The year 1870 had opened on the upbeat with progress in the production of books and pamphlets, and this was to continue through the year. In mid-February A Solemn Appeal, compiled by James White, had appeared (Ibid., February 15, 1870). Two months later, April 26, the Defense of Elder James White and Wife was released. On May 17 Ellen White wrote to Edson that she had completed her work on the preparation of The Spirit of Prophecy, volume 1, and was beginning on volume 2 (Letter 8, 1870). Volume 1, however, was not through the press until November 29. Its publication was an important step in the production of Ellen G. White books, as it was the first of the set of four books on the full great controversy story--the forerunner of Patriarchs and Prophets. Actually, it was a revision and enlargement of Spiritual Gifts,, Volumes III and IV (The Review and Herald, November 29, 1870).
On August 2 another Testimony pamphlet came from the press. The notice of its publication read:
Testimony for the Church, No. 19, is now ready. It contains a lengthy address to ministers, read at our last General Conference, a valuable article upon air and exercise, an earnest appeal relative to convocations, and several epistles.--Ibid., August 2, 1870
The twenty-page chapter "Exercise and Air" (seventeen pages in Testimonies, volume 2) signaled that Ellen White was now, after her husband's long illness, again aggressively advocating the principles of health reform.
Problems in Adopting the Vegetarian Diet
James White was trying to help those interested in reforming their dietetic program, encouraging them to raise small fruits to fill out a diet from which flesh had been discarded. It may be well to pause for a moment to consider what was involved in 1870 and earlier, in changes in diet. There were no prepared cereal foods, such as corn flakes and shredded wheat, except perhaps oatmeal, which was bought at a drugstore by the ounce for those who were ill. There were no skillfully prepared vegetable-protein foods (today called meat substitutes), not even peanut butter. There were no frozen foods. The selection of what to eat was limited to meat, legumes, grains, and vegetables and fruits in season. Some kinds of nuts could be had, but they were seldom mentioned.
In 1899 J. N. Loughborough recalled the diet on which he grew up as an orphan on his grandfather's farm in New York State. Every autumn four large, fat hogs and one cow were slaughtered as winter provisions for the family. Nearly all parts of the hogs were eaten "except the bristles and the hoofs." He wrote:
I was a great lover of animal flesh as food. I wanted fat pork fried for breakfast, boiled meat for dinner, cold slices of ham or beef for supper. One of my sweetest morsels was bread well soaked in pork gravy.--The Gospel of Health, October, 1899 (see also The Story of Our Health Message, 24).
If in the spring of the year we felt languor (really the result of consuming so much fat and flesh meats during the winter), we resorted to sharp pickles, horseradish, mustard, pepper, and the like, to "sharpen the appetite" and tone up the system. We naturally expected a "poor spell" in the spring before we could get newly grown vegetables.--The Medical Missionary, December, 1899 (see also The Story of Our Health Message, 24).
Without the abundant supply of a great variety of foods known so well today, the shift in diet for those pursuing health reform in the 1860s and 1870s was not simple or easy. How to Live, No. 1, with its twenty pages entitled "Cookery," was helpful, furnishing thirteen recipes on unleavened bread, wheat, and corn; four breads made with yeast; eleven mushes and porridges; twenty pies and puddings, many of them with an apple content; twenty-five fruit recipes (counting tomatoes as a fruit); and thirty-four recipes for vegetables. That was all.
A Pamphlet on Raising and Canning Small Fruits
James White, after growing strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and grapes on the little farm in Greenville, saw that these items, fresh or preserved, could well augment the rather limited vegetarian regimen. In January, 1871, he got out a thirty-two-page pamphlet, Small Fruits--How to Cultivate and How to Can. He introduced this by stating:
Fruit is the most natural and healthful food for man. It was God's plan that he should subsist largely upon fruit. See Genesis 1.
With the discarding of flesh meats as food by health reformers has come a need of something to take its place. We know of nothing so eminently adapted to supply this need as fruit. With the extended call for small fruits in the past few years has arisen a demand for practical information upon the manner of their growth.
