讲章，原是以速记形式记录的，归档于怀爱伦文稿之中。这些文稿也提供了丰富的阅读材料。
为了多样化起见，少数引文选自怀爱伦的期刊文章。这些文章曾在六十年时间里发表在周刊《评论与通讯》和《时兆》上。
每篇文字都注明出处、编号、收件人的姓名、身份和地址。讲章和文稿则标明题目和写作日期。许多读者会先看这些说明，以了解灵修信息的背景。如果收件人曾有过多种职位，则只注明怀爱伦写信时他所担任的职位。
如果怀爱伦选择发表的特殊个人信息具有高度的私密性，她会很谨慎地不泄露收件人的身份。本着她的用意，我们在本书中有几篇也没有注明姓名。但在其它所有的文章中我们都列出了姓名地址，以便更好地理解所给的勉言。这种信息提供了别无取代的说明，使这本灵修书成为各时代人的忠言宝鉴。
有些人的名字多次出现──巴特尔克里克疗养院医务主任J. H.凯洛格医生；总会会长G. I.巴特勒长老和A. G.丹尼尔斯长老；布道家兼疗养院院牧G. B. 斯塔尔；澳大利亚和加利福尼亚州疗养院经理J. A.伯登；担任过母亲的助手和教会重要领导职务的W. C.怀特。有几封信是写给她的另一个儿子埃德森.怀特，或是一八七0年埃德森和艾玛结婚之后写给他们夫妇的。有些劝勉新婚夫妇的重要信息，是在埃德森和艾玛新婚期间写给他们的。埃德森从事过出版社的管理工作、诗歌的创作和发行、安息日学的领导工作，最后在南方各州黑人中开拓布道工作。
为了在语气上达到积极的效果，有三、四处对引文段落进行了调整。其他地方则都按照怀爱伦原作的顺序。
我们祈愿《今日偕主行》能帮助你每天对上帝的恩典有与日俱进的感激之心，并怀着新的决心过符合祂旨意的生活，好使我们将来与赎民一同站在天上的玻璃海上。
怀爱伦著作托管委员会
1979年于美国首都华盛顿
A different plan has been adopted in assembling the materials for this E. G. White devotional book. Rather than gathering selections on a central theme, we have chosen, somewhat at random, appropriate inspirational messages written or presented orally by Ellen White on every calendar day of the year. The writings, usually an unbroken unit, have been chosen from forty-six of the seventy years of Ellen White’s ministry. Selecting the items from letters of counsel and encouragement and sermons and articles has afforded an opportunity for choice presentations on a wide range of helpful topics.{TDG 6.1}[1]
This procedure has opened up some interesting and often unusual insights into the ministry of God’s special messenger. For example, we note her frequent habit of writing important counsel early in the morning while the rest of the household slept. It was so in 1905. The New Year was just one hour old when Ellen White arose that Sunday morning, January 1, and made her way to her writing room to start the day’s activities. Of this she wrote:{TDG 6.2}[2]
It is a cool morning. Built my fire. Bowed before the Lord in prayer. I have so many things burdening my mind. I asked the Lord Jesus to direct me, to guide me. What shall I trace with my pen this morning? ...{TDG 6.3}[3]
I need the Great Guide to control my mind. What shall I trace with the pen first? ... Oh, how much I feel that I need the guidance of the Holy Spirit.—Manuscript 173, 1905.{TDG 6.4}[4]
She was in her comfortable writing room on the eastern end of the second floor at Elmshaven, well known to many Seventh-day Adventists. That morning the Holy Spirit led her mind first to the students of Oakwood college, for whom she penned a four-page message of encouragement. In the years before this her writing had been done in a variety of settings such as her Sunnyside home at Cooranbong in Australia; her apartment on the second floor of the central publishing house in Basel, Switzerland; her Healdsburg home close to the college in Northern California; and her home at Battle Creek. In early years at Battle Creek when her home was small and often filled with children and visitors, she wrote in the corner of the library at the Review and Herald office.{TDG 6.5}[5]
Travel by train, boat, or horse and buggy did not prevent her from writing. At the close of this book a short historical outlineof her activities and travels will provide a general setting for a number of the readings.{TDG 6.6}[6]
Early in her work Ellen White chose to include personal counsels in her published books, because the “warning and instruction” that applied to one person often contained principles and advice that might well apply to another (seeTestimonies for the Church 5:658, 659). She was not given light for each individual who might be in need of counsel.{TDG 7.1}[7]
In 1905, at the age of 77, as she was nearing the close of her lifetime of heavy correspondence, she wrote, “I am endeavoring by the help of God to write letters that will be a help, not merely to those to whom they are addressed, but to many others who need them.”—Letter 79, 1905.{TDG 7.2}[8]
