Ellen G. White: The Progressive Years: 1862-1876 (vol. 2)

Meeting Problems in the Midwest

In a practical way James and Ellen White were moving into the field again, promoting health reform in its broad aspects. At the camp meeting in Pleasantville, Kansas, they found believers in the Midwest, where fruit was scarce, deeply discouraged in the matter of trying to adopt the principles of health reform. This discouragement was intensified by the extreme positions taken in the Health Reformer regarding milk, sugar, and salt. In this situation James White penned for publication in the Review an article in which he reviewed the consistent steps taken by Seventh-day Adventists in adopting health reform. He stated: 2BIO 300.3

It was twenty-two years ago the present autumn that our minds were called to the injurious effects of tobacco, tea, and coffee, through the testimony of Mrs. White. God has wonderfully blessed the effort to put these things away from us.... When we had gained a good victory over these things, and when the Lord saw that we were able to bear it, light was given relative to food and dress. And the cause of health reform among our people moved steadily forward, and great changes were made.—The Review and Herald, November 8, 1870 (see also CDF, pp. 495, 496). 2BIO 300.4

The basic principles involved had been set forth carefully in 1864, in the comprehensive chapter “Health” in Spiritual Gifts,, Volume IVa, and the next year in the six How to Live pamphlets. James and Ellen White, having adopted health reform in their home and in their personal lives, greatly benefited and were enthusiastically teaching it. Some were quick to respond; others held back, for it was not easy to alter long-established habits of living, especially eating. Then on August 16, 1865, James White, through overwork, was stricken with paralysis. On this point he wrote in 1870: 2BIO 301.1

In consequence of our sickness, Mrs. White ceased to speak and write upon the subject of health reform. From that point may be dated the commencement of our misfortunes and mistakes as a people relative to this subject.—Ibid. 2BIO 301.2