The object of this little work is not to go into the subject for the benefit of the greenhouse, or the professional cultivator, but to meet the wants of every family. Everyone who owns a rod of ground, whether in city or country, should know how to cultivate small fruits. Hence we have ventured to give practical hints in regard to the cultivation of the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, and grape, studiously avoiding intricacies, or anything that would not be beneficial for the people to carry out.
That our efforts may be appreciated, and that they may result in a more thorough introduction and better understanding of the cultivation of small fruits by health reformers, is the wish of the writer.--Small Fruits, p. 3 (see also White Estate in Pamphlet 24, Administrative, James White).
In the first advertisement for this pamphlet in the January, 1871, Health Reformer, White stated that it contained "valuable information, gleaned from larger books, and from personal experience on this subject." The pamphlet contained advice on cultivating and selecting the best varieties of plants. Five pages were devoted to canning fruit. As the pamphlet is read today, it must be kept in mind that it was published only a few years after Louis Pasteur, in France, had discovered that fermentation in wine was caused by bacteria. White made the following application:
The strawberry, the raspberry, the blackberry, the blueberry, the cherry, and the grape may be safely canned by a similar process. We recommend the glass, self-sealing can. We have used the Mason, the Dexter, and the Hero with success.--Small Fruits, p. 23.
Paragraph 4 of the instructions included this interesting counsel:
When the cans are cool, set them in a dark, dry, cool place. They should be examined daily for several weeks to see if they are keeping well. If the fruit shows signs of fermentation, it should be scalded again, and carefully secured in the can.-- Ibid., 24.
Meeting Problems in the Midwest
In a practical way James and Ellen White were moving into the field again, promoting health reform in its broad aspects. At the camp meeting in Pleasantville, Kansas, they found believers in the Midwest, where fruit was scarce, deeply discouraged in the matter of trying to adopt the principles of health reform. This discouragement was intensified by the extreme positions taken in the Health Reformer regarding milk, sugar, and salt. In this situation James White penned for publication in the Review an article in which he reviewed the consistent steps taken by Seventh-day Adventists in adopting health reform. He stated:
It was twenty-two years ago the present autumn that our minds were called to the injurious effects of tobacco, tea, and coffee, through the testimony of Mrs. White. God has wonderfully blessed the effort to put these things away from us.... When we had gained a good victory over these things, and when the Lord saw that we were able to bear it, light was given relative to food and dress. And the cause of health reform among our people moved steadily forward, and great changes were made.--The Review and Herald, November 8, 1870 (see also CDF, pp. 495, 496).
The basic principles involved had been set forth carefully in 1864, in the comprehensive chapter "Health" in Spiritual Gifts,, Volume IVa, and the next year in the six How to Live pamphlets. James and Ellen White, having adopted health reform in their home and in their personal lives, greatly benefited and were enthusiastically teaching it. Some were quick to respond; others held back, for it was not easy to alter long-established habits of living, especially eating. Then on August 16, 1865, James White, through overwork, was stricken with paralysis. On this point he wrote in 1870:
In consequence of our sickness, Mrs. White ceased to speak and write upon the subject of health reform. From that point may be dated the commencement of our misfortunes and mistakes as a people relative to this subject.--Ibid.
Failure to Promote Health Reform Devastating
Because of his illness, James White, the leader of the church, was not able to continue to give effective support to health reform, and Ellen, in caring for him for eighteen months, was cut off from active ministry. Also, in the light of his illness, they were reticent to press health teachings. The cause of health reform was left to flounder as those who had led out in teaching it looked on almost helplessly. While making a comeback in March, 1868, James White observed:
People generally are slow to move, and hardly move at all. A few move cautiously and well, while others go too fast. The work of reform is not brought about in a single day. The people must be helped where they are. They can be helped better by one standing on the line of truth nearest them, than on the side the greatest distance from them.
