Spiritual Gifts. The Great Controversy, Between Christ and His Angels, and Satan and His Angels.
Battle Creek, Michigan: Published by James White, 1858.
First edition, first printing. 219 pp. Bound in full straight-grain black morocco, with "Spiritual Gifts" stamped in gilt on the spine. Very Good. Light lean to binding, which is also rubbed, and worn at the spine ends. Faint, blue smudge to textblock fore edge. Previous owner name in light pencil to verso of front free end paper. Preliminary and terminal pages are foxed; pages through have light sporadic foxing or occasional light stains. Lightly staining to preliminary page edges. Several page corners turned. Worming to top corner of rear paste down and last several leaves. Rear free endpaper is creased.
Ellen G. White was a founding member of what would become known as the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and was hailed as a messenger of God by its followers. White was bearing testimony at an 1858 funeral in Lovett's Grove, Ohio, when she went into a two-hour vision in front of the congregation. She was urged to write it down and planned to do so upon her return home, but suffered a stroke of paralysis at a stopover. At first physically writing was nearly impossible, but she forced her way through it, and by the time she finished, her paralysis was gone. The result was a small volume, detailing the history of sin from before it entered the universe until after its final destruction in The New Earth. White would continue to work on this text throughout her life, and would later expand it into a four volume set.
First editions of this seminal Adventist text are fantastically scarce and rarely come to market. We have located only three institutional copies in a recent OCLC search, and can find no record of copies ever being offered at auction.
Price: $25,000.00