Health Messages

Health Messages

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A Call to Medical Evangelism   Health Messages

A clarion call to medical evangelism is due at this time. Thousands, yes, tens of thousands of people today are asleep to the condition of their spiritual and their physical health. They are far from the better way of life and do

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 not sense their peril. Faithful watchmen are needed to point out the way of health and holiness. {CME 5.1}

The call to medical evangelism is first given Seventh-day Adventists in the example of Christ in his own ministry and in his gospel commission to the church. He “who went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil,” showed that true evangelism comprehends ministry to physical needs as well as to spiritual. {CME 5.2}

The history of the Advent movement has been characterized by a dual ministry. Health and temperance work has always been a part of world evangelism. Many important reforms in healthful living are recognized as being closely interwoven with the Advent gospel message. Pointing the way to a full observance of God’s law has included the recognition of the laws of health.{CME 5.3}    Health Messages
In the development of the medical missionary interests, institutions have been established and numerous educational centers and many training facilities have been provided for teaching the ways of right living and for fitting men and women to help others. {CME 5.4}   Health Messages
But again there rings in Adventist ears the command, “go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” {CME 5.5}  Health Messages
A forward step is imperative; a new note must be struck. Thousands of laymen must now hear and repeat the call to medical missionary evangelism. Hundreds of nurses who have had a thorough training in denominational sanitariums should engage in medical evangelism, and with some additional training they could be leaders in the work. Scores of young men should qualify to be lecturers. Physicians should sense fully their responsibility of imparting the message of health and temperance in talks andlectures in Adventist churches and before non-Adventist audiences in the great cities. Ministers should lead out as organizers and teachers of bands of young evangelists. {CME 5.6}  Health Messages
 
For the successful prosecution of this work, lecture materials, books on health and temperance, and instruction regarding the organization and conduct of health and home nursing classes have been provided. Those who take up this work should seek counsel and help from conference leaders. {CME 6.1}  Health Messages
 
The messenger of the Lord through her current books, Review and Herald articles, and manuscripts calls the entire church to medical evangelism. May the study of these stirring messages lead to a great advance movement among Seventh-day Adventists in medical missionary work and medical evangelism. {CME 6.2}
General Conference Medical Department.
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Healthful Living

The purpose of this little work is to present in the most concise and condensed form possible the various teachings upon the subjects of health, health reform, and allied matters, which are to be found in the writings of Mrs.

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 E. G. White. The numerous paragraphs which have been brought together in this volume have been selected from many thousands of printed pages which have appeared in various forms from Mrs. White’s pen, within the last thirty-four years, and in addition a large mass of manuscript which has never before appeared in print. {HL 3.1}  Health Messages

 The compilers of the work have not attempted to make it exhaustive as regards subject matter, but rather to make it comprehensively representative of the principles of hygienic and sanitary reform which have been set forth in the writings referred to. {HL 3.2}  Health Messages

 In the selection of paragraphs relating to each particular phase of the great question considered, an effort has been made to avoid unnecessary repetition, yet in a few instances, to render the thought more clear, the repetition of brief, pointed sentences has been allowed. The most conscientious care has been exercised in the making of extracts, to preserve the proper setting of the thought expressed. To do this without circumlocution has required, in a few instances, slight verbal changes in connecting words or phrases, but not in a single instance has the thought expressed been modified in the slightest degree. {HL 3.3}  Health Messages

It is believed that those whose knowledge of the writings from which these excerpts have been drawn has inspired confidence in them as a source of important truths, will appreciate this volume as a ready reference book in which can be easily found, by the aid of the table of contents and the index, a larger number of seed thoughts and clear expressions of fundamental principles upon the subjects treated than in any other volume of similar size which has ever appeared in print. To save space, abbreviations have been employed in the place of the titles of well-known works. These are explained on page 8. {HL 3.4}

