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| I hear that you [A FORMER REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING-HOUSE OFFICIAL.] have entered into or intend to enter into a lawsuit against the managers of the Review and Herald. I wish to tell you that in this you are not guided by the Lord. This move is instigated by evil angels. God has never prompted you to do any such thing. {PM 248.1} |
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| Litigation continued over a period of four years until finally Ellen White, through Harmon Lindsay, an officer of the General Conference to whom she had entrusted her business affairs while in Australia, arranged for a settlement out of court. Ellen White made a cash payment to remove the nuisance lawsuit and to render unnecessary the girls' having to appear in court to testify against their father. {4BIO 17.4} |
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| When you engaged in that lawsuit against A, I said if Elder B has gone so far as to enter into that business, it will be a blot upon his life. I have sorrowed because of your course in this; I know that it is not right, and will not in the least relieve the situation for you in any way. It is only a manifestation of that wisdom which is not from above. {5MR 412.2} |
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| The lawsuit with Mr. Walling has cost me $3,000. I could have decided to go into court, but this would have brought the children where they would have been obliged to testify on oath against their father, and would have led to endless trouble. The mother would have been brought into court, and you would probably [have] had to act a part. There is no knowing what lies might have been sworn to, or how much disgrace might have been brought upon us all. I have paid out about $2,000 for depositions and attorney fees, and $1,500 for settlement. This has cut away quite a slice. I have been unable to sell any of my property in America, and the expense of taking myself and family from place to place is not small. {14MR 330.3} |
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| The autumn and winter months of 1894, April to July, were a time of anxiety, disappointment, and discouragement. Overtaxation in April in writing, especially the American mail with the burden of meeting the Anna Phillips situation, brought to Ellen White two months of weakness and illness. The desperate financial crisis in Australia brought almost overwhelming demands that could be met only partially. The proposal of the Foreign Mission Board, pressed by O. A. Olsen, that Ellen White should quickly finish her work on the life of Christ and, with W. C. White, visit Africa and then proceed to America by way of Europe (this at just the crucial time in getting the school started in Australia [4 WCW, p. 463]; the frustration of not being able to make much progress in writing on her book; the lawsuit by Will Walling against Ellen White, for what he claimed was the alienation of the affections of his daughters, Addie and May; the confusion brought about by the many visitors to the White home, and their treating it much as a hotel, even though some members of the family had to bring cots into the dining room at night; and on top of this, the action of the General Conference Committee, because of financial adversity in America, to cut her wages by $2 per week and W. C. White's by $1 per week, when every available dollar was so much needed -- all pressed hard upon her. Ellen White was tempted to board the next boat back to America and take up her writing at her Healdsburg home. {4BIO 146.1} |
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