The Story of our Health Message

Mrs. White Lectured on Temperance

It is of interest to note that, as Mr. Fehlandt points out, the inclusion of only spirituous liquors in the pledge was recognized as a main reason for the lapse of many who had signed the pledge; so the pledge was extended to cover all alcoholic beverages. This was a move in the right direction, but did not go far enough. To Seventh-day Adventists God graciously gave instruction that the pledge of abstinence should include tobacco, tea, and coffee and all unwholesome foods that tended to create an abnormal appetite. It was with this counsel in mind that Mrs. White directed her testimony in behalf of temperance, that the ax should be laid at the very root of the tree. SHM 228.1

She found opportunity frequently to speak in behalf of temperance. One Sunday afternoon, in the summer of 1876, she spoke to no less than 20,000 people on a camp ground at Groveland, Massachusetts. At the close of the service she accepted an invitation of officers of the Haverhill Reform Club to repeat the address at the city hall the following night. On that occasion the hall, which would accommodate about 1,100 persons, “was filled to its utmost capacity with the very elite of Haverhill’s society, professional men of all classes, officers of the city, and the most intelligent of the people.” The Review and Herald, September 7, 1876. SHM 228.2

The next summer Elder and Mrs. White had journeyed from California to Battle Creek, Michigan, at which time Elder White carried very heavy responsibilities at the publishing house and the college and in the plans for the new sanitarium building. After a few weeks of a strenuous program, he was physically exhausted, and it was feared that he would suffer a general breakdown in health. Preparations were being made for a period of retirement among the mountains of Colorado, when, as Mrs. White says, “a voice seemed to say to me, ‘Put the armor on. I have work for you to do in Battle Creek.’ The voice seemed so plain that I involuntarily turned to see who was speaking. I saw no one, and at the sense of the presence of God my heart was broken in tenderness before Him. When my husband entered the room, I told him the exercises of my mind. We wept and prayed together. Our arrangements had been made to leave in three days, but now all our plans were changed.”—Testimonies for the Church 4:272. SHM 228.3

The reason why the Lord instructed Elder and Mrs. White to change their plans was made manifest in a few days. They received a delegation from the representatives of “the Battle Creek Reform Club, six hundred strong, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, two hundred and sixty strong.” Ibid., 275. These had come to request their co-operation and that of the sanitarium staff in a temperance mass meeting that was to be held soon in the city of Battle Creek. SHM 229.1