Manuscript Releases, vol. 7 [Nos. 419-525]

MR No. 507—Items for “Critique of Prophetess of Health “

(Entire document is available from the White Estate.)

7MR 346.1

7MR 346.2

In 1888 Mrs. White wrote concerning Kellogg: “I believe he has confidence in me, and in the work God has given me to do. He has treated me with all the courtesy that he would show toward his mother.”—Letter 21, 1888, p. 17.

7MR 346.3

“Our provisions have been very low for some days. Many of our supplies have gone.... We expected supplies three days ago certainly, but none has come. Willie went to the lake for water. We heard his gun and found he had shot two ducks. This is really a blessing, for we need something to live upon.”—Manuscript 12, 1873, 3. 7MR 346.4

“I am suffering more now for want of some one who is experienced in the cooking line, to prepare things I can eat. The cooking here in this country is in every way deficient. Take out the meat, which we seldom use,—and I dare not use it here at all,—and sit at their tables, and if you can sustain your strength, you have an excellent constitution. Food is prepared in such a way that it is not appetizing, but is having the tendency to dry up the desire for food. I would pay a higher price for a cook than for any other part of my work.”—Letter 19c, 1892, pp. 1, 2. 7MR 346.5

A few weeks after the duck eating experience in the Rockies in October 1873, Elder and Mrs. White were in California and she on February 15, 1874, reported that since they had been in that state they had dropped meat entirely, having “bought meat once for May Walling while she was sick, but not a penny have we expended for meat since.”—Letter 12, 1874, p. 1. 7MR 346.6

On July 18, 1874, she addressed responsible men at the Health Institute pointing out that many who come for treatment “eat too much and live on flesh of dead animals.... It is the duty of the doctors, to prescribe for these individuals an abstemious diet.”—Letter 45, 1874, p. 2. 7MR 347.1

“For your own personal enjoyment in this world I entreat of you both to be health reformers. Emma, educate your appetite. Banish butter, cheese, flesh meats, and every article that is not the most simple and the best calculated to make a healthy quality of blood.”—Letter 47a, 1874, p. 2. 7MR 347.2

In the files for 1874 she describes a vision in which “her angel instructor” seemed to be addressing a group on temperance. Here is what she saw and heard: 7MR 347.3

“‘You need to be converted,’ said he.... ‘Your works are not pleasing to God’.... 7MR 347.4

“Then one of the most solemn addresses was given upon temperance. The subject was taken up from the table. ‘Here,’ said the speaker, ‘is the appetite created for love of strong liquor. Appetite and passion are the ruling sins of the age. Appetite, the way it is indulged, influences the stomach and excites the animal propensities. The moral powers are depressed and become the slave to appetite. The use of flesh meats stimulates and inflames; the flesh of dead animals produces disease of almost every type and the afflicted think and talk as though God's providence had something to do with it when the cause of their sufferings was what they placed upon their own tables in butter, in spices, in cheese, in flesh meats and a variety of dishes that are not hygienic, which tempt constantly to eat too much.’”—Manuscript 7, 1874, 3. 7MR 347.5

“We took breakfast in the tent adjoining ours and were made sorry to see butter and cheese upon the table. Both are injurious to health. I understood our people had discarded these things, but they are again using them. Health reform is not carried out among our people as it once was. Some are departing from the health reform. I am sad.... 7MR 348.1

“It seems so hard for some, even for their conscience’ sake, to deny themselves the things that do not tend to health. We felt drawn out to speak to some on this subject. I shall not be clear unless I speak decidedly, for the spirit of self-indulgence will increase unless we take a decided stand. I have had grace given me to present decidedly the subject of health reform. Butter, cheese, flesh meats of dead animals, rich cake and poor cookery create disease and will certainly corrupt the blood, bring disease and suffering, and pervert the discernment. I beseech our people, to consider that health reform is essential and that which we place in our stomachs should be the simple nourishment of good, plainly prepared bread and fruits and grains. I shall have a much sharper testimony to bear on this subject. We must deny perverted appetite. I urge upon our people to learn the art of simplicity in eating. When will our people heed the word of the Lord given to caution them?”—Manuscript 5, 1879, 3, 4. 7MR 348.2

