More than a century has passed since the attention of the pioneer Sabbath-keeping Adventists was directed to health lines. This was in the form of specific counsel, through Mrs. Ellen G. White, pointing out the injurious effects of tobacco, tea, and coffee. In our narration covering the period since that time only the highlights of the health movement have been mentioned. The health message was but one of the truths which were in that period progressively received and advocated. Of this Mrs. White wrote in 1867:
"When we first received the third message [of Revelation 14], the Lord had many things to say to us, but we could not hear them all then. He has led us with a gentle hand and tender care, step by step, till we have reached the reform in health."--The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867.
Developed on Broad Lines
With the development of the great doctrinal truths, and the effecting of an organization to ensure unity of action, there came in 1863 the comprehensive health reform vision, followed by others from time to time, which called for personal changes in health habits, for an educational campaign in health to be united with evangelistic work by the ministry of the church, and finally for the establishment of a health institution. At the time of its opening it could not be foreseen that the institution was destined to grow till it had become the largest sanitarium in the world and the mother of many similar institutions in other parts of the earth.
It is not so far in time, counted by years, since it was difficult to receive favorable responses from Seventh-day Adventist youth to calls made for them to enter training as Christian physicians or nurses. Today, with an army of graduate physicians, dentists, and nurses, the medical college and the various schools of nursing can, with their limited capacity, take in only a portion of those who apply for entrance.
Closely associated with the care of the sick is the attention which must be given to diet, with its influence upon the health. From the very beginning of the health movement among Seventh-day Adventists great emphasis has been laid upon this. The health message in time led to the manufacture of health foods. This was initiated as a branch of sanitarium work to provide the patients with a wholesome diet, but later grew into a large commercial enterprise with a wide distribution of its products. Not all the original food factories remain connected with the church; but scattered here and there, not only in the United States but in other lands, are manufacturing establishments in which are produced wholesome, palatable foods.
Health Foods Produced
Perhaps this line of endeavor has been most successfully promoted in the Australasian Division, where the Health Food Company maintains, besides several factories, a large wholesale depot, many retail stores, a system of affiliated vegetarian cafés, and the finest and best equipped laboratory in Australia. Hundreds of men and women are engaged in the production and distribution of health foods. Other hundreds of students thus employed are enabled to pay the expenses of their education. Every cafe and food depot is a health educational center. Specially trained attendants give advice to inquirers regarding food values and general health principles.
Indicative of one relationship between the health food work and the general program of the church, it may be noted:
"By the operation of this branch of our service approximately a thousand workers are employed, whose tithes and offerings comprise a substantial portion of the support of local conference and mission efforts.
"From its earnings, the financing of our educational work is made possible, the school of nursing connected with our Sydney Sanitarium is subsidized, our influential welfare work is sustained, and our general mission funds are helped."--Report of E. B. Rudge, president of the Australasian Division, to the General Conference of 1941, in The Review and Herald, June 8, 1941.
At the General Conference of 1905 a forward step was taken in the creation of a Medical Missionary Council, as one of the departments of the General Conference, with the purpose that "the medical missionary work in all its features receive the same fostering care and financial support from the conference organization, churches, and people that are given to other branches of our work." The Review and Herald, June 8, 1905. Eight members of the Medical Missionary Council were appointed by the General Conference Committee; the remainder consisted of one representative of each union conference. Plans were laid for the launching, with greater intensity, of a health and temperance educational campaign through the world for the preparation of suitable literature and for a more thorough blending of medical and evangelical endeavor on the part of both the ministry and the physician.
The General Conference Medical Department
For several years this Medical Missionary Council functioned, but not with the highest degree of efficiency because the members were widely scattered and busy with other activities. In 1922, however, a full-time qualified physician was appointed as secretary of the General Conference Medical Department. He and his associates are assisted by local and union secretaries. Besides co-ordinating the various lines of institutional and professional endeavor, the department has been seeking earnestly to restore to its former emphasis the education of the laity in health principles. In reporting to the General Conference session of 1941, the secretary of the Medical Department set forth as one of its "major objectives and purposes" the promotion of "the teaching of simple, practical, balanced principles of physiology and hygiene in all our churches, schools, and wherever opportunity affords." The Review and Herald, June 3, 1941. To this end the Medical Department has for some years fostered home nursing classes. For the conducting of these, instructors have been authorized, and certificates have been issued to those who have completed the course.