Such letters might be devoted wholly to an important message to the person addressed, or, if to an acquaintance, might contain some newsy items, as well as spiritual truths based on the many visions given to her through the years. Selections from the thousands of such letters in the Ellen G. White files make up much of this volume of precious readings. Some are letters to presidents of the General Conference, some were written to local conference executives. One is a letter to a harassed mother. There are letters to sanitarium managers, to physicians, to individuals under heavy temptations, to young people, and to saints in their golden years. There are letters to businessmen and to editors of theReview and Herald. Some were even written to her own sons, who, like any Seventh-day Adventist, stood in need of counsel and encouragement. A number of letters were to women workers and wives of workers.{TDG 7.3}[9]
General manuscripts, penned to meet various situations, were drawn upon in this collection, as were her extensive daily writings and diaries. These abound in spiritual lessons, encouragement, and counsel. Hundreds of sermons were reported stenographically and are on file as E. G. White manuscripts. All of these manuscripts provide rich sources for the readings in this volume.{TDG 7.4}[10]
For variety, a few excerpts are taken from her periodical articles that appeared in the weekly issues of theReview and HeraldandSigns of the Timesover a period of more than sixty years.{TDG 7.5}[11]
A source reference appears with each reading, giving its file reference as well as the name, position, and location of the individual addressed. For sermons and manuscripts, the title together with the year and date of writing are provided. Manyreaders will turn first to these credit lines to learn the setting for the devotional message. If the person addressed held different positions through the years, he is identified by the one he held at the time Ellen White wrote to him.{TDG 7.6}[12]
If a particular personal message chosen by Ellen White for publication was highly personal or confidential, she was careful to protect the identity of the person addressed. With her practice in mind, in a few cases we have have not used names in this book. In all other instances, however, we have included the names and places because they contribute to a better understanding of the counsel given. This information provides sidelights otherwise not known, and helps to make this devotional volume a treasure of counsel for persons of all ages.{TDG 8.1}[13]
Certain names appear frequently—Dr. J. H. Kellogg, medical superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium; Elders G. I. Butler and A. G. Daniells, presidents of the General Conference; G. B. Starr, evangelist and sanitarium chaplain; J. A. Burden, sanitarium manager in Australia and California; and W. C. White, who assisted his mother and filled a number of important leadership positions in the Church. Several letters are addressed to her other son, Edson White, or to Edson and Emma White after their marriage in 1870. Some very choice messages of counsel to newlyweds were written to Edson and Emma in their early married life. Edson’s career took him through publishing house management, song writing and publication, Sabbath school leadership, and finally pioneer missionary work among the blacks in the Southern States.{TDG 8.2}[14]
In three or four instances, paragraphs have been rearranged so that the selection ends on a positive tone. Otherwise, the paragraphs appear as they were first written by Ellen White.{TDG 8.3}[15]
It is our prayer thatThis Day With Godwill help you to face each day with increased gratitude for God’s grace and with renewed determination to live in harmony with his will so that we may all stand with the redeemed on the sea of glass in heaven.{TDG 8.4}[16]
The Trustees of the Ellen G. White Estate--Washington, D.C.[17]
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