No real doctrine of "universal legal justification" was evident in the thought of E. J. Waggoner until the rise of panentheistic sentiments were manifested in his writings in the last half of the 1890s. It is very doubtful that this teaching can justifiably be a part of the 1888 Message of Waggoner.
Universal Legal Justification in the Writings of E. J. Waggoner
Woodrow Whidden, AIIAS
A number of notable twentieth and twenty-first century interpreters of Waggoner have claimed that he
taught a doctrine of ―universal legal justification.‖1 This position holds that God pardons the sinner prior to any conscious belief in Christ. In fact, its advocates claim that this understanding is one of the unique contributions of Waggoner to Christian thought and has been a leading bone of contention between them and other Waggoner interpreters. Thus a clear distinction is made between being universally, legally justified at the death of Christ and experientially justified at the moment of belief, or the conscious appropriation of the merits or justifying benefits of Christ‘s atoning work>>>
Continue here:
http://biblicalresearch.gc.adventist.org/documents/Universal%20Legal%20Justification%20writings%20EGW.pdf
Universal Legal Justification in the Writings of E. J. Waggoner
Woodrow Whidden, AIIAS
A number of notable twentieth and twenty-first century interpreters of Waggoner have claimed that he
taught a doctrine of ―universal legal justification.‖1 This position holds that God pardons the sinner prior to any conscious belief in Christ. In fact, its advocates claim that this understanding is one of the unique contributions of Waggoner to Christian thought and has been a leading bone of contention between them and other Waggoner interpreters. Thus a clear distinction is made between being universally, legally justified at the death of Christ and experientially justified at the moment of belief, or the conscious appropriation of the merits or justifying benefits of Christ‘s atoning work>>>
Continue here:
http://biblicalresearch.gc.adventist.org/documents/Universal%20Legal%20Justification%20writings%20EGW.pdf