It is best for them to be taught on all points of truth and duty by persons of judgment and caution, and as fast as God in His providence unfolds them to His people. He who is but partly reformed himself, and teaches the people, will do some good. He who sees the duty of reform, and is full strict enough in any case, and allows of no exceptions, and drives matters, is sure to drive the reform into the ground, hurt his own soul, and injure others. Such do not help Mrs. White, but greatly burden her in her arduous work....
She works to this disadvantage, namely: she makes strong appeals to the people, which a few feel deeply, and take strong positions, and go to extremes. Then to save the cause from ruin in consequence of these extremes, she is obliged to come out with reproofs for extremists in a public manner.
This is better than to have things go to pieces; but the influence of both the extremes and the reproofs are terrible on the cause, and brings upon Mrs. White a threefold burden. Here is the difficulty: What she may say to urge the tardy is taken by the prompt to urge them over the mark. And what she may say to caution the prompt, zealous, incautious ones is taken by the tardy as an excuse to remain too far behind.--Ibid., March 17, 1868
He suggested that those who wish to help Ellen White in her difficult task will find her, not with a few extremists, but "back with the people, tugging away at the wheel of reform." He pointed out that some persons are quickly converted; others take much longer, even as much as two years, to make a thorough reform. He warned against getting health reform out of its place, for it is not the third angel's message, but "a work designed to follow in its wake," and urged that the work go on, "not a piece at a time, lest it go all to pieces; but let it move on as a complete whole."
While James White's illness retarded aggressive work on his and Ellen's part for two years or more, they lived in harmony with health reform principles. They were ever ready to answer questions and take an affirmative stance, as they did in dealing with the issues of dress reform and of a healthful dietary program. Note Ellen's answer to one sister, in a letter written April 3, 1870:
The Dietary Program in the White Home
Dear Sister,
I am ...too weak to write more than a few brief words. From the light God has been pleased to give me, butter is not the most healthful article of food. It taxes the digestive organs more severely than meat. We place no butter upon our table. Our vegetables are generally cooked with milk or cream and made very palatable. We have a generous diet which consists in the preparation of apples, vegetables, and grains in a skillful manner. We have but little pie upon our table and cake is seldom seen there; no luxuries or dainties.
Everything is plain yet wholesome because it is not merely thrown together in a haphazard manner. We have no sugar on our table. Our sauce which is our dependence is apples, baked or stewed into sauce, sweetened as required before being put upon the table. We use milk in small quantities. Sugar and milk used at the same time is hard for the digestive organs, clogs the machinery.
I know no reason why you cannot set just as good a table as we do. We have nothing but the simplest articles prepared in a variety of ways, all strictly hygienic. We have cracked wheat; for a change, cracked corn. We then take sorghum molasses, put water with it and boil it thoroughly, stir in a little thickening of flour, and this we eat on our puddings, graham or cracked wheat, or cracked corn.
Why health reformers complain of poor diet is they don't know how to cook, and should learn. We think a moderate amount of milk from a healthy cow not objectionable. We seldom prepare our food with butter. When we cannot obtain milk, we use a very trifle in some articles of vegetables. We make a milk gravy thickened with flour for our potatoes, not a particle of butter in the gravy. We have no meat on our table. I live extremely plain myself. My wants are easily satisfied.
We have but one cow. She gives but a very little milk. We have made this little do the cooking and table use for a company of from twelve to twenty which have sat at our table all winter and spring. Nearly all the time we average sixteen. We cannot obtain cream to use, but we should use more of it could we get it to use. I greatly object to an impoverished diet.
If you can get apples you are in a good condition, as far as fruit is concerned, if you have nothing else. We have beans at every meal, well cooked with a little salt and a tablespoonful of sugar, which makes them more palatable.--Letter 5, 1870.
After Ellen mentioned by name the wife of one of the ministers who was not adhering to health reform in cooking and advised others not to look to her as an example, she entered into a further discussion of eggs and dairy products:
If you have eggs, use them as your judgment shall dictate, yet I would say for children of strong animal passions they are positively injurious. The same may be said of adults. I do not think such large varieties of fruit are essential, yet they should be carefully gathered and preserved in their season for use when there are no apples to be had. I use but little fruit beside baked apples, although we have other kinds.
