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

An Expeditiously Timed Movement

Adventist historian J. N. Loughborough saw the movement toward reforms in diet and the care of the sick as expeditiously timed. He was there and lived through the challenging developments, and he made this significant observation: 2BIO 91.3

While from the year 1863 to the spring of 1865 the terrible war in the United States interfered with any great success in our public efforts to advance the message, it seemed to be the Lord's time for instruction in health reform—that which afterward should be “as the right arm and hand to the body” in the rapid advancement of the work.—Pacific Union Recorder, August 22, 1912. 2BIO 91.4

Begun in 1863, the transforming of the way of life of a whole denomination ran through 1864, and was to continue through 1865 and many years to come. God richly blessed the work of James and Ellen White as teachers of health. But their impact would have been insignificant were it not for the understanding on the part of Adventists that God was calling for His people to respond and advance. 2BIO 91.5

On this point J. H. Waggoner, another contemporary, noted, in 1866, that the outstanding contribution of the instruction that came through the Testimonies was that it is a part of one's religious duty to care for the body temple. He wrote: 2BIO 92.1

We do not profess to be pioneers in the general principles of health reform. The facts on which this movement is based have been elaborated, in a great measure, by reformers, physicians, and writers on physiology and hygiene, and so may be found scattered through the land. But we do claim that by the method of God's choice it has been more clearly and powerfully unfolded, and is thereby producing an effect which we could not have looked for from any other means. 2BIO 92.2

As mere physiological and hygienic truths, they might be studied by some at their leisure, and by others laid aside as of little consequence; but when placed on a level with the great truths of the third angel's message by the sanction and authority of God's Spirit, and so declared to be the means whereby a weak people may be made strong to overcome, and our diseased bodies cleansed and fitted for translation, then it comes to us as an essential part of present truth, to be received with the blessing of God, or rejected at our peril.—The Review and Herald, August 7, 1866 (see also The Story of Our Health Message, 79, 80). 2BIO 92.3