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Medical Ministry

How to preserve and to improve health, how to prevent and to treat sickness, are truly living, vital problems in the medical world today. Never before in the history of the human family have these great questions received the

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earnest, intensive, scientific study and wide publicity that are being given them at the present hour. Medical science in all its ramifications has made marvelous progress during the last half century. It would require a volume to enumerate and explain the discoveries, the development, and achievement, that have been made in this great department of human interest and welfare. The knowledge that has been gained in the exhaustive study of these fundamental subjects has been given to the public in highly scientific and technical volumes, and in simpler form in books, magazines, newspapers, and lectures. {MM v.1}

This volume, entitled Medical Ministry, is one more valuable contribution to the world’s needs in the domain of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. It is unique in its scope. It recognizes and commends the truly scientific in the causes and treatment of diseases. It places strong emphasis upon the observance of all that relates to the prevention of ailments. And still more, the writer of this volume recognizes that sin, the transgression of divine law, is the primary cause of disease, sickness, and death. {MM v.2}  Health Messages

Believing that the transgression of moral law leads to the disregard of physical and mental laws, the writer places very great importance upon obedience to moral law as one of the primary conditions necessary for perfect health. And obedience to moral law, it is urged, can be rendered only through the acceptance of, and union with, Christ, the redeemer of man ruined through transgression. Hence it is claimed that the perfect remedy for the ills of mankind is the combination, appreciation, and observance of the spiritual, the mental, and the physical laws of our being. {MM v.3}  Health Messages
It is this wide, all-inclusive scope of instruction set forth in Medical Ministry that commends it so highly to the public. This instruction is not technical. It can be understood by laymen. The requirements laid down for spiritual, mental, and physicalHealth and happiness are so rational that they can be complied with. That which relates to the prevention of sickness is of especial value; for, as an old adage tells us, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. {MM v.4}  Health Messages
The writer of this book, Mrs. E. G. White, devoted nearly seventy years of her very earnest, active life to the gospel ministry. In her youth she was an invalid. In her early married life she battled with a weak heart, with cancer, and with other ailments. At the age of thirty-six she experienced a great awakening on the subject of temperance as it relates to health, to physical and mental efficiency, and to Christian living. The rigid application of the knowledge gained regarding the laws of mind and body brought great relief and restoration to her, and from that time on to the close of her arduous labors, a period of nearly fifty years, she was an earnest exponent of the principles of health and temperance. {MM vi.1}  Health Messages
In 1865 Mrs. E. G. White made an appeal to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, of which she was a member, to establish a medical institution in which the sick should be given rational, drugless treatment for their ills, and also where they should be given instruction regarding the laws of health. In response, such an institution was established in Battle Creek, Michigan. This undertaking met with great success. The institution grew into large proportions, and for nearly a half century it has been favorably and widely known as the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Through subsequent years many similar sister sanitariums have been established in different parts of the United States and in many other countries of the world. {MM vi.2}  Health Messages
The Trustees of Mrs. White’s Estate, having found in her letters and manuscript files many documents heretofore unpublished which contain valuable instruction for physicians, nurses, sanitarium managers, helpers, gospel evangelists, and Christian workers, believe that this valuable counsel should be sent forth to the public. It is our sincere hope that this volume may prove a great blessing to its readers, and through them, to a great multitude to whom they may minister. {MM vi.3}
A. G. Daniells
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Testimony Studies on Diet and Food

This volume has been prepared to be used as a textbook for the study of healthful diet and the instruction pertaining to foods as set forth in the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy. {TSDF 8.1}  Health Messages

Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods

This series of lessons is not intended to take the place of any printed volume or compilation of the testimonies. In making up these studies an effort has been made to secure and include as much as possible of all that has been written specifically on the subjects treated. The subject matter has been arranged for a topical study which accounts for the repetition found through the book, for one paragraph in the testimonies often refers to several topics, and the plan has been to include enough in each quotation to give the reader the proper setting for each reference. {TSDF 8.2}
It will be observed that many selections have been taken from the older volumes of the Spirit of Prophecy that are not now generally available, and there is much instruction in these that the student of dietetics will highly prize. In this compilation selections from various manuscripts and letters that are of unusual value and interest are also presented. Any of this material taken from manuscripts or letters can be verified by sending the reference given to Elder W. C. White, at the Elmshaven Office, St. Helena, Calif. {TSDF 8.3}  Health Messages
The health reform movement began early in the history of this denomination, and great benefit came to those who accepted the instruction and faithfully lived in accordance with it. It is to be regretted that some did not regard it as essential and that many are today not living in harmony with these divinely given principles. Scientific researches have in recent years shown that these rules for healthful living are correct, and how thankful this people should be for such wonderful light so far in advance of what the world could offer and which has proved to be of such great help in the life both physically and spiritually. All should be inspired with full confidence in these rules for healthful living. {TSDF 8.4}  Health Messages
There are some who have gotten radical and extreme views from their reading of the instruction given, but such have failed to study thoroughly, with an open mind, all of the instruction, and have therefore been unable to view the matter, as it is, a broad, well-balanced whole. “There is real common sense in health reform.” {TSDF 8.5}  Health Messages
It is our earnest hope that this volume will contribute something toward a more comprehensive knowledge of this phase of the health message, and that all who study these writings will become imbued with a love for them and will live in harmony with them and teach them until Jesus appears to receive unto himself all those who have made a covenant with Him. {TSDF 8.6}
We are greatly indebted to Elder W. C. White and Dr. Mary McReynolds for their help in securing material and their valuable suggestions in making up this collection. {TSDF 8.7}
College of Medical Evangelists.
Compiled by Harold M. Walton.
January 5, 1926.
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Counsels on Diet and Food

How This Book Came to Be

Counsels on Diet and Food

Decades before many physiologists were concerned with the close relationship between diet and health, Ellen G. White in her writings clearly pointed out the connection between the food we eat and our physical and spiritual welfare. In her discourses and writings from 1863 onward, she discussed frequently the importance of diet and adequate nutrition. Her counsels, as preserved in pamphlets and books, in the journals of the denomination, and in personal testimonies, have exerted a strong influence on the dietetic habits of Seventh-day Adventists, and indirectly have left their impress upon the general public. {CD 3.1}  Health Messages
Mrs. White’s writings regarding foods and a healthful diet were drawn together in 1926 in a topically arranged work designed to serve primarily as a textbook for students of dietetics at the College of Medical Evangelists at Loma Linda. This initial printing, titled Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods, was soon exhausted. {CD 3.2}  Health Messages
A new and enlarged volume, titled Counsels on Diet and Foods, Appeared in 1938. It was referred to as a “second edition,” and was prepared under the direction of the Board of Trustees of the Ellen G. White Estate. A third edition, printed in a smaller page size to conform to the requirements of the Christian Home Library series, was published in 1946. The present edition is the fourth, and involves no change in text or pagination. {CD 3.3}  Health Messages

This Is a Unique Compilation In assembling the materials comprising Counsels on Diet and Foods, an effort was made to include the full range of instruction on the subject from Mrs. White’s pen. The resulting compilation is unique among the Ellen G. White books, for it presents the counsels clustered topically under a general heading, with no attempt to provide a continuity in reading. {CD 3.4}  Health Messages

Each section contains the E. G. White materials that, assembled, make a representative presentation of the topic dealt with. Nothing that would make a substantial contribution has been ignored. Often in the original sources many phases of health instruction are treated together in one paragraph. To give all the context in such cases would have involved considerable repetition. Through the use of cross references such repetition is minimized. {CD 4.1}  Health Messages
While the limitations of space and the effort to avoid repetition have made it inadvisable to include every statement on the more general phases of the diet question, a complete and comprehensive presentation of the E. G. White teachings has been given. {CD 4.2}
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Counsels on Health