An Expanding Temperance Program
In the meantime the cause of temperance was not neglected. In 1879 (as indicated on page 230) the American Health and Temperance Association was organized by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and thereafter did good work. But when the Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States was repealed in favor of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages, the temperance forces of the denomination, foreseeing the resultant evils of the liquor traffic in this country, strengthened themselves and at the Spring Council held in 1932 were reorganized as the American Temperance Society of Seventh-day Adventists. The Review and Herald, May 26, 1932, p. 8. Opportunities and efforts in behalf of temperance increased in both America and other lands until the need of reorganization presented itself again. Therefore, on January 27, 1947, the American Temperance Society was reorganized to foster the denominational temperance work in America. And at the same time the International Temperance Association was organized to supervise and promote the temperance work of the church in the whole world field. The Review and Herald, July 10, 1947, p. 17. Thus the contribution of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to the cause of temperance through the years constitutes an important part of the story of its health work.
Abundance of Health Literature
As a great aid in the conduct of health educational work, there has been a continuous stream of health literature from the presses of the denomination. From the beginning, in 1866, The Health Reformer--the name later changed to Good Health--served as the leading denominational health exponent until about 1904, when it passed from Seventh-day Adventist control. About that time the Pacific Health Journal, which for two decades had been published in California, was transferred to the East and renamed Life and Health. Its monthly visits to scores of thousands of homes continue to be a major factor in keeping before the minds of its readers the importance of giving proper attention to the laws of health. In 1932 another meritorious journal, bearing the name of Health, was initiated in California. This periodical was issued monthly until it was merged with Life and Health in 1948. In the latter part of the same year the magazine Listen, a quarterly publication, appeared under the auspices of the American Temperance Society to give added impetus to its program of mass education in temperance. Inestimable is the important role played by these publications, together with leaflets, books, and booklets sent out by the denominational publishing houses on the subject of health and missionary work.
The health principles as opened up to Mrs. Ellen G. White in vision, and set forth in the forty-page article entitled "Health," which appeared in 1864, and the six articles from her pen published in the six pamphlets under the title "How to Live," reached the larger number of Adventist homes of the early days.
As during succeeding years there were opened up to Mrs. White at different times various phases of the health message and the health work, counsels from her pen appeared in Testimonies for the Church, besides articles in various periodicals, including the health journals.
In the year 1890 there was published in Battle Creek, Michigan, a volume of joint authorship, entitled Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene. The Christian temperance part was written by Mrs. White; the second part, dealing with Bible hygiene, by Elder James White.
In 1896 a little volume entitled Healthful Living was compiled from the writings of Mrs. Ellen G. White by Dr. David Paulson. Its many paragraphs, drawn from Mrs. White's writings, set forth in terse form the outstanding health principles as they had been enunciated in the Spirit of prophecy writings.
Late in 1905 Mrs. White brought out her most comprehensive health work, The Ministry of Healing, which sets forth in general terms the great health principles that had been opened up to her in vision during the years. This book has attained a wide general circulation, and its message has been carried to many hundreds of thousands of people in various languages.
In order to make available the specific instruction to Seventh-day Adventist physicians, nurses, and institutional workers, Counsels on Health was published in the year 1923, being material gathered from published sources and compiled by those who carried the responsibility of the custody of the Ellen G. White writings.
Other New Volumes
A companion volume, Medical Ministry, issued in 1932, brings together counsel and instruction directed especially to physicians and other medical missionary workers at a time when they were but few, and these could be reached by documents sent out in manuscript form. As the medical missionary work had grown to many, many times its original size, it was felt that this instruction should be made available to the many professional workers today.
A fourth Spirit of prophecy volume dealing with health lines was published in 1938 and bears the title Counsels on Diet and Foods. This is a comprehensive compilation of the full realm of statements by Mrs. Ellen G. White on the subject of diet and foods, and represents not only that which had been published in pamphlets in earlier days, in periodical articles, and in books, but also many counsels from her manuscript files.
Another volume, a compilation consisting of 309 pages, was issued under the title Temperance in 1949. In her writings and her public discourses, Mrs. White stressed the importance of practicing temperance as a religious duty. A hundred pages of Selected Messages, Book Two, published in 1958, are devoted to health topics. Embodied here are the six E.G. White articles "Disease and Its Causes," published originally in 1865 in Health or How to Live, chapters dealing with drugs, simple remedies, and Mrs. White's experience in applying the health principles.
