The Story of our Health Message

To Teach the People

In the vision of December 25, 1863, where the need for a health institution among Seventh-day Adventists was presented, the plant called for was to be “a home for the sick, where they could be treated for their diseases, and also learn how to take care of themselves so as to prevent sickness.” Testimonies for the Church 1:553. SHM 236.3

Writing to the ministry at that time, Mrs. White had declared that one important part of their work was “to faithfully present to the people the health reform, as it stands connected with the third angel’s message.” They were to “urge it upon all who profess to believe the truth.” Ibid., 469, 470. SHM 236.4

In response to the earnest appeal of Mrs. White at the General Conference of 1866, the delegates had pledged themselves not only to live in accordance with the health principles, but to use their “best endeavors to impress their importance upon others.” The Review and Herald, May 22, 1866. SHM 236.5

Two years later, at the General Conference held in May, 1868, the delegates expressed their conviction that “the cause of health reform among our people demands that labor and attention which our preachers cannot bestow in connection with their other arduous labors.” The Review and Herald, May 26, 1868. To meet this demand a graduate physician, Dr. M. G. Kellogg, was appointed to labor “in that department of the great work of preparation for the coming of the Son of man.” (Ibid.) SHM 237.1

The one thus selected was the son of J. P. Kellogg, the first to subscribe for stock in the Western Health Reform Institute (which was renamed as the Medical and Surgical Sanitarium) and an older brother of J. H. Kellogg. Some years prior to this he had joined a group of emigrants en route to California. There he was earning a good wage, but now he had left his business, sold his home, and used the proceeds to secure a medical training. “I did this,” he wrote, “because I believed the work of health reform was of God, and that God had a work for me to do in the message.” (Letter to Mrs. E. G. White, July 16, 1868.) SHM 237.2

Elder and Mrs. White questioned him closely when he came to Battle Creek, after he had taken the medical course at Dr. Trall’s Medical College at Florence Heights, New Jersey. They were fearful that he would bring with him some ideas that were “objectionable, either in theory or in zeal to carry some points to extremes,” but in this matter they were, Elder White wrote, “happily disappointed.” On the contrary, he said, “The harmony between what the Lord has revealed relative to this subject, and science, has been a theme of most interesting conversation, and mutual profit.”—The Review and Herald, April 28, 1868. SHM 237.3