In the lobby of the white memorial hospital, which was founded in memory of the writer of the “Counsels” which compose this book, is a bronze tablet bearing the inscription: {CH 1.1}  Health Messages

Counsels on Health

“This hospital is dedicated to the memory of Ellen Gould White, whose long life was unselfishly devoted to the alleviation of the woes and sorrows of the sick, the suffering, and the needy; and to inspiring young men and women to consecrate their lives to the work of him who said, ‘Heal the sick.’” {CH 1.2}  Health Messages
To those who knew Mrs. White these words are freighted with tender memories of almost countless incidents in the life of that most kindly soul. Of the women who have lived in modern days, no other, in all probability, has exercised so deep and lasting an influence upon the lives of her fellows as Ellen G. White. In no realm were her teachings more far-reaching and thorough than in that relating to the care of the body—the temple of the Holy Spirit. {CH 1.3}  Health Messages
From many and varied sources, during the last half century, a flood of light has been thrown upon this important theme. From out the mind of the renowned Pasteur came shafts of light of brilliant and penetrating power on matters relating to health and disease. From him the world received its knowledge of bacteria, the causative factors of so many diseases. From Louis Pasteur came the cure that conquered anthrax, that devastating sickness afflicting both man and beast. He it was whose unremitting toil culminated in the discovery of a cure for hydrophobia, one of the most dread diseases of all the ages. {CH 1.4}  Health Messages
Lord Lister, by applying the principles of Pasteur to the operating room, made surgery safe for mankind. His genius transformed hospitals from being shambles of horror and gangrene to places of comfort and cure. He demonstrated that pus in surgical wounds is unnecessary, and reduced surgical mortality to a relatively insignificant figure. {CH 1.5}  Health Messages
Then there was Semmelweiss, the obstetrician, to whom Kugelmann wrote: “with few exceptions the world has crucified and burned its benefactors. I hope you will not grow weary in the honorable fight which still remains before you.” It was this Semmelweiss who wrestled with the dread monster of puerperal fever, and through whose brain there throbbed the queries: “Why do these mothers die? What is childbirth fever?” His efforts cost his life, but he conquered the fearful malady. {CH 2.1}  Health Messages
And I might continue to tell of the blessings the world has received at the hands of many others, from Koch, Ehrlich, Nicolaier, Kitasato, Von Behring, Flexner, Ronald Ross, and many another. But to Ellen G. White a different role was given. While her lifework and teaching were in harmony with truly scientific medicine, it was in the realm of the spiritual side of the healing art that she shone with a brilliance of holy luster. In the matter of appealing to men and women to regard their bodies as a sacred trust from the Highest One, and to obey the laws of nature and of nature’s God, she stands without a peer. She it was who exalted the sacredness of the body and the necessity of bringing all the appetites and passions under the control of an enlightened conscience. Others emphasized science in health; to her it was left to impress the spiritual in the treatment of the temple of the body. {CH 2.2}  Health Messages
No other one of modern day has entered this field of spiritual endeavor to anything like the extent she did. Her efforts were tireless from the days of her young womanhood to the hour of her death at a very advanced age. In books, in magazine articles, in papers, in tracts and pamphlets, she constantly and unswervingly called men and women, old and young, in clarion tones, to a more rational, a higher, purer plane of spiritual living. From the platform in churches and lecture halls, at convocations and conferences, her voice was continually heard urging the need of consecrated, Christian living in things relating to the body and its care. Others brought to light scientific facts concerning disease, its cause, and its cure; Ellen G. White drove home those facts on the spiritual side to the innermost citadel of the souls of men and women. {CH 2.3}  Health Messages
It is fitting, therefore, that though she sleeps in her quiet grave, her tired hands folded across the sainted breast, her works should follow her. It is meet that in this volume her “Counsels” should live, to bless, to fortify, and to direct the lives of those who seek to point their fellow beings to that blest One who alone has healing in His wings. {CH 3.1}  Health Messages
It was the apostle Paul who wrote in his second letter to the youthful Timothy: {CH 3.2}  Health Messages
“In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” {CH 3.3}  Health Messages
Paul wrote especially concerning the members of the Lord’s church. But how wonderfully applicable also are the words to the human stones which form the structure of the great house of the healing art on earth today! In it there are doctors and nurses of gold, and doctors and nurses of silver, doctors and nurses of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. To purify the great house of healing, to help to mold it after the similitude of the Mighty Healer, is the object of “Counsels.” {CH 3.4}
In this sordid day, when everything that was once sacred is being commercialized, when the golden calf is being worshiped on every hand, there are and ever will be some men and women wistfully longing for the highest ideals that properly belong with a profession second in sacredness only to the ministry of the word of God. In the hope and with the simple prayer that this volume may contribute to the purest and most unselfish profession of medicine, it is now launched upon its mission. {CH 4.1}
Percy T. Magan.
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The Health Food Ministry

