There Shines A Light

Chapter 6—“As thy Soul Prospereth”

The apostle of Jesus who lived the longest had a great interest in health. It is not far-fetched to suppose that his philosophy, combining the physical and the spiritual, had much to do with his longevity. John the beloved was a young and vigorous man when called by Jesus to be His follower; and the glimpses we catch of him through the Gospels, the Acts, and even tradition after authentic history ceases attest to his strong physique and his buoyant spirit to the last. TSAL 52.1

In his Third Epistle, addressed to a generous and hospitable layman, Gaius, his salutation expresses this unity of body and soul: “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” ⁴⁵ TSAL 52.2

The gospel of Jesus is a gospel of health—health of body, mind, and spirit. The state of the physical health greatly affects the mind, and the state of the mind in great degree determines the health of the body. Whatever conduces to their mutual welfare is therefore a part of the Christian religion. This truth was lost sight of in the Dark Ages of the church; and so far from the truth did men depart as to suppose that affliction of the body, through malnourishment, filth, and torture would be beneficial to their souls. While the gross ideas of the ascetics were repudiated by the Reformation, something of their influence remains to this day, even in evangelical societies; and ignorance and neglect of physical health have played their part in debasing the spiritual life. It is a part of Christian reformation to enlighten, correct, and strengthen the believers as to physical rightness and provide for them sound bodies to nourish sound souls. This gospel of health has become a part of the Seventh-day Adventist faith, and its inception was due to the messages of God through Ellen G. White. TSAL 52.3

In the years when the second advent was first being proclaimed, there was in America a strong movement instituted for better health. The temperance crusade against alcoholic liquors, under such early leaders as Dr. Benjamin Rush, William Alcott, and Lyman Beecher, and the gospel of health proclaimed by such apostles as Dr. Sylvester Graham, Horace Greeley, Dr. James C. Jackson, and Dr. R. T. Trall, began to stir the people to reform. Though in general public estimation they were faddists and fanatics, the impact of their faith and zeal was increasingly felt in American society and paved the way of reform in diet and drink, in hygiene and dress, in antisepsis and rational treatment of disease. TSAL 53.1

One of the foremost advocates of temperance and healthful living was that apostle of the advent, Joseph Bates. While still a sea captain and before he had become a Christian, he began his personal reformation by rejecting strong drink and tobacco, and after his conversion his progress in health practice increased. In turn, he threw away his tea and coffee, condiments, and flesh foods. He was one of the first to organize a total abstinence society—teetotalers—and in his personal habits he went beyond his co-workers in abstemiousness, yet lived the full life. In consequence he maintained, under strenuous labor, a state of health and a resilience that put to shame his younger but unhygienic fellow laborers. TSAL 53.2

But Bates, while vigorous in his proclamation of the gospel and his advocacy of abstinence from liquor and tobacco, was not militant in the case of his more advanced principles. He was content to let his light shine without blowing the bellows. When asked why he did not eat flesh foods or highly spiced foods or greasy foods, he was wont to reply, “I have eaten my share of them,” and let it go at that. In consequence, he made no great impression upon his people in the matter of diet reform or other health principles. TSAL 54.1

James and Ellen White were equally outspoken against liquor and tobacco, and this from the first became an integral part of the forming church’s doctrine. But though they might well have envied the abounding health of their brother-in-arms, Joseph Bates, they were not deeply impressed by his means of obtaining it, and they did not adopt his principles of health maintenance. So also their other co-workers. Health, they thought, was the outright gift of God, rather than the fruit of physical righteousness. In consequence, they suffered. TSAL 54.2

But the light of the Spirit of prophecy was turned upon this important subject. In the early summer of 1863 James and Ellen White visited a company of evangelists, M. E. Cornell, R. J. Lawrence, and helpers, who were holding a tent meeting in Otsego, Michigan. The company met for prayer and counsel at the farmhouse of Aaron Hilliard, three miles out of town. James White was at this time greatly worn and depressed. The Civil War was raging; the affairs of the church were passing through the crises of organization and of recognition of noncombatancy, in which he had borne great burdens. His physical powers were depleted, and his courage sorely tried, a state which foreboded his complete breakdown two years later. On this day, June 6, at the beginning of the Sabbath, the workers and visitors assembled for worship. TSAL 54.3

Mrs. White was asked to lead in prayer. She did so with fervent spirit. Her husband was kneeling near her. While praying, she laid her hand upon his shoulder and continued in prayer for him until the power of God came upon her, and she was closeted in vision. In this state she remained about forty-five minutes, during which time she received from heaven the pattern of the health reform which became a prominent feature of the doctrine and work of the church. The immediate effect upon James White was a freeing of his spirit and a reviving of his strength. The long-range effect upon the church and the world was incalculable. TSAL 55.1

