Hang on ... I just found something. Maybe we can make short order of this after all!
According to "China Letters" by David Lin, "The traditional understanding of SDA historians is that James White held the view that the "daily" of Daniel 8:11 refers to the priesthood of Christ. In the SDABC, Vol. 7, page 64, reads: Crosier Reverts to Reformation View;" the next subtitle says, "White Follows Crosier's View." In prophetic Faith of our Fathers, 1119, is a table in which Crosier and White are both listed as believing that the "daily" refers to the ministry of Christ.
"HOWEVER, in later issues of the Day Star Extra and the Review and Herald 1851, both quoted in the SDABC, Vol. 7, yields no conclusive evidence that either writer held the view attributed to him. Both believed that the sanctuary in heaven, the Son of God and the "host" have been trodden under foot by papal Rome. But not a word is said of the "daily."
"The following quotation from an article by James White in February 15, 1870's issue of the Review tells what he really believed about the "daily":
The daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation represent Rome in its Pagan and Papal forms. Leaving out the supplied words, the text would read, "The daily, and the transgression of desolation." These two desolation powers; first, Paganism, then Papacy. Of these, Paul in 2Thess. 2:3-8, says: "Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that Man of Sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he, as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming."
That which withheld the manifestation of the Papacy in Paul's day was paganism. These are the two powers which have desolated the people of God, of which the angel speaks in the vision of Daniel 8.
"That such a plain statement by James White could have been overlooked by our historians is hard to understand. Now we know that he stood with those to whom "the Lord gave the correct view." Advocates of the other view who have placed him on the wrong side either purposely misrepresent him to gain a strong ally, or must admit that they were careless historians." - David Lin - June 21, 1988
