The Story of our Health Message

A Pledge of Loyalty

The General Conference Committee had now joined with the sanitarium board in taking the responsibility of selecting young men and women for this work and supervising their training for it. Dr. Kellogg feelingly expressed his great joy at the response to this plan. He set forth the “grave responsibilities assumed by those who engage in the practice of medicine, and the large amount of painstaking effort and expense incurred by the institution and those connected with it in the education of physicians for this work,” and stated furthermore that the following pledge had been signed by each of the prospective students then present at the meeting: SHM 256.3

“Believing that the principles of hygiene and temperance reform, which are taught in the sanitarium, are a part of the truth of God; and that the sanitarium has been established by the direction of the Lord, for the development and promulgation of these principles; and that this work is a part of the work of God, I therefore pledge myself— SHM 257.1

“1. That I will uphold by precept and example, the principles of hygienic and temperance reform presented in the Testimonies of Sister White, and promulgated by the sanitarium and its managers. SHM 257.2

“2. That I will engage in medical work in connection with the cause, under the direction of the managers of the sanitarium and the General Conference Committee, for a period of five years after graduation; providing I am not prevented from so doing by failure of health, or other reasons which shall be considered good and sufficient by the sanitarium board and the General Conference Committee.”—Ibid., August, 1891. SHM 257.3

In explaining the principles of the sanitarium, Dr. Kellogg mentioned the nonuse of flesh food as a prominent feature, also abstinence from tea and coffee, and rigid teetotalism from the use of alcoholic liquors. These and a “strict adherence to the highest standard in dietetic reform advocated by the institution were presented among other things as duties obligatory upon those who enter upon this work and sign this pledge.”—Ibid. SHM 257.4