Never had Christ attracted the attention of the multitude as now that He was laid in the tomb. According to their practice, the people brought their sick and suffering ones to the temple courts, inquiring, Who can tell us of Jesus of Nazareth? Many had come from far to find Him who had healed the sick and raised the dead. On every side was heard the cry, We want Christ the Healer! Upon this occasion those who were thought to show indications of the leprosy were examined by the priests. Many were forced to hear their husbands, wives, or children pronounced leprous, and doomed to go forth from the shelter of their homes and the care of their friends, to warn off the stranger with the mournful cry, “Unclean, unclean!” The friendly hands of Jesus of Nazareth, that never refused to touch with healing the loathsome leper, were folded on His breast. The lips that had answered his petition with the comforting words, “I will; be thou clean” ( Matthew 8:3 ), were now silent. Many appealed to the…
"And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed."
Ellen White directly references Matthew 8:3 in this passage.
"The mourning cries of the suffering ones brought home to thousands of minds the conviction that a great light had gone out of the world. Without Christ, the earth was blackness and darkness. Many whose voices had swelled the cry of “Crucify Him, crucify Him,” now realized the calamity that had fallen upon them, and would as eagerly have cried, Give us Jesus! had He still been alive. DA 776.3"
"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."
Both passages contrast the presence/absence of Christ with light and darkness. EGW's statement that 'Without Christ, the earth was blackness and darkness' aligns with the idea of John 1:5.