In the vision of June 6, 1863, not only was there opened up to Ellen White the basic principles of healthful living but a solemn commission was given to her that would have a bearing on her work and that of her husband for many years to come. She and James were to be teachers of health reform. Taking up her pen after the vision, she wrote:
I saw that it was a sacred duty to attend to our health, and arouse others to do their duty.... We have a duty to speak, to come out against intemperance of every kind--intemperance in working, in eating, in drinking, in drugging--and then point them to God's great medicine, water, pure soft water, for diseases, for health, for cleanliness, and for a luxury.... I saw that we should not be silent upon the subject of health, but should wake up minds to the subject.--Manuscript 1, 1863. (Italics supplied.)
But before they could teach, they must know what to teach. They were adults, and parents; alert, but their knowledge in health lines was but little different from the average--and these were days of general ignorance. The Review and Herald, edited by James White and Uriah Smith, occasionally carried items on rest, fresh air, exercise, et cetera, selected from other journals or from the writings of a Dr. Dio Lewis. Quite often articles and admonitions discouraging the use of tobacco, tea, and coffee were included. But as we have seen in connection with the scourge of diphtheria in the winter of 1862 and 1863, although the obituary notices kept before its readers the death of many children, up to February, 1863, the Review had little to offer to terrified parents but the application of a poultice of "Spanish flies and turpentine." Then there came to the attention of James and Ellen White Dr. James C. Jackson's method of treatment of diphtheria, embodying simple, rational methods in the proper use of water, fresh air, and rest. Earnestly employed, these remedies saved two of the White boys when stricken, and also Moses Hull's boy, but upon the recovery of the children the experience was soon forgotten. Then in the vision of June 6, 1863, among a number of situations and matters opened up to Ellen White, health was an important one. Many of its features were to her so revolutionary that she was for a time bewildered.
The White Family Applies Health Reform Diet
First of all, light given in regard to proper diet, when put into effect, brought about quite radical changes in the food program of the White home and of the homes of a few neighbors and acquaintances who learned of the basic points. Among them was the Amadon family and the Andrews family. As Ellen White recounted the experience a few months later--in August, 1864--she wrote:
I have thought for years that I was dependent upon a meat diet for strength. I have eaten three meals a day until within a few months. It has been very difficult for me to go from one meal to another without suffering from faintness at the stomach, and dizziness of the head.... Eating meat removed for the time these faint feelings. I therefore decided that meat was indispensable in my case.
But since the Lord presented before me, in June, 1863, the subject of meat eating in relation to health, I have left the use of meat. For a while it was rather difficult to bring my appetite to bread, for which, formerly, I have had but little relish. But by persevering, I have been able to do this. I have lived for nearly one year without meat. For about six months most of the bread upon our table has been unleavened cakes [gems], [See appendix B for the recipe.] made of unbolted wheat meal and water, and a very little salt. We use
fruits and vegetables liberally. I have lived for eight months upon two meals a day. [See appendix C for a two-meal-a-day plan.] I have applied myself to writing the most of the time for above a year. For eight months have been confined closely to writing. My brain has been constantly taxed, and I have had but little exercise. Yet my health has never been better than for the past six months.--Spiritual Gifts, 4a:153, 154. In an address given in Battle Creek on March 6, 1869, Ellen White further described her experience as a health reformer:
I suffered keen hunger. I was a great meat eater. But when faint, I placed my arms across my stomach and said: "I will not taste a morsel. I will eat simple food, or I will not eat at all." Bread was distasteful to me. I could seldom eat a piece as large as a dollar. Some things in the reform I could get along with very well, but when I came to the bread I was especially set against it.
When I made these changes I had a special battle to fight. The first two or three meals, I could not eat. I said to my stomach: "You may wait until you can eat bread." In a little while I could eat bread, and graham bread, too. This I could not eat before; but now it tastes good, and I have had no loss of appetite.--Testimonies for the Church, 2:371, 372. [For a review of Ellen White's experience as a health reformer, see CDF, pp. 481-494, appendix I. In this fifteen-page compilation will be found her own statements of her experience, with a delineation of how she related to a reform in diet under varying circumstances and at different times.]
She continued:
I left off these things [meat, butter, and three meals] from principle. I took my stand on health reform from principle. And since that time, brethren, you have not heard me advance an extreme view of health reform that I have had to take back. I have advanced nothing but what I stand to today. I recommend to you a healthful, nourishing diet.--Ibid., 2:372.
She declared how she looked upon the change in her way of life:
I do not regard it a great privation to discontinue the use of those things which leave a bad smell in the breath and a bad taste in the mouth.
Is it self-denial to leave these things and get into a condition where everything is as sweet as honey; where no bad taste is left in the mouth and no feeling of goneness in the stomach? These I used to have much of the time. I have fainted away with my child in my arms again and again.
I have none of this now, and shall I call this a privation when I can stand before you as I do this day? There is not one woman in a hundred that could endure the amount of labor that I do. I moved out from principle, not from impulse. I moved because I believed Heaven would approve of the course I was taking to bring myself into the very best condition of health, that I might glorify God in my body and spirit, which are His.--Ibid.
