The Story of our Health Message

Tea and Coffee Tabooed

God’s servants did continue their earnest work for several years. At the close of the publication of a series of eleven long and able articles on tobacco which were from the pen of L. B. Coles, M.D., Elder Uriah Smith, the editor of the Review and Herald, wrote in 1864: “Let none infer from the publication of the present series of articles on tobacco, that our people are especially addicted to this habit. We are happy to know that as a general thing those who were in its use when they embraced the truth, have broken away from the evil. But we cannot be any too thoroughly fortified on this subject, and especially should it be kept before the people, so long as there is the least vestige of the unclean and unchristian habit hanging about any.”—Ibid., October 4, 1864. SHM 70.1

Although the principal emphasis during these years of effort to cleanse the church was upon tobacco, tea and coffee were frequently mentioned. Not alone had the evil of tobacco been pointed out in the vision of 1848, but also attention was directed to the “injurious effects” of “tea and coffee.” In leading the people to reform, leaders emphasized the fact that these common beverages were not only valueless and injurious but also constituted a waste of means. Note the dual basis for the appeal of Mrs. Ellen G. White in a statement published in January, 1854: SHM 70.2

“If all would study to be more economical in their articles of dress, depriving themselves of some things which are not actually necessary, and should lay aside such useless and injurious things as tea and coffee, giving to the cause what these cost; they would receive more blessings here, and a reward in heaven.”—Early Writings, 121, 122. (Originally published in January, 1854, in Supplement to the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, 42.) SHM 70.3

Only a few days after the publication of the foregoing statement the obligation of another advance step in reform was presented to Mrs. White. This time cleanliness of person and surroundings was called for. In describing a vision given February 5, 1854, she wrote: SHM 71.1

“I saw that God was purifying unto Himself a peculiar people; He will have a clean and holy people, a people in whom He can delight. ... I saw that God would not acknowledge an untidy, unclean person as a Christian. His frown is 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.”—E. G. White Manuscript 1, 1854. SHM 71.2