This collection of statements from the pen of Ellen G. White has been assembled to provide in one convenient source the principal counsels relating to the production and distribution of foods as a part of the work of the

Health food Ministry

 church. {HFM 3.1}  Health Messages

For a period of about ten years, beginning with 1898, the Lord sent through his servant many messages of encouragement, instruction, counsel, and warning regarding this work. In 1902 Testimonies for the Church Volume VII appeared, in which was included a section on the health food work. This section deals comprehensively with the principles that were outlined previous to that time. {HFM 3.2}  Health Messages

After the publication of Volume VII, there developed in the food work new conditions which called forth many later messages of counsel and instruction. On the request of Loma Linda Foods the White Estate in 1934 made these counsels available in a fifty-five page mimeographed document. This document—Health Food Ministry—now draws together the counsels from both sources, first the materials from Volume VII, and then the later statement. {HFM 3.3}  Health Messages
As the 1934 compilation from the manuscripts was intended to be supplementary to that printed in Volume VII, the manuscripts from which that instruction was taken are not here included. Other statements that closely parallel the subject matter selected for the mimeographed document have also been omitted. There are still some repetitions of thought which are retained because of certain striking statements or forms of expression that seem to make each one of special value. Because much of the instruction was called forth by conditions as they arose, the materials in section two appear in chronological arrangement rather than topical. A few fillers have been inserted out of chronological order because of their close relation to certain other paragraphs. {HFM 3.4}
As a help to the reader, a topical outline has been prepared covering the principal points of instruction, each item being followed by references to the pages where these topics appear. {HFM 4.1} Health Messages
The reader will note that in all these messages, emphasis is placed upon the value of health food work as a soul-winning agency. Its possibilities for good are clearly pointed out. As this work developed to large proportions, however, it was found necessary to add cautions against commercialism, heavy investments, entering into binding contracts, and permitting it to absorb talent that should be devoted more directly to evangelizing efforts. {HFM 4.2}  Health Messages
This compilation should serve as a helpful guide in the laying and execution of plans for making the health food work what God designed it to be, and to shun the pitfalls that would destroy its usefulness and make it a hindrance rather than a help to the evangelization of the world. {HFM 4.3}
The Trustees of the Ellen G. White Estate

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Ministry of Healing

The world is sick, and wherever the children of men dwell, suffering abounds. On every hand there is a seeking for relief. {MH 7.1}

