Introduction
While there is much in the E. G. White published works dealing with health and health reform, no one statement from her pen recounts the giving of the early visions on this subject. These may be noted as coming to her in 1848, 1854, and 1863. For information that there was a vision touching health points in 1848 we must turn to a James White statement in the The Review and Herald, November 8, 1870, in which he declares:
"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]....
"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."
The broadening counsel on cleanliness and diet is found in a testimony written in 1854. Specific reference to the June 6, 1863, health-reform vision is given in E. G. White answers to certain questions published in the The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867.
The growing interest in such details as are here revealed justifies the inclusion of these items in this volume, even though they are somewhat irregular in form.
The repeated statements of her nondependence on contemporary health writers are significant not only in a discussion of how the light came to her on health reform but in a study of her work generally.
The 1881 statement on the proper use of the testimonies on health reform shows a careful balance in her work in teaching health principles.-White Trustees.
Visions That Early Called for Reforms
Attention Called to Tobacco, Tea, and Coffee in 1848 and 1851
I have seen in vision that tobacco was a filthy weed, and that it must be laid aside or given up. Unless it is given up, the frown of God will be upon the one that uses it, and he cannot be sealed with the seal of the living God.-Letter 5, 1851. [James White in The Review and Herald, November 8, 1870, puts the time of the vision in the fall of 1848. See Introduction.]
Important Principles Revealed in 1854
I then saw a lack of cleanliness among Sabbathkeepers. I saw that God was purifying unto Himself a peculiar people. He will have a clean and a holy people in whom he can delight. I saw that the camp must be cleansed, or God would pass by and see the uncleanness of Israel and would not go forth with their armies to battle. He would turn from them in displeasure, and our enemies would triumph over us and we be left weak, in shame and disgrace.
I saw that God would not acknowledge an untidy, unclean person as a Christian. His frown was upon such. Our souls, bodies, and spirits are to be presented blameless by Jesus to his Father, and unless we are clean in person, and pure, we cannot be presented blameless to God.
I saw that the houses of the saints should be kept tidy and neat, free from dirt and filth and all uncleanness. I saw that the house of God had been desecrated by the carelessness of parents with their children and by the untidiness and uncleanness there. I saw that these things should meet with an open rebuke, and if there was not an immediate change in some that profess the truth in these things they should be put out of the camp....
The Appetite and Proper Food.-I then saw that the appetite must be denied, that rich food should not be prepared, and that which is spent upon the appetite should be put into the treasury of God. It would tell there and those that denied themselves would lay up a reward in heaven. I saw that God was purifying his people.
Pride and idols must be laid aside. I saw that rich food was destroying the health of bodies, was ruining constitutions, destroying minds, and was a great waste of means.
I saw that many were sickly among the remnant who have made themselves so by indulging their appetites. If we wish good health, we must take special care of the health that God has given us, deny the unhealthy appetite, eat less fine food, eat coarse food free from grease. [Careful examination and comparison of her writings seems to indicate that by "grease" she meant animal fat such as lard and suet. See Counsels on Diet and Foods, 353-355.] Then as you sit at the table to eat you can from the heart ask God's blessing upon the food and can derive strength from coarse, wholesome food. God will be pleased to graciously bless it and it will be a benefit to the receiver.
I saw that we should pray as Solomon did-"Feed me with food convenient for me" (Proverbs 30:8)-and as we make the prayer, act it out. Get food that is plain and that is essential to health, free from grease. Such food will be convenient for us.
There are some Sabbathkeepers who made a God of their bellies. They waste their means in obtaining rich food. Such, I saw, if saved at all, will know what pinching want is unless they deny their appetites and eat to the glory of God. There are but few who eat to the glory of God.
How can those who have cake and piecrust filled with grease ask God's blessing upon it and then eat with an eye single to God's glory? We are commanded to do all to the glory of God. We must eat and drink to his glory.-Manuscript 3, 1854.