The Story of our Health Message

Dr. Kellogg’s Announcement

“And now a hygienic school is to be established. ... There are hundreds of our young men and women who should attend this school. Sickness is everywhere, and there is no more successful method of removing prejudice than to be able to enter the sickroom and relieve the afflicted. ... SHM 241.2

“We speak in behalf of this hygienic school. We believe it is needed. There should be, connected with every church, individuals who understand what to do in the sickroom. They should know how to give packs, baths, etc. ... May God bless this our first effort.”—The Review and Herald, December 20, 1877. SHM 241.3

Dr. J. H. Kellogg, in announcing the opening of the School of Hygiene, spoke of the many calls that had come from the field for such opportunities as the new school would afford. “For several years,” he wrote, “the managers of the sanitarium have been in constant receipt of numerous letters from persons who were desirous of acquiring a knowledge of the laws of hygiene and the application of hygienic agencies in the treatment of the sick and the prevention of disease.”—The Health Reformer, December, 1877. SHM 241.4

This desire for a practical knowledge of the laws of hygiene and of simple home remedies for the sick was prompted by a sincere interest in friends and neighbors, to whom they might minister spiritual as well as physical blessings. Although the term “medical missionary work” did not come into denominational use until the following decade, some among the ministry had been led to see in this dual service a means of removing prejudice and of coming close to the people. Thus we find in the Review and Herald the following words from a young minister: SHM 242.1

“God is honoring us as a people, before the world, for the position we have taken upon the subject of temperance reform. We stand in the front rank of this reformation. SHM 242.2

“If we follow the providence of God, we shall certainly avail ourselves of the influence which these truths afford us. We should seek to become intelligent upon the subject, in order that we may ... help and instruct others. ... SHM 242.3

“A few discourses by our ministers in each of the neighborhoods where they labor, upon the laws of hygiene, Christian temperance, and sanitary rules, would awaken an interest in the minds of many when nothing else would. In no other way can we gain the confidence and gratitude of an individual so readily as by affording him relief in his distress.”—G. C. Tenney, in The Review and Herald, January 3, 1878. SHM 242.4