Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Reasoning to Logical Conclusion

Mrs. White’s teachings on healthful living simply carry the logic of the premise to its ultimate conclusion. She declared that there are habits and practices other than liquor drinking that adversely affect the body and in turn affect mind and spirit. For example, she went on to indict tobacco. And we think that at least some of her critics will follow her in this. Nor will they be impressed by the question so confidently asked by the smoker: Where is the text in the Bible that prohibits the use of tobacco? Further, the critics will certainly subscribe to Mrs. White’s teaching that overwork not only affects the body adversely but may also dull the mind and spirit to the point where spiritual truths cannot be clearly discerned. EGWC 363.3

Likewise we believe they will agree with her declaration that bad air, lack of sleep, and lack of proper exercise by sedentary workers have a deleterious effect on the body, and at least indirectly on the mind and spirit. What minister but has grieved at seeing his congregation drowsing when they should have been listening to spiritual truths? And the trouble need not be ministerial lack of fire; it may simply be lack of fresh air. In other words, what we take into our lungs, as well as into our stomachs, can have vast effects on mind and spirit. EGWC 364.1

We think that the critics will go a step further in agreement with Mrs. White’s teachings on health. She says much about the value of abstemiousness and the evils of gluttony. Nothing is more prominent in her health views. She makes plain that the food eaten may be wholesome, but if eaten to excess will produce, first, a bad effect on the body, and in turn a clouding of mental and spiritual faculties. What minister is there but has noticed with dismay that at an afternoon service there may be such drowsiness that some worshipers receive little if any spiritual good from the service? And is it not generally agreed in the ministerial fraternity that the trouble may lie, not in the quality of the spiritual food being offered by the minister, but in the quantity of literal food that has been eaten by the worshipers? EGWC 364.2

We are also sure that the critics will heartily subscribe to another important feature of Mrs. White’s teaching—the importance of cleanliness and the health-giving value of frequent bathing. Seventh-day Adventists did not create the saying “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” but we subscribe to it. We also find ourselves in agreement with what modern medicine has to say about the value, to the body, of water, used both internally and externally. And when the body is in good condition, the mind and spirit can more easily apprehend important truths. EGWC 364.3