Important Lessons to Learn in Treating Disease
Six months after the health reform vision, Henry, their oldest son, took sick with pneumonia, as already noted, and eight days later died. Why? Neither James White nor Ellen had yet had an opportunity to acquaint themselves with steps to take in combating disease through the use of rational methods. Some weeks before, James had sent for Dr. Jackson's books, but at the onset of Henry's severe illness the books were still in their wrappers (The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867). They had been traveling and had had little time to read. Although the experienced physician had administered drugs, their son died. What a jolt this gave them. They doubtless recalled successfully treating diphtheria ten months earlier through the rational use of water and the application of other simple remedies.
Then during the second week of February, 1864, Willie was stricken with pneumonia. Now James and Ellen White were confronted with a dilemma that could mean life or death to one of their two remaining children. Ellen White reported their daring decision.
We decided that we would not send for a physician, but do the best we could with him ourselves by the use of water, and entreat the Lord in behalf of the child. We called in a few who had faith to unite their prayers with ours. We had a sweet assurance of God's presence and blessing.--Spiritual Gifts, 4a:151. Nor was there any delay in making a beginning:
The next day Willie was very sick. He was wandering. He did not seem to see or hear me when I spoke to him. His heart had no regular beat, but was in a constant agitated flutter. We continued to look to God in his behalf, and to use water freely upon his head, and a compress constantly upon his lungs, and soon he seemed rational as ever. He suffered severe pain in his right side, and could not lie upon it for a moment. This pain we subdued with cold water compresses, varying the temperature of the water according to the degree of the fever. We were very careful to keep his hands and feet warm.--Ibid., 4a:151, 152.
Writing of the experience a few days later, February 22, 1864, Ellen White declared:
We have been so anxious and have been obliged to watch over him day and night until we are much worn, and my head aches nearly all the time.--Letter 5, 1864.
At the same time James White wrote:
The key [to the prophetic chart] will be ready soon. We had set apart the last week to complete it; but that has been a sad week, watching our Willie, very sick with lung fever. Thank God, he is fast recovering.--The Review and Herald, February 23, 1864.
From these words from mother and father, it is very clear that the application of hydrotherapy in such a case called for tireless effort. But it produced good results. Ellen White picks up the details of the story's final outcome:
We expected the crisis would come the seventh day. We had but little rest during his sickness, and were obliged to give him up into others' care the fourth and fifth nights. My husband and myself the fifth day felt very anxious. The child raised fresh blood, and coughed considerably. My husband spent much time in prayer.
We left our child in careful hands that night. Before retiring, my husband prayed long and earnestly. Suddenly his burden of prayer left him, and it seemed as though a voice spoke to him, and said, "Go lie down; I will take care of the child." I had retired sick, and could not sleep for anxiety for several hours. I felt pressed for breath. Although sleeping in a large chamber, I arose and opened the door into a large hall, and was at once relieved, and soon slept.
I dreamed that an experienced physician was standing by my child, watching every breath, with one hand over his heart, and with the other feeling his pulse. He turned to us and said, "The crisis has passed. He has seen his worst night. He will now come up speedily, for he has not the injurious influence of drugs [Obviously, reference to drugs here is to those poisonous substances commonly employed before even the discovery of the cause of most diseases. See Selected Messages 2:279-285; 441-454.] to recover from. Nature has nobly done her work to rid the system of impurities."
I related to him my worn-out condition, my pressure for breath, and the relief obtained by opening the door. Said he, "That which gave you relief will also relieve your child. He needs air. You have kept him too warm. The heated air coming from a stove is injurious, and were it not for the air coming in at the crevices of the windows, would be poisonous, and destroy life. Stove heat destroys the vitality of the air, and weakens the lungs. The child's lungs have been weakened by the room being kept too warm. Sick persons are debilitated by disease, and need all the invigorating air that they can bear to strengthen the vital organs to resist disease. And yet in most cases air and light are excluded from the sickroom at the very time when most needed, as though dangerous enemies."--Spiritual Gifts, 4a:152, 153.
What consolation this dream, and the assurance that came to her husband a few hours before, brought to them. She reports:
We found in the morning that our boy had passed a restless night. He seemed to be in a high fever until noon. Then the fever left him, and he appeared quite well, except weak.
He had eaten but one small cracker through his five days' sickness. He came up rapidly, and has had better health than he has had for several years before.--Ibid., 4a:153.
She added the significant words "This experience is valuable to us." What contrasting, thought-provoking object lessons James and Ellen White had experienced in just eleven weeks! Now, more than ever, they knew that they must dig deep and learn how to combat disease, and about sound dietetic principles. They determined then and there that at the earliest possible time they must visit the medical institution operated by Dr. Jackson and his associates at Dansville, New York, and gain all they could in practical lines. But Ellen White still had ahead of her the finishing of Spiritual Gifts,, Volume III, and James White had the burden of managing the interests of the Publishing Association and editing the Review and Herald.
