Ellen White: Woman of Vision

General Counsels On Health

She began with eating habits. These included the use of meat—she referred to the risks incurred of contracting disease thereby, because of the increasing prevalence of disease among animals. She also detailed the harmful effects of overeating and of eating too frequently. WV 104.2

She mentioned the use of stimulants and narcotics, speaking particularly of alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee. She emphasized the importance of cleanliness of person and of the home and its premises; the importance of physical exercise and of the proper exercise of the will. She told of what she was shown concerning the value of water and of pure air and sunshine. She spoke of how those who looked only to God to keep them from sickness, without doing what was in their power to maintain good health, would be disappointed, for God intended they should do their part. WV 104.3

For the medical world, and for almost everyone, these were days of great ignorance in health lines. Bacteria and viruses were unknown. When disease struck, the symptoms were treated with poisonous drugs, such as strychnine, mercury, and calomel; also alcohol, blisters, and bleeding. WV 104.4

In the vision of June 6, 1863, not only was there opened to Ellen White the basic principles of healthful living, but a solemn commission was given to her that would have a bearing on her work and that of her husband for many years to come. She and James were to be teachers of health reform. But before they could teach they must know what to teach. Though they were adults, parents, and alert, their knowledge in health lines was but little different from the average—and these were days of general ignorance. WV 104.5

The Review and Herald, edited by James White and Uriah Smith, occasionally carried items such as rest, fresh air, and exercise, selected from other journals or from the writings of a Dr. Dio Lewis. Quite often articles and admonition discouraging the use of tobacco, tea, and coffee were included. But in connection with the scourge of diphtheria in the winter of 1862 and 1863, although the obituary notices kept before its readers the death of many children, up to February 1863, the Review had little to offer terrified parents but the application of a poultice of “Spanish flies and turpentine.” WV 105.1

Then there came to the attention of James and Ellen White Dr. James C. Jackson's method of treatment of diphtheria, embodying simple, rational methods in the proper use of water, fresh air, and rest. Earnestly employed, these remedies saved two of the White boys when stricken, and also Moses Hull's boy; but upon the recovery of the children the experience was soon forgotten. Then in the vision of June 6, 1863, among a number of situations and matters opened up to Ellen White, health was an important one. Many of its features were to her so revolutionary that she was for a time bewildered. WV 105.2

When James and Ellen were in Boston, some three months later, James saw some books on health advertised in a periodical called the Voice of the Prophets, published by Elder J. V. Himes. He ordered the works and received them at Topsham, Maine. But he was too busy to read them, and they remained in their wrappers for some time. WV 105.3

Ellen had been working under heavy pressure to complete writing out the vision before she and her husband would visit the “Home on the Hillside” of Dr. Jackson in Dansville, New York. But she was determined that before leaving she would cover in that book the main points that had been shown to her in the health reform vision. She did not want it to be said that what she presented as shown to her in vision could have been influenced by Dr. Jackson or anyone else. WV 105.4

She made an interesting statement of what she did not read before first writing out what the Lord had revealed to her: WV 105.5

That which I have written in regard to health was not taken from books or papers.... My view was clear, and I did not want to read anything until I had fully completed my books. My views were written independent of books or of the opinions of others (Manuscript 7, 1867). WV 105.6

She had talked freely with Dr. Lay and many others upon the things shown her in vision in reference to health, but she had not read a paper dealing with health. WV 105.7