The Story of our Health Message

A Call for a Greater Advance

This was an opportune time and occasion for Mrs. White to present to those assembled the instruction which she had received during the vision in Rochester, New York, about four months previous. The general content of her address before the General Conference assembly of 1866 is indicated both in her writings of that time and in the response of the people to the message she bore. Very earnestly she urged the believers to place a higher estimate upon the instruction that had come regarding health principles. She solemnly exhorted the ministry not only to adopt these principles for themselves, but to make them prominent in their work among the churches. Rehearsing the instruction given her in the vision of December 25, 1865, she wrote a few weeks after the conference: SHM 144.4

“Ministers and people must make greater advancement in the work of reform. They should commence without delay to correct their wrong habits of eating, drinking, dressing, and working. I saw that quite a number of the ministers are not awake upon this important subject. ... One important part of the work of the ministry is to faithfully present to the people the health reform, as it stands connected with the third angel’s message, as a part and parcel of the same work. They should not fail to adopt it for themselves, and should urge it upon all who profess to believe the truth.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:466, 469, 470. SHM 145.1

She asserted that the work of reform had “scarcely been entered upon yet.” Ibid., 485. There were few who were sufficiently aroused to understand “how much their habits of diet have to do with their health, their characters, their usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny.” Ibid., 488, 489. She spoke also of “a much greater work” in this line than was comprehended by anyone as yet. “Men and women must be instructed,” she counseled. To climax the appeal she said that Seventh-day Adventists “should have an institution of their own,” “for the benefit of the diseased and suffering among us.” Ibid., 487, 489, 492. SHM 145.2