Spiritual Gifts,, Volumes III and IV
The Whites were delayed in visiting Dansville until August, 1864, because of Ellen White's determination to finish what she spoke of as her third book, dealing with Old Testament history and other materials, including a presentation on health principles. Spiritual Gifts,, Volume I, published in 1858, dealt primarily with New Testament history and the great controversy story to the new earth--with emphasis on the ministry of Jesus. Volume II was an autobiographical work issued in 1860. On November 3, 1863, announcement was made in the Review concerning Volume III, then in the planning stage:
The work will be in two parts. The first part will contain matter of deep interest in relation to the race of man from the Creation to the end--the six days of Creation, the size and glory of the first pair, the Fall, the Flood, the dwindling of the race physically, morally, and mentally, lost arts, causes of diseases, the best food for man, laws of health.--The Review and Herald, November 3, 1863.
The proposed content of the book is particularly significant and timely in light of Darwin's research and the publication of his Origin of Species in 1859, advocating the evolutionary theory. Also, the health reform vision, received five months before, would be included.
The balance of the announcement presents further intentions:
The second part will contain practical portions of the Testimonies for the Church, Nos. 1-10. The local and personal portions will be omitted.--Ibid.
But there were delays, as she explained later. As they left for their eastern tour, which began August 19, 1863, she intended to finish her book on the journey. But she wrote:
As we visited the churches, things which had been shown to me in relation to existing wrongs required nearly all my time out of meeting in writing out the matter for them. Before I returned home from the East I had written out about five hundred pages for individuals and churches.
After we returned from the East [and buried Henry], I commenced to write Volume III of [Spiritual Gifts,], expecting to have a book of a size to bind in with the testimonies which [now] help compose Volume IV.
As I wrote, the matter opened before me and I saw it was impossible to get all I had to write in as few pages as I at first designed. The matter opened and Volume III was full. Then I commenced on Volume IV, but before I had my work finished, while preparing the health matter for the printers, I was called to go to Monterey. We went, and could not finish the work there as soon as we expected. I was obliged to return to finish the matter for the printers.--Manuscript 7, 1867
It was mid-August by the time her work was finished to the point where the two books could be published. An announcement of their availability appeared in the [Review] of August 2, 1864. Volume III, containing 304 pages, was advertised for 75 cents; Volume IV, with 320 pages, was promised to be ready in a month.
She had been working under heavy pressure to complete the task so that she and her husband could visit Dr. Jackson's health institution in Dansville, New York. Yet she was determined that before leaving, she would cover in the book the main points that had been shown to her in the health reform vision. She did not want it to be said that what she presented as shown to her in vision could have been influenced by Dr. Jackson or anyone else. In completing her statement on the matter, she noted:
I therefore crowded into Volume IV the most essential points in the vision in regard to health, intending to get out another testimony in which I could more freely speak upon the happiness and miseries of married life. With this consideration, I closed up Volume IV that it might be scattered among the people. I reserved some important matter in regard to health, which I had not strength or time to prepare for that volume, and get it out in season for our eastern [1864] journey.--Ibid.
She added an interesting statement of what she did not read before first writing out what the Lord had revealed to her:
That which I have written in regard to health was not taken from books or papers.... My view was clear, and I did not want to read anything until I had fully completed my books. My views were written independent of books or of the opinions of others.--Ibid.
The Relation of the Vision to Books on Health
The health reform vision had not only opened new vistas but embodied the commission to lead out in teaching along lines that were contrary to common understanding. The task would not be easy. Experience had taught Ellen White how careful she must be to prevent the public from assuming she had gained her knowledge from human sources. As for herself, she wrote: "I was astonished at the things shown me in vision. Many things came directly across my own ideas."--Ibid. She added, "I talked it to all with whom I had opportunity to converse."--Ibid. As she did so, interesting conversations ensued:
As I related to others the things which I had been shown, the question was asked, "Have you seen the paper The Laws of Life or The Water Cure Journal?" I told them no, I had not seen either of the papers. Said they, "What you have seen agrees very much with much of their teachings."
I talked freely with Dr. Lay and many others upon the things shown me in reference to health. I had never seen a paper treating upon health.--Ibid.
The Books Obtained from Dansville, New York
Two or three months after the health reform vision, James White sent to Dansville for some books on the subject of health. Ellen White wrote a statement of explanation about this in September, 1867:
I did not know that such works existed until September, 1863, when in Boston, Massachusetts, my husband saw them advertised in a periodical called the Voice of the Prophets, published by Elder J. V. Himes. My husband ordered the works from Dansville and received them at Topsham, Maine. His business gave him no time to peruse them, and as I was determined not to read them until I had written out my views, the books remained in their wrappers.--Ibid., October 8, 1867
Except for Henry's death in Topsham in December, 1863, and Willie's bout with pneumonia in February following, this is where matters stood until Ellen White felt at liberty to visit Dr. Jackson's health institution at Dansville, New York.