Ministry of Healing

It is not the Creator’s purpose that mankind shall be weighed down with a burden of pain, that his activities shall be curtailed by illness, that his strength wane, and his life be cut short by disease. But all too frequently the laws established by God to govern the life are flagrantly transgressed; sin enters the heart, and man loses sight of his dependence upon God, the source of life and health. Then follow the penalties of transgression—pain, sickness, death. {MH 7.2}  Health Messages
To understand the physical laws governing the body and to bring the life practices into harmony with these laws is a duty of first importance. There is a need for an understanding of the many factors contributing to true happiness—a cheerful home, obedience to the laws of life, proper relationship to one’s fellow men. {MH 7.3}  Health Messages
When sickness comes, it is essential that we employ the varied agencies which, in co-operation with nature’s efforts, will build up the body and restore the health. There is, also, a larger and more vitally important question—that of our relationship to the Creator who originally gave man his life, who made every provision for his continued happiness, and who today is interested in his welfare. {MH 7.4}  Health Messages
In this volume, the author, a woman of large experience in the practical affairs of life, and one particularly favored with rare insight and knowledge, has brought within the reach of every father and mother, every man and woman, lay and professional, a vast fund of information on life and its laws, on health and its requisites, on disease and its remedies, on the sickness of the soul and the healing balm of Gilead. {MH 7.5}  Health Messages
The book is written in clear, simple, beautiful language, instructive to the learner, hopeful to the despondent, cheering to the sick, and restful to the weary. Through several decades it has conveyed its helpful message to hundreds of thousands, as it has been issued and reissued in many lands, in a dozen of the world’s leading languages. {MH 8.1}  Health Messages
That this work, which presents a better way, revealing to us a simpler, sweeter life, full of joy and gladness, with room for that helpful service which “it is more blessed to give than to receive,” may fully accomplish its mission is the sincere hope of the publishers and {MH 8.2}  Health Messages
The Trustees of the Ellen G. White Publications.
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Ministry of Health and Healing

The world is sick. Wherever people live, suffering abounds. No wonder, then, that the search for relief from sickness and disease is intense! {MHH 5.1}

Ministry of Health and Healing

It is not the Creator’s purpose that members of the human family should be weighed down with a burden of pain, that their activities should be curtailed by illness, that their strength wane, and their life be cut short by disease. But all too frequently the laws established by God to govern life are violated, sin enters the heart, and people lose sight of their dependence upon God, the Source of life and health. Then follow the penalties of transgressing God’s laws—pain, sickness, death. {MHH 5.2}  Health Messages
God wants us to understand the laws that govern the body. He wants us to bring our life practices into harmony with those laws. This is a duty of prime importance. We need to understand the many factors that contribute to true happiness—a cheerful home, obedience to the laws of life, and proper relationships to other people. {MHH 5.3}  Health Messages
When sickness comes, it is essential that we employ the varied agencies that, in cooperation with nature’s efforts, will build up the body and restore health. There is also a larger and more important question—that of our relationship to the Creator who in the beginning gave life to human beings, who made every provision for their continued happiness, and who today is still deeply interested in their welfare. {MHH 5.4}  Health Messages
In this volume, the author has brought within the reach of every man and woman, lay and professional, every father and mother, every boy and girl, a vast fund of helpful information on life and its laws, on obtaining health and keeping it, on disease and its remedies, on sin and the healing of the soul. {MHH 5.5}  Health Messages
For one hundred years this book has provided instruction on how to acquire maximum physical and spiritual health, thus bringing hope to the despondent, cheer to the sick, and rest to the weary. It has been issued and reissued in many countries and has been translated into more than thirty of the world’s leading languages. {MHH 5.6}  Health Messages
The message and the truths set forth in the first edition one hundred years ago remain unchanged in the present volume. However, inasmuch as social customs and language styles have changed considerably during the past century, the present text is, in a sense, a twenty-first century “translation.” Gender-inclusive language has been adopted, words with current meanings have been substituted for words that might be misunderstood or have little meaning today, and some sentence structures have been modernized. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible. {MHH 5.7}  Health Messages
As the many new translations of the Bible have created a fresh interest in the Holy Scriptures, we believe that this edition, prepared in the offices of the White Estate at the request of the General Conference Health Ministries Department, will be warmly welcomed. We believe it will enable a new generation of readers to benefit physically and spiritually by its timeless, inspired message. {MHH 6.1}  Health Messages
That this work, which sets forth a way of life that offers abounding health and involves unselfish service, may fully accomplish its mission is the sincere hope of the publishers and {MHH 6.2}
The Trustees of the
Ellen G. White Estate.
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Temperance