I would not advise you to set aside milk or a moderate use of eggs, moderate use of sugar. Meat I am decided does us no good, but only harm, except a person who is robbed of vitality may need a little meat to stimulate a few times. I again say, more depends upon thoughtfulness and skill in the preparation of the articles you have than of the variety or quality. Apples are superior to any fruit for a standby that grows.--Ibid.
She was writing from Battle Creek, where for much of the year there was available a much broader choice of food than in the newer Midwestern States.
Extremes Taught in the Health Reformer Bring Crisis
The publishing of extreme views in the Health Reformer in the summer of 1870 brought on a crisis, and at the camp meeting in Pleasanton, Kansas, in October the situation was more than ever clearly seen. In his report of that meeting James White wrote of the unfortunate results of Ellen White's virtual silence on the subject of health because of his prolonged illness. The believers in the Midwest, having read the extreme positions being advocated in the Reformer, which would ban the use of milk, sugar, and salt, were asking:
How do the friends of health reform live at Battle Creek? Do they dispense with salt entirely? If so, we cannot adopt the health reform. We can get but little fruit, and we have left off the use of meat, tea, coffee, and tobacco; but we must have something to sustain life.--Testimonies for the Church, 3:20.
James and Ellen White made it clear they could not stand by the extreme positions taken in the Health Reformer, especially by the non-Adventist contributing editor, Dr. R. T. Trall, and the editor, William C. Gage, a layman who did not in his own home carry out what he advocated in the journal. As to Ellen's attitudes, her husband stated as he wrote in the Midwest:
Since we have become active again, Mrs. White oftener feels called upon to speak upon the subject of health reform because of existing extremes of health reformers, than from any other reason. The fact that all, or nearly all, of the existing extremes upon health reform among our people are supposed to receive her unqualified sanction is the reason why she feels called upon to speak her real sentiments.--The Review and Herald, November 8, 1870.
Ellen White's Moderate Positions
James White explained the moderate positions they held. He embodied this in his report from the Kansas camp meeting, published November 8:
In reference to the use of tobacco, tea, coffee, flesh meats, also of dress, there is a general agreement. But at present she is not prepared to take the extreme position relative to salt, sugar, and milk. If there were no other reasons for moving carefully in reference to these things of so common and abundant use, there is a sufficient one in the fact that the minds of many are not prepared even to receive the facts relative to these things....
It may be well here to state, however, that while she does not regard milk, taken in large quantities, as customarily eaten with bread the best article of food, her mind, as yet, has only been called to the importance of the best and most healthy condition possible of the cow ...whose milk is used as an article of food. She cannot unite in circulating publications broadcast which take an extreme position of the important question of milk, with her present light upon the subject.--Ibid. (Italics supplied.)
Turning particularly to sugar and salt, he set forth her middle-of-the-road stance:
Mrs. White thinks that a change from the simplest kinds of flesh meats to an abundant use of sugar is going from "bad to worse." She would recommend a very sparing use of both sugar and salt. The appetite can, and should, be brought to a very moderate use of both.--Ibid.
Then he sounded warnings in another line, that of making abrupt changes:
While tobacco, tea, and coffee may be left at once (one at a time, however, by those who are so unfortunate as to be slaves to all), changes in diet should be made carefully, one at a time. And while she would say this to those who are in danger of making changes too rapidly, she would also say to the tardy, Be sure and not forget to change.--Ibid.
Back in Battle Creek for the Winter
After writing this, James and Ellen returned after an absence of five weeks to Battle Creek to find themselves in very interesting and challenging circumstances. The editor of the Review, Uriah Smith, was ill in Rochester, New York, and had been gone for some time. The editor of the Health Reformer, William Gage, was ill in Battle Creek with bilious fever, unable to function. Because of extreme positions advocated in its columns, the Whites found that "the Reformer was about dead."--Testimonies for the Church, 3:19. Of this Ellen wrote:
Many of our people had lost their interest in the Reformer, and letters were daily received with this discouraging request: "Please discontinue my Reformer." ...