The wealth of instruction found in these volumes has been the guide and blueprint through the years in the conduct of the health work, and these books continue to keep this counsel before all who are engaged in these lines of service today. It is largely due to these writings that Seventh-day Adventists are a health-minded people teaching the great health principles, the importance of which though impressed upon this people through revelations has been substantiated by scientific research work.
The reasons for a change in living habits were clearly set forth by Mrs. Ellen G. White in 1890 in these words: "Let it ever be kept before the mind that the great object of hygienic reform is to secure the highest possible development of mind and soul and body. All the laws of nature--which are the laws of God--are designed for our good. Obedience to them will promote our happiness in this life and will aid us in a preparation for the life to come."--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 120. (Quoted in Counsels on Diet and Foods, 23.)
Deeply grateful as Seventh-day Adventists may well be for the blessings that have come to them individually, and to the progress of the message of truth they are endeavoring to give to the world, in the light of such earnest counsel candor compels us to ask the question as to whether or not the ideals of health education and practice have yet been reached.
It is obvious that there are many who have not gained the fullness of the blessing that an adoption of the principles of health reform would bring to them. Not a few have failed to appreciate the value of the wealth of counsel that has come to the church on this practical subject of everyday application. At times there has been on the part of some a careless attitude toward the physical laws that are ordained of God as verily as are the moral laws.
God's Ideals Not Yet Reached
"Many, even of those who profess to believe the special truths for this time, are lamentably ignorant with regard to health and temperance. They need to be educated, line upon line, precept upon precept. The subject must be kept fresh before them. This matter must not be passed over as nonessential, for nearly every family needs to be stirred up on the question. The conscience must be aroused to the duty of practicing the principles of true reform."--Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 117, 1890. (Quoted in Counsels on Health, 449.)
Of Israel of old it is said, "There was not one feeble person among their tribes." Psalm 105:37. Can it be the purpose of Him whose desire is that His people may prosper and be in health even as their souls prosper (3 John 1:2) that less than this should be said of the experience of the remnant who are preparing for translation with Jesus Christ when He shall return? Perhaps it may be expected that such an experience may be brought about by His healing power, in the days of special blessing before the church. But would it not be presumptuous to ask for such healing in behalf of those who, in the face of light, refuse to abstain from the "fleshly lusts that war against the soul" and also against the body?
There is food for serious reflection in the fact that a large percentage of well-qualified young people, who respond to calls for mission service overseas, must be rejected solely because of physical unfitness. Granted that in some cases these youth have not received the light on health reform in their childhood, and they are not blameworthy, yet the situation, in many instances, must indicate a background of habits that undermine the health of our youth. Never was there a time when there were so many appeals to the indulgence of appetite as today, and without going to an extreme of asceticism, many may do well to consider seriously their response to the light that has come from heaven in harmony with the principle so clearly enunciated by the Apostle Paul in the words: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31.
To Prepare Men to Meet Christ
The health work was not given alone for individual, personal benefit, but also as a means of awakening the interest and respect of others who may thus be prepared to listen to the message of the near advent of Christ. Thus has ever been kept before this people the place of the physician as an evangelist and the minister as a medical missionary. Note these words in regard to the responsibilities of the Christian physician:
"Christ has given us an example. He taught from the Scriptures the gospel truths, and He also healed the afflicted ones who came to Him for relief. He was the greatest physician the world ever knew, and yet He combined with His healing work the imparting of soul-saving truth.
"And thus should our physicians labor. They are doing the Lord's work when they labor as evangelists, giving instruction as to how the soul may be healed by the Lord Jesus. Every physician should know how to pray in faith for the sick, as well as to administer the proper treatment. At the same time he should labor as one of God's ministers, to teach repentance and conversion, and the salvation of soul and body. Such a combination of labor will broaden his experience and greatly enlarge his influence.
"One thing I know, the greatest work of our physicians is to get access to the people of the world in the right way. There is a world perishing in sin, and who will take up the work in our cities? The greatest physician is the one who walks in the footsteps of Jesus Christ."--Counsels on Health, 544.
And while in a professional way the physician will meet many to whom he can bring the message for these days, the minister has a great responsibility in knowing how to aid those who are physically in need.