The progress of hygiene and healthful living presented through Ellen G. White in this vision was basic, sound, constructive. It did indeed correct errors in diet, and it took an advanced position in this; but it did not merely forbid, it recommended. She said: “I saw that it was our sacred duty to attend to our health, and arouse others to their duty.... We have a duty to speak, to come out against intemperance of every kind—in intemperance in working, in eating, in drinking, in drugging, and then point them to God’s great medicine, water, pure, soft water, for diseases, for health, for cleanliness, for luxury.... We should not be silent upon the subject of health, but should wake up minds to the subject.” ⁴⁶ TSAL 55.2

A happy, cheerful state of mind, based on trust in the Fatherhood of God, was inculcated as a preventive and cure of worry induced by heavy responsibilities and lack of co-operation from others. “We should encourage a cheerful, hopeful, peaceful frame of mind, for our health depends upon our doing this.” Also the evil of intemperate work was stressed: “When we tax our strength, overlabor, and weary ourselves much, then we take colds, and at such times are in danger of diseases taking a dangerous form.” ⁴⁷ TSAL 56.1

This basic double physiological fact—susceptibility to infections through depletion of vitality, and immunity to initial colds through building up of bodily tone—is a cardinal therapeutic doctrine today, though still ignored and neglected by the majority of people. As a preventive of disease, it surpasses the whole pharmacopoeia of the profession in that day and our own. TSAL 56.2

Upon the subject of health Mrs. White began both to speak and to write and, most important of all, to practice. It was no transient reform with her, however it might be with others. Though much suffering yet lay in store for her, progress toward full health was steady, and the latter half of her life was a testimony not only to the blessing of God, but to her faithfulness to His laws in physical as in spiritual life. When we contemplate the meager and damaged physical capital with which she started her career as a teen-age girl, and the immense amount of labor and the great accomplishments through her long life, we must give credence to her own summing up. TSAL 56.3

Living in accordance with the principles of health— and with definite specifications—is strongly taught among Seventh-day Adventists, with its basis the Bible and the teachings of Ellen G. White; but acceptance and practice are an individual responsibility. On certain phases the church administers a law: no person who uses alcoholic liquor or tobacco in any form may be a church member; and cleanliness of life, obedience to moral law, is likewise a requisite, while simplicity of dress and adornment is inculcated; but no specific prescription of attire is demanded, and incorrect diet is not made a matter of church discipline. Nevertheless the man or woman whose mind has been informed and whose soul has been enlightened by the gospel message must be expected to align with the physical as well as with the religious tenets of the church, and failure to do so inevitably results in declension of spirituality and eventual loss. TSAL 56.4

To reform their own lives, however, was to those pioneers but the preliminary preparation for ministry to others. The gospel of health was to be taken to the world, not only in teaching but in demonstration. Mrs. White not merely taught, she acted. In her prime she was in sickness and misfortune the personal minister to the needs of neighbors, as nurse and helper, and even to old age she remained the benefactress of the needy, near and far. Besides, she projected her vision and wisdom into the philanthropic and curative ministry of the church, in her writings and counsel. TSAL 57.1

Nearly three years after the Otsego vision, on her strong appeal and counsel, the church prepared to establish the first of those health and healing institutions for which the denomination has since become famous. In 1866 they founded the Western Health Reform Institute, which a few years later was renamed the Battle Creek Sanitarium, an institution in memory still famous, and the first of a succession of over a hundred such institutions throughout the world, with an accompanying host of treatment rooms, clinics, and rest: homes, mostly privately owned, and the services of more than a thousand physicians and several thousand trained nurses. TSAL 57.2

Lay members also, in large numbers, learn the means and methods of alleviating pain and healing minor ailments, serving individually and in such agencies as the Red Cross, welfare societies, and relief agencies. For the training of its young men to serve in war as the agents of help and healing, the church has instituted expert training under its own officers, and the members of its Medical Cadet Corps, taken into the medical corps of Army and Navy, have well represented in battle its principles of noncombatant and merciful service. One such young soldier is the only noncombatant to have received the highest award of honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Not less devoted in civilian life, its doctors and nurses, whether in medical institutions or in private practice, deserve the high esteem in which they are held for Christian service and devotion to their profession “beyond the call of duty.” They are representatives, not merely of Aesculapius and Florence Nightingale, but of that supreme Healer and Friend, Jesus. TSAL 58.1