We had spent some time in the West, and knew the scarcity of fruit, and we sympathized with our brethren who were conscientiously seeking to be in harmony with the body of Sabbathkeeping Adventists.... We could not raise an interest anywhere in the West to obtain subscribers for the Health Reformer. We saw that the writers in the Reformer were going away from the people and leaving them behind.--Ibid., 3:20.
In this situation she counseled, "We must go no faster than we can take those with us whose consciences and intellects are convinced of the truths we advocate. We must meet the people where they are."--Ibid.
She pointed out that it had taken considerable time for some to reach the position they were, and that they should allow others no less time to get their feet firmly established on the health reform platform. She declared:
In reforms we would better come one step short of the mark than to go one step beyond it. And if there is error at all, let it be on the side next to the people.--Ibid., 3:21.
Lifesaving Therapy for the Health Reformer
Going to the Review office, James White found unoccupied, both the Review editor's room and that of the editor of the Health Reformer. The latter was ill at home. "Our hands are full of business that has been waiting our return," James wrote, "and editing our periodicals."--The Review and Herald, November 15, 1870. Warren Bacheller, connected with the Review office since a teenager, with some assistance from traveling James White, was keeping the Review going, but as for the poor Health Reformer, it stood, not only waiting, but seemingly dying. James White, never reticent to step in in time of special need, took the paper under his wing. He saw that if it was to survive, changes must be made, quickly. Without time for any formalities, he took over, pulling things together for the already late November issue. He furnished an editorial for this and succeeding issues, and Ellen White stepped in to help in the emergency by furnishing an article for each of four monthly issues. These articles followed his editorials.
James had three objectives in view for the magazine:
First, to raise the interest of the journal; second, to increase its circulation; third, to establish a strict pay-in-advance system.--The Health Reformer, April 1871.
White's editorials took the form of depicting the rise and progress of health reform among Seventh-day Adventists. He made it plain that the journal was nonsectarian, but that it had its roots in the experience and convictions of Seventh-day Adventists. Ellen White's articles, keyed to experiences and observations in traveling, developed certain lines of practical counsel under such titles as "Creatures of Circumstance" in the November, 1870, issue, followed in succeeding issues by "Convenient Food," "Willpower," and "Mothers and Their Daughters." The journal was enlarged from twenty pages to thirty-two.
Mrs. White's Department
At the General Conference session held in February, 1871, James White was elected editor of the Health Reformer. In his reorganization of the journal he would continue "Dr. Trall's Special Department" and introduce a new one, "Mrs. White's Department. "Having observed the efficacy of her work with the general public at camp meetings, he persuaded her to take hold with him in attempts to save the paper.
Ellen White's consent to take on this task committed her to the work of a columnist, responsible for furnishing copy sufficient to fill from four to six pages of the Health Reformer each month. This meant that each month, six weeks before publication date, she must have, at the office of publication, materials aggregating from 3,200 to 4,800 words (eight hundred words per Reformer page).
Struggling with Copy Preparation
As she moved into this work, adding it to her already heavy program of travel, speaking, and writing, Ellen at first seemed to flounder. The secular public had been promised that the journal would be free of denominational bias, and this was quite limiting to Ellen White. The March, 1871, issue was the first to carry Mrs. White's Department. Following a two-verse selected poem, "Sowing and Reaping," her opening article is titled "Spring Has Come." She wrote:
Spring has come again. The earth has thrown off her white shroud, and nature is waking to life. The birds are returning to cheer us again with their happy songs in the glorious sunshine.
All, both young and old, should be in the open air as much as possible....
Every family should have a plot of ground for cultivation and for beauty. Parents, a flower garden will be a blessing to your children.... Your children need active exercise in order to be healthy and happy. Parents, it will pay to expend a small sum yearly in
purchasing flower seeds and shrubs. We have purchased these of James Vick, Rochester, New York, and have ever felt more than satisfied with the means we thus invested.--The Health Reformer, March 1, 1871.