“J has cultivated an appetite for a flesh meat diet, and thinks it is impossible for her to live without this kind of food. And she reasons the same way in regard to others also. J loves meat, and her habits are educating all who connect with the Retreat. 7MR 349.1

“We have made efforts to secure the Health Retreat in order that we might use it to promulgate the principles of health reform; but by her cooking, J shows that she is not a health reformer.”—Letter 4, 1884, p. 2. 7MR 349.2

“Now as to my own experience: Meat seldom appears on my table; for weeks at a time I would not taste it, and after my appetite had been trained, I grew stronger, and could do better work. When I came to the Retreat, I determined not to taste meat, but I could get scarcely anything else to eat, and therefore ate a little meat.... 7MR 349.3

“Not a morsel of meat or butter has been on my table since I returned. We have milk, fruit, grains, and vegetables. For a time I lost all desire for food. Like the children of Israel, I hankered after flesh meats. But I firmly refused to have meat bought or cooked. I was weak and trembling, as every one who subsists on meat will be when deprived of the stimulus. But now my appetite has returned, I enjoy bread and fruit, my head is generally clear, and my strength firmer. I have none of the goneness so common with meat eaters. I have had my lesson, and, I hope, learned it well.... 7MR 349.4

“If we would allow reason to take the place of impulse and love of selfish indulgence, we should not taste of the flesh of dead animals.”—Letter 2, 1884, pp. 2, 3. 7MR 350.1

“In regard to our diet, we have not placed butter on our table for ourselves for years, until we came to the Rocky Mountains. We felt that a little butter, in the absence of vegetables and fruit was less detrimental to health than the use of much salt or sugar, sweet cake and knickknacks. We do not use it now, and have not for many weeks.”—Letter 1, 1873, p. 12. 7MR 350.2

“My prayer was very urgent, for it seemed to me that my petition must be answered, and they were raised up to health. Now a number of these cases have resulted in something very different than could be desired; for the course of several has proved that it would have been better had they died. One, after having grown to years, became a notorious thief, another became licentious, and another, though grown to manhood, has no love for God or His truth.”—Letter 17, 1892, pp. 1, 2. 7MR 350.3

The allegation that Mrs. White, on returning to America, asked to be shown the buildings during a visit to Chicago is apparently based only on Stewart's assertion that this took place. By way of evidence that this charge of Stewart's is not well founded, we need only mention that Mrs. White did not concede at this or any other time that perhaps a slight mistake had been made. She did explain that she indeed thought buildings had been erected, but this was not until 1903. (See EGW Letter 135, 1903 to S. N. Haskell, March 6, 1903.) Even then, in 1903, she said: “I understand that someone said that the testimony that I bore in regard to this was not true,—that no such building was erected in Chicago. But the testimony was true. The Lord showed me what men were planning to do.”—Letter 135, 1903, p. 2. 7MR 350.4

“In our conversation I spoke to you of the light given me that we were centering too many weighty responsibilities at Battle Creek, and I am of the same opinion now. I have been looking over some of my past writings, and I find that warnings were given to me years ago upon this very point, and we were instructed not to accumulate special interests in Battle Creek. There is danger that it will become as Jerusalem of old, a concentrated, powerful center. The evils that ruined Jerusalem will come upon us if we do not heed these precautions. It is perilous to so largely center in Battle Creek; for while you are expending means in this one center, you are neglecting cities that will become more and more difficult to work as time goes on.”—Letter 18, 1890. 7MR 351.1

In September, 1850, she declared, “We are all quite well here now.”—Letter 14, 1850, p. 1. 7MR 351.2

In November, 1850, she informed some friends, “James and my health is quite good now.”—Letter 28, 1850, p. 1. 7MR 351.3

Again, in August, 1853, she wrote, “My health is quite good.”—Letter 6, 1853, p. 1. 7MR 351.4

A month later she was well enough to act as nurse to a houseful of sick people, She told the Loughboroughs, “I have felt thankful that my health is so good, but I am getting worn out.”—Letter 8, 1853, p. 1. 7MR 352.1

Here is a brief sample of a similar healing: 7MR 352.2

the healing of Clarissa Bonfoey when Hiram Edson “laid hands upon her in the name of the Lord.”—Letter 14, 1850, p. 1. 7MR 352.3

Released September 23, 1976.