Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Waggoner Writes of Reform Dress at Battle Creek

In 1866 the Western Health Reform Institute ^* was founded at Battle Creek, Michigan, by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. EGWC 147.2

J. H. Waggoner, writing in The Health Reformer, March, 1868, tells of the introduction of a reform dress at the Health Reform Institute: EGWC 147.3

“When the Health Reform Institute was established, the physicians decided that a better style of dress for women than the long, dragging skirts, was desirable.... EGWC 147.4

“As might be expected, when it was first being adopted at the Institute there was not complete uniformity, but the taste and choice of the wearers had much to do with the length and appearance of the dresses worn.... EGWC 147.5

“At my request the physicians at the Institute named a number of its inmates whose dresses they considered as nearly correct in make and appearance as could be found to that number amongst the varieties. I measured the height of twelve, with the distance of their dresses from the floor. They varied in height from five feet to five feet seven inches, and the distance of the dresses from the floor was from 8 to 10½ inches. The medium, nine inches, was decided to be the right distance, and is adopted as the standard.”—Pages 129, 130. EGWC 147.6

The Health Reform Institute was set on its way very directly under the counsel and guidance of Mrs. White and by physicians and others who confidently believed that she possessed the gift of the Spirit of prophecy. If, at the outset, she had drawn up exact patterns and specifications for a particular reform dress, on the claim that she had received the exact specifications in vision, would it not follow that that would have been the one and only dress adopted by the Health Reform Institute when it was opened? EGWC 147.7

Waggoner’s statement reveals that there was no one pattern, nor was there any principle that guided them further than that they sought to create a style of dress that would remedy the evils of the current fashions and give maximum of health, convenience, and modesty. And in doing so they naturally sought to profit, as far as possible, by the current reform-dress endeavors being made by others. This is a very important point. EGWC 148.1

Because Mrs. White promoted a reform dress, finally carrying patterns of such a dress with her, and because she declared that she promoted dress reform as a result of instruction from the Lord, the critics immediately assume that she claimed to have received the pattern from heaven. And of course if Mrs. White received, directly from heaven, a specific pattern, with exact specifications of length and the like, then if at any time she said anything that seemed to differ in any detail from what she had earlier said, behold the critics have discovered her in a contradiction. EGWC 148.2

But there is nothing in what Mrs. White has written that warrants the assumption that she claimed to have received a pattern from heaven, with exact specification in inches. On the contrary, Waggoner indicates that an institution that had just been set up under her direct guidance did not have any one pattern, and that the details were decided on after experimentation with dresses that conformed to the basic objectives of health, convenience, and modesty. EGWC 148.3