"The minister will often be called upon to act the part of a physician. He should have a training that will enable him to administer the simpler remedies for the relief of suffering. Ministers and Bible workers should prepare themselves for this line of work, for in doing it they are following the example of Christ. They should be as well prepared by education and practice to combat disease of the body as they are to heal the sin-sick soul by pointing to the great Physician. They are fulfilling the commission Christ gave to the twelve and afterward to the seventy, 'Into whatsoever city ye enter, ... heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.' Christ stands by their side, as ready to heal the sick as when He was on this earth in person."--Medical Ministry, 253.
Laity to Do Medical Missionary Work
To lay members, as well as to physicians or gospel workers, is given the privilege of participating in Christian help work in their own homes and with neighbors and friends. This is the picture that is ever to stand before Seventh-day Adventists as the place of the health message committed to them. This calls for careful study, that every worker and every church member may be intelligent in regard to health principles in the care of the sick. It calls for loyalty, in personal life, in following those principles which are ordained of God for the physical and spiritual well-being.
In the earlier days, when the instruction regarding healthful living came to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, there were but one or two physicians among them. That instruction was then cherished as a wonderful blessing by the many comprising the church membership. With the training of professional doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, and dietitians, there is danger that the responsibility of heeding this instruction--and with it the blessings following obedience--will be regarded as not for the many, but for the comparatively few. And those who do become experts in the knowledge of health principles have constantly before them the temptation to become first professional and then commercial.
There is another grave danger, that in striving to meet requirements and standards imposed by registering bodies, some may lose sight of, or regard lightly, the cherished heritage of instruction which called the medical missionary work into being, and which has sustained it through the years.
An Important Injunction
To all, whether lay or professional, comes the injunction, no less forceful today than when it was penned more than seventy years ago: "The health reform is one branch of the great work which is to fit a people for the coming of the Lord. It is as closely connected with the third angel's message as the hand is with the body. ... To make plain natural law, and urge the obedience of it, is the work that accompanies the third angel's message to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord."--Testimonies for the Church 3:161.
The medical missionary work is much broader than that which can be estimated by the number of institutions or of workers graduated. Many a mother in the home, who has intelligently planned a wholesome, appetizing diet for her husband and her children, who has provided for their comfort and their health, or in times of illness has given simple treatments to the members of her family, or to neighbors, may be numbered among the ranks of faithful medical missionaries. It is in the light of this suggestion that we may better understand the statement that at first might seem difficult of comprehension:
"We have come to a time when every member of the church should take hold of medical missionary work. The world is a lazar house filled with victims of both physical and spiritual disease. Everywhere people are perishing for lack of a knowledge of the truths that have been committed to us. The members of the church are in need of an awakening, that they may realize their responsibility to impart these truths."--Testimonies for the Church 7:62. (Italics mine.)
Seventh-day Adventists have for many years been looking forward to the time when the earth should be lightened with the glory of God, when with mighty, divine power the message of Christ's imminent return should so stir the world that there would be seen a repetition of the scenes of Pentecost. As one of the contributing factors to this experience, the medical missionary work is to come even more prominently than ever before to the front.
"As we near the close of time, we must rise higher and still higher upon the question of health reform and Christian temperance, presenting it in a more positive and decided manner. We must strive continually to educate the people, not only by our words but by our practice. Precept and practice combined have a telling influence."--Testimonies for the Church 6:112.
"Life Is Full of Opportunities"
As a people preparing for translation, seeking to perfect that "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14), none can afford to ignore the close relation of physical habits with spiritual attainments.
"He who cherishes the light which God has given him upon health reform has an important aid in the work of becoming sanctified through the truth and fitted for immortality. But if he disregards that light and lives in violation of natural law, he must pay the penalty; his spiritual powers are benumbed, and how can he perfect holiness in the fear of God?"--Counsels on Health, 22.
In individual practice of health principles and in the dissemination of health education, not as an end in itself but as a part of the divine law given that we may live the more abundant life, there is constant room for growth and development. We are indeed seeing, but we have not yet completely reached, the climax portrayed in the words of instruction:
"Life is full of opportunities for practical missionaries. Every man, woman, and child can sow each day the seeds of kind words and unselfish deeds. We shall see the medical missionary work broadening and deepening at every point of its progress, because of the inflowing of hundreds and thousands of streams, until the whole earth is covered as the waters cover the sea."--Medical Ministry, 317.