This is the first volume of "Testimonies for the Church," an influential nine-book set of books from the pen of Ellen G. White. Nearly 5000 pages in all, the entire set contains letters, articles, sermons, records of visions, and instruction regarding the everyday affairs of life. Specifically targeted at members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Testimonies found their genesis in 1855 when a question arose about how best to circulate Ellen White's visions. After some discussion, it was voted that the visions would be distributed in tract form to the entire body of believers. This method of distribution proved so successful that, by 1864, Mrs. White had produced ten consecutively numbered pamphlets. These pamphlets contained general counsel to the church at large. They also contained specific counsel to individuals, since Ellen White realized that the instruction to one person would help others in similar circumstances. Although the earliest pamphlets went out of print, in 1883 the church standardized the messages-which by then had grown into many more communications-into a nine-volume set of Spirit of Prophecy counsels. This set, which contains spiritual commentary of a general nature along with many letters of intimate instruction to members of the church during Ellen White's time, has become a staple of Adventist literature.