The two-column article is editorially signed "E.G.W." It is followed with a selected item, "Make Home Pleasant," and then an E.G.W. paragraph, "Tobacco Spitters in Cars." Her department in this issue closed with a two-column selected article, "The Perils of Travel."
The Journal Revived
The changes James White instituted in behalf of the Reformer soon began to bear fruit. His editorials and articles added interest. He was able to persuade Dr. R. T. Trall to modify his stances, which were tending to extremes. Mrs. White's Department was well received. He solicited articles from Adventist ministers who had adopted the health reform program, and by May he had twelve, which he included. The writers were S. N. Haskell, J. N. Loughborough, R. F. Cottrell, I. D. Van Horn, J. N. Andrews, W. H. Littlejohn, D. T. Bourdeau, A. S. Hutchins, A. C. Bourdeau, D. M. Canright, George I. Butler, and Joseph Clarke. The experiences related and admonitions given in these contributions added new life to the journal. From month to month more material from their pens was included. The letters to the editor, grouped under the antique heading "Our Letter Budget," carried this from Clarke, a well-to-do Ohio farmer:
The Reformer is improving. The editor gets the right hold of a matter every time. May God bless him. The reform is gaining ground here. We hope to send in more names from time to time.--Ibid., May, 1871.
But the best barometer was in the increased circulation--three hundred new subscriptions were received in twenty-five days. As the journal improved, the subscription list increased steadily. By December it had almost doubled, at five thousand. James White took pride in the fact that it was generally conceded to be the best health journal in America.--The Review and Herald, December 12, 1871.
A Marriage in the White Family
While James and Ellen were in Battle Creek between camp meeting appointments in 1870, they helped celebrate a wedding in the family. James presided at the ceremony in which Edson White and Emma McDearmon were joined in holy wedlock. The newlyweds, both 21, would live in Wright. James and Ellen were soon off to the camp meeting in Clyde, Ohio. From the campground Ellen wrote to the couple and gave invaluable counsel, for it touched on points easily and frequently overlooked:
You, my children, have given your hearts to one another unitedly; give them wholly, unreservedly, to God. In your married life, seek to elevate one another, not to come down to common, cheap talk and actions. Show the high and elevating principles of your holy faith in your everyday conversations and in the most private walks of life.
Be careful ever, and tender of the feelings of one another. Do not allow either of you, for even the first time, a playful bantering, joking, censuring of one another. These things are dangerous. They wound.... The wound may be concealed; nevertheless the wound exists and peace is being sacrificed, and happiness endangered when it could be easily preserved.
Edson, my son, guard yourself and in no case manifest the least disposition savoring of a dictatorial, overbearing spirit. It will pay to watch your words before speaking. This is easier than to take them back or efface their impression afterward....
Ever speak kindly; do not throw into the tones of your voice that which will be taken by others as irritability. Modulate even the tones of your voice. Let only love, gentleness, and mildness be expressed in your countenance and in your voice. Make it a business to shed rays of sunlight, but never leave a cloud.
Emma will be all to you you can desire if you are watchful and give her no occasion to feel distressed and troubled and doubt the genuineness of your love. Yourselves can make your happiness, or lose it. You can, by seeking to conform your life to the Word of God, be true, noble, elevated, and smooth the pathway of life for each other.--Letter 24, 1870.
Then, directing her words particularly to Edson, she closed:
God help you, my much loved son, to see the force of my advice and counsel to you. Be careful every day of your words and acts. Yield to each other. Yield your judgment sometimes, Edson; do not be persistent even if your course appears just right to yourself. You must be yielding, forbearing, kind, tender hearted, pitiful, courteous, ever keeping fresh the little courtesies of life, the tender acts, the tender, cheerful, encouraging words. And may the best of heaven's blessings rest upon you both, my dear children, is the prayer of your mother.--Ibid.