Why I Believe in Mrs. E. G. White

A Distinctive Position

The facts reveal that in these two extended visions, and in others later on the subject of healthful living, Mrs. White certainly did not stand in awe of accepted medical practices. On the other hand, she did not take up indiscriminately with all the new ideas on treatment or on diet—far from it. True, her views were in harmony with some of the new ideas. On the law of averages some of these ideas would be right. The simple record is that she made her way through an uncharted wilderness of divergent views, sometimes accepting, sometimes rejecting, and ever and anon setting forth a view that none had endorsed. WBEGW 43.2

Her over-all presentation of health was strangely different from that either of the orthodox doctors or of the unorthodox medical or nonmedical healers, who often accompanied their healing program in their institutions with dancing, entertainments, and the like. She squarely built her whole presentation of healthful living on a scriptural basis—that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, that it is a spiritual duty to care for these bodies, which, if we keep them in good health, will enable us better to live for God. She stressed four aspects of healthful living: WBEGW 44.1

1. Diet. She declared that diet was of vast importance to good health. Remember, that was in a day when doctors gave little, if any, attention to diet in relation to health or to recovery from disease. WBEGW 44.2

2. Natural aids to health, such as hydrotherapy (water) treatments, fresh air, sunlight, rest, proper exercise, and the like. She affirmed that these were of prime value. But she wrote at a time when medical men rarely thought about these as therapeutic agents. Mrs. White’s emphasis on natural aids to health was accompanied by an indictment of the drugs then being used. If a doctor today used such drugs he would almost certainly forfeit his medical license. WBEGW 44.3

3. Mental health. She insisted that the health of the mind has a tremendous effect upon the health of the body, and vice versa. Was much attention being given to this matter in the mid-nineteenth century? No. WBEGW 44.4

4. Preventive medicine. She declared that a proper regimen of living could do much to ward off various diseases. Indeed, one of the reasons she set forth for the creation of our sanitariums was that they might teach people not only how to get well but how to prevent illness, that is, how to keep well. WBEGW 44.5