The Story of our Health Message

Further Reforms in Diet

In his heart-searching preparation for the expected return of Christ, Captain Bates was impressed to make still further reforms in his diet. “In February, 1843,” he relates, “I resolved to eat no more meat. In a few months after, I ceased using butter, grease, cheese, pies, and rich cakes.”—Joseph Bates, in The Health Reformer, July, 1871. SHM 58.1

Just what circumstances finally led Captain Bates to become a vegetarian we cannot find related in his memoirs. He does, however, in relating events early in his career at sea, mention certain observations he had made at Liverpool, England, where two Irishmen were shoveling salt from a scow into his vessel. Seven or eight men were unable to shovel it into the hold of the vessel as fast as these two Irishmen were scooping it to them through the “ballast port.” In commenting on the situation, he learned that while the crew of the ship were living in good boarding-houses in Liverpool, the Irishmen had eaten no flesh for some time, and were living on vegetables. By this incident he was forcibly impressed with the fact that flesh food does not impart “superior strength to the laboring class.” (James White, The Early Life and Later Experience and Labors of Elder Joseph Bates, 143.) SHM 58.2

Early in 1845, when he faced the evidence that the seventh day of the week still remains the Sabbath of the Lord, with characteristic decision he began not only its observance but also its promulgation. In the following year we find him united with James and Ellen White in proclaiming this and other fundamental doctrines now held by Seventh-day Adventists. He was uncompromising in urging the Christian duty of temperance, including abstinence from stimulants and narcotics. Of his attitude on this point we have a statement made by him in an early letter: SHM 58.3

“I find some places to hold a meeting with a few hungry ones. The pipes and tobacco are traveling out of sight fast, I tell you. ‘Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.’ Nothing must be too dear or precious to let go in aid of the cause now.”—Joseph Bates, in a letter to Brother and Sister Hastings, September 25, 1849. SHM 59.1

Regarding the minor points of reform, he exerted a silent influence, but did not urge his practices upon others. Sometimes his friends would ask him why he did not partake of flesh meat, or grease, or highly spiced foods; and he would quietly reply, “I have eaten my share of them.” He did not make prominent in public or in private his views of proper diet unless asked about them. Naturally he was gratified when many of his fellow laborers at a later date adopted and began to teach the principles of health reform. He then heartily joined them in speaking freely upon the subject. SHM 59.2