Chapter 9—The Health Reform Vision
Ellen G. White: A Brief Biography
- Contents- Chapter 1—Who Was Ellen G. White?
- Chapter 2—The Early Years
- Chapter 3—The Advent Message
- Chapter 4—Marriage of James White and Ellen Harmon
- Chapter 5—Beginning to Publish
- Chapter 6—The Move to Battle Creek
- Chapter 7—The “Great Controversy” Vision
- Chapter 8—The Home in Battle Creek
- Chapter 9—The Health Reform Vision
- Chapter 10—The Work Expands
- Chapter 11—Battle Creek College
- Chapter 12—Writing and Traveling
- Chapter 13—Death of James White
- Chapter 14—Ellen White Visits Europe
- Chapter 15—The Great Controversy and Patriarchs and Prophets
- Chapter 16—Called to Australia
- Chapter 17—The Avondale School
- Chapter 18—Medical Work Begun
- Chapter 19—African-American Outreach
- Chapter 20—Return to the United States
- Chapter 21—Busy Closing Years
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Chapter 9—The Health Reform Vision
Two weeks after this, James and Ellen White visited Otsego, Michigan, over the weekend, to encourage the evangelistic workers there. As the group bowed in prayer at the beginning of the Sabbath, Ellen White was given a vision of the relation of physical health to spirituality, of the importance of following right principles in diet and in the care of the body, and of the benefits of nature’s remedies—clean air, sunshine, exercise, and pure water.EGWBB 4.4
Previous to this vision, little thought or time had been given to health matters, and several of the overtaxed ministers had been forced to become inactive because of sickness. This revelation on June 6, 1863, impressed upon the leaders in the newly organized church the importance of health reform. In the months that followed, as the health message was seen to be a part of the message of Seventh-day Adventists, a health educational program was inaugurated. An introductory step in this effort was the publishing of six pamphlets of 64 pages each, entitled, Health, or How to Live, compiled by James and Ellen White. An article from Mrs. White was included in each of the pamphlets. The importance of health reform was greatly impressed upon the early leaders of the church through the untimely death of Henry White at the age of 16, the severe illness of Elder James White, which forced him to cease work for three years, and through the sufferings of several other ministers. Early in 1866, responding to the instruction given to Ellen White on Christmas Day, 1865 (Testimonies for the Church 1:489), that Seventh-day Adventists should establish a health institute for the care of the sick and the imparting of health instruction, plans were laid for the Western Health Reform Institute, which opened in September, 1866. While the Whites were in and out of Battle Creek from 1865 to 1868, Elder White’s poor physical condition led them to move to a small farm near Greenville, Michigan. Away from the pressing duties of church headquarters, Ellen White had opportunity to write, and she undertook the presentation of the conflict story as it had been shown to her more fully in further revelations. In 1870, The Spirit of Prophecy, volume 1, was published, carrying the story from the fall of Lucifer in heaven to Solomon’s time. Work with this series was broken off, and it was seven years before the next volume was issued.EGWBB 4.5