1971 PREFACE
Doctor E. J. Waggoner By: Ellis P. Howard
Son-in-law of Dr. E. J. Waggoner
Some questions answered.
He never apostatized.
Dropped from church. Why? His contact pantheism.
Secrets revealed for the first time. You decide.
A. T. Jones, his closing days. He never apostatized.
I am Ellis P. Howard, 86, son-in-law of Dr. E. J. Waggoner. I am writing this and I speak with considerable authority. So listen, please, for there have been so many false accusations.
He was called doctor because he was a medical doctor. He graduated as a surgeon from New York City Medical School. He practiced some, but his heart was in the ministry. One day at one of our California Camp meetings (READ HEALDSBURG), God revealed his son, Jesus, to him as it were a television scene. He saw Jesus dying on the cross, an atonement, complete, for the human race. That picture never faded. It is the golden thread seen through all his writing. More later.
Pearl, my wife, Dr. Waggoner's younger daughter, attended Washington Missionary College the winter of 1915-1916. We were under appointment to the mission field, by the General Conference. We were married at the close of the school term.
Pearl wanted to visit her father before going to Peru. So by train we went to Battle Creek, Michigan. Dr. Waggoner was serving as registrar in the large Battle Creek Sanitarium. He also served as Chaplain a great deal of the time. Pearl and I were most welcome in the Waggoner home. The doctor was married again, but Pearl knew his wife as she had worked in the publishing house when they lived in London and the Doctor was editor.
Our visit with Pearl's father was shortened by his sudden death, heart failure. He had had warning so submitted to a physical examination that very day by one of the best heart specialists in the world. He (WAGGONER) was preparing a funeral sermon for a young person, for the next day. Then we ate a light supper and went to bed a little later. Just as he lay down his heart fluttered until it stopped. Edith called me to come quickly, but he was already gone. He was a great student. In London he had bought cheaply a great number of second hand books. I believe he had all of the "Fathers of the Catholic Church," and hundreds of histories. It took a joining house, with shelves to the ceiling to hold all his books. The above is just a little side light.
Now let us go to the large parlor of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. For several weeks, in May of 1916, Dr. Waggoner had been holding studies on Righteousness by Faith. One morning I stepped in to listen. What wonderful truth from the lips of a wonderful preacher. Right up to the day of his funeral his favorite Bible theme was "Christ and His Righteousness."
All through his several books it is the theme of "Christ and His Righteousness." Pearl and I have loaned to Elder L. E. Froom, permanently several of Dr. Waggoner's books. They were to be passed on by him finally to the James White Library. Elder Froom has some important secret letters in his files. Dr. J. H. Kellogg was a close family friend. He became mixed up in Pantheism. He tried to persuade Dr. Waggoner. The Lord warned the Doctor through Sister White. He heeded the warning. I will tell you about it and about a personal letter