Temperance was a favorite theme of Mrs. Ellen G. White, both in her writings and in public discourse. In many of her articles which appeared in denominational journals through the years, and in manuscripts and letters of

Temperance

 counsel addressed to both workers and laity, she urged Seventh-day Adventists to practice temperance and to promote vigorously the temperance cause. In response to earnest requests that this wealth of material and instruction should be made available in a single volume, this handbook has been prepared by authorization of the Ellen G. White publications, to whom Mrs. White committed the custody of her books and manuscripts. {Te 5.1}  Health Messages

These selections have been drawn from the whole range of Mrs. White’s writings on this subject, including some now out of print, such as the following: Health, or How to Live (1865); Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene (1890); Special Testimonies (1892-1912); and Drunkenness and Crime (1907). {Te 5.2}  Health Messages
Both in the outline and in the content of subject matter, the compilers have earnestly sought to reflect the emphasis which the author placed on the various phases of temperance. {Te 5.3}  Health Messages
The effort to gather such selections as would set forth her full contribution on this subject, and the desire to make quite complete the various sections on the different phases of the temperance question have naturally resulted in some repetition of thought. In the endeavor to present the subject matter in an orderly way so as to be of greatest service to the reader, and at the same time to avoid undue repetition, rather brief selections have sometimes been made. However, in omitting the context, great care has been exercised to alter in no way the thought or the emphasis of the author. In each case full source credit is given to the book, periodical, pamphlet, or manuscript from which the excerpt is taken. {Te 5.4}  Health Messages
The readers will recognize that Ellen G. White, having died in 1915, did her writing in a period when some terminology was quite different from that commonly employed today, and when detailed descriptions of conditions might vary from that with which we are now familiar. For instance, reference is made to the saloon. While the liquor dispensary of today may differ from the saloon of fifty years ago, everyone knows that the same types of beverages are dispensed that were used at the time in which Mrs. White wrote, and that their effects upon the body, mind, and soul are the same. The relationship between the use of alcohol and automobile accidents was not stressed as it should be today, for the simple reason that automobiles were not then in common use. However, the reader will find set forth in statements concerning the use of alcohol and accidents a description of causes and effects which are fully applicable to present-day conditions. The power of alcohol to undermine the home, to wreck the health, to ruin the morals, and to destroy the soul is as potent now as it was a half century ago. {Te 6.1}  Health Messages
The reader will quickly discern the significance of temperance as it was presented to Mrs. White through the long years of her rich ministry. In this respect this volume makes an invaluable contribution to temperance literature. The temperance sermons found in the appendix typify Mrs. White’s intense burden to save humanity from the soul-destroying curse of intemperance. {Te 6.2}  Health Messages
That this volume may, under God’s blessings, accomplish a work of revitalizing the interests of Seventh-day Adventists in temperance and the temperance work and lead us to our heaven-assigned position in the forefront of temperance forces is the sincere wish of the Publishers. {Te 6.3}
The Trustees of the
Ellen G. White Publications.
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Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene

Nearly thirty years ago there appeared in print the first of a series of remarkable and important articles on the subject of health, by Mrs. E. G. White. These articles at once commanded earnest consideration by those who

Temperance and bible hygiene

 were acquainted with Mrs. White’s previous writings and labors. Thousands were led to change life-long habits, and to renounce practices thoroughly fixed by heredity as well as by long indulgence. So great a revolution could not be wrought in a body of people without the aid of some powerful incentive, which in this case was undoubtedly the belief that the writings referred to not only bore the stamp of truth, but were indorsed as such by a higher than human authority. This is not the proper place for the consideration of the grounds upon which this belief was based, but the reader’s attention is invited to a few facts of interest in this connection: {CTBH iii.1}Health Messages

1. At the time the writings referred to first appeared, the subject of health was almost wholly ignored, not only by the people to whom they were addressed, but by the world at large. {CTBH iii.2}  Health Messages
2. The few advocating the necessity of a reform in physical habits, propagated in connection with the advocacy of genuine reformatory principles the most patent and in some instances disgusting errors. {CTBH iii.3}  Health Messages
3. Nowhere, and by no one, was there presented a systematic and harmonious body of hygienic truths, free from patent errors, and consistent with the Bible and the principles of the Christian religion. {CTBH iii.4}  Health Messages
Under these circumstances, the writings referred to made their appearance. The principles taught were not enforced by scientific authority, but were presented in a simple, straightforward manner by one who makes no pretense to scientific knowledge, but claims to write by the aid and authority of the divine enlightenment. {CTBH iii.5}   Health Messages
How have the principles presented under such peculiar circumstances and with such remarkable claims stood the test of time and experience? Is a question which may very properly be asked. Its answer is to be found in facts which are capable of the amplest verification. The principles presented have been put to the test of practical experience by thousands; and whenever intelligently and consistently carried out, the result has been found in the highest degree satisfactory. Thousands have testified to physical, mental, and moral benefits received. Many of the principles taught have come to be so generally adopted and practiced that they are no longer recognized as reforms, and may, in fact, be regarded as prevalent customs among the more intelligent classes. The principles which a quarter of a century ago were either entirely ignored or made the butt of ridicule, have quietly won their way into public confidence and esteem, until the world has quite forgotten that they have not always been thus accepted. New discoveries in science and new interpretations of old facts have continually added confirmatory evidence, until at the present time every one of the principles advocated more than a quarter of a century ago is fortified in the strongest possible manner by scientific evidence. {CTBH iii.6}  Health Messages
Finally, the reformatory movement based upon the principles advocated so long ago has lived and prospered until the present time, and the institutions developed by it have grown to be the most extensive and the most prosperous establishments of the sort in the world; while other efforts, looking somewhat in the same direction, but contaminated by error, have either abandoned the principles of truth, and been given over to error, or have fallen into obscurity. It certainly must be regarded as a thing remarkable, and evincing unmistakable evidence of divine insight and direction, that in the midst of confused and conflicting teachings, claiming the authority of science and experience, but warped by ultra notions and rendered impotent for good by the great admixture of error,—it must be admitted to be something extraordinary, that a person making no claims to scientific knowledge or erudition should have been able to organize, from the confused and error-tainted mass of ideas advanced by a few writers and thinkers on health subjects, a body of hygienic principles so harmonious, so consistent, and so genuine that the discussions, the researches, the discoveries, and the experience of a quarter of a century have not resulted in the overthrow of a single principle, but have only served to establish the doctrines taught. {CTBH iv.1}   Health Messages
The guidance of infinite wisdom is as much needed in discerning between truth and error as in the evolution of new truths. Novelty is by no means a distinguishing characteristic of true principles, and the principle holds good as regards the truths of hygienic reform, as well as those of other reformatory movements. The greatest and most important reformatory movements of modern times have not been those which presented new facts and principles, but those which revived truths and principles long forgotten, and which have led the way back to the paths trodden by men of by-gone ages, before the world had wandered so far away from physical and moral rectitude. {CTBH iv.2}   Health Messages
Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? 2 Corinthians 2:14-16. {CTBH iv.3}   Health Messages
The purpose in the preparation of this volume has been to gather together, in a condensed form, writings which were scattered through various volumes, and some that have never before appeared in print, so that the teachings of Mrs. White upon this subject might reach as large a number as possible of those for whom they were specially intended; and it is confidently believed that the work will receive a cordial reception, and the earnest consideration which its importance demands.{CTBH iv.4}
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