Simpson, W. W.
San Diego, California
November 27, 1904
Portions of this letter are published in TDG 340. +NoteOne or more typed copies of this document contain additional Ellen White handwritten interlineations which may be viewed at the main office of the Ellen G. White Estate.
Elder W. W. Simpson
Dear Brother,—
I wish to write you a few words this morning. Your case has been presented to me. I have been instructed that you are to remember that you are not your own, but God’s. You have been bought with a price and are to glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are His. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 1
I have already written some things to you, which I hope you will heed, because the message came from the Lord to give to you. There are still other things that I wish to present before you in regard to the care which you should give your body. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 2
The Lord Jesus would have you work zealously and intelligently to preserve the vital organs in health. The throat and lungs should receive special care, for you are to give the message of truth to many. But in order to give this message of truth it will be necessary for you to take periods of rest. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 3
The care of the throat and lungs is an important matter which needs your special attention. Your stomach also should receive careful treatment. You are doing your vital organs an injustice. You need to be careful if you would be a perfect man as were Daniel and his companions. You are to guard your brain power, and in order to do this, you must understand how to care properly for the stomach. Do not misuse the stomach. Do not put upon this faithful servant more work than it can properly perform. Do not overtax the digestive organs by placing in the stomach too great a variety of food, or by eating at irregular times, as you feel inclined. Your usefulness and your health depend upon the treatment that you give your stomach. If you eat three meals a day, be sure that these meals are taken at regular hours. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 4
I am given a message to give to you. Eat at regular periods. By wrong habits of eating you are preparing yourself for future suffering. It is not always safe to comply with invitations to meals, even though given by your brethren and friends who wish to lavish upon you many kinds of food. You know that you can eat two or three kinds of food at a meal without injury to your digestive organs. When you are invited out to a meal, shun the many varieties of food that those who have invited you have set before you. This you must do if you would be a faithful sentinel. When food is placed before us which, if eaten, would cause the digestive organs hours of hard work, we must not, if we eat this food, blame those who set it before us for the result. God expects us to decide for ourselves to eat that food only which will not cause suffering to the digestive organs. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 5
Do not place in your stomach a heterogeneous mass of food, which will set up a fermentation. Remember that once this is done you can do little to relieve the condition that you have so inconsiderately produced. You have already done your servant, the stomach, great harm. At times, when it has needed perfect rest to recover from its work of digesting a heavy meal, you have perhaps eaten too heartily of many things. You need to become a faithful, intelligent physician to yourself. You need to read from cause to effect. The all-gone sensation which you often feel is not hunger; it is the result of overworking the digestive organs. The stomach has worked with all its power to care for the variety of food thrust upon it, and it needs rest, not more food. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 6
Often the different kinds of food are placed in the stomach which do not agree, and fermentation is the result. This is the cause of many stomach difficulties. Eat at regular hours, and eat wholesome food. Do not place in the stomach too great a variety of food at one meal. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 7
I dare not say to you or to any one else, You must eat only two meals a day. But I do say that too much food should not be placed in the stomach at one time, for when this is done the stomach has no power to do its work properly. For some, three meals a day are better than two. For thirty years I have taken only two meals a day, and I have not eaten between meals. I know for my own part that two meals can be so arranged as to be perfectly convenient. Yet no one is to make his own case a criterion for others. Each one should study carefully the organism of his body, that he may know how to deal intelligently with the body, and that he may be sure that intemperance in eating is not destroying the vital forces of the system. Each one should know for himself how to care properly for the machinery of the body, for no one else can do this for him. Every child should be taught to live in such a way that he will have a healthy body and a clear brain. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 8
I must send you, my brother, this word of warning. By your reckless and disorderly manner of treating your stomach you are bringing on a condition of ill health. You cannot long preserve your health unless you follow correct habits of eating. Those who violate the laws of their being must suffer the consequence. I give God the glory that nearly half a century ago the light on health reform was given to me, and I was not disobedient to the light. I have strictly guarded my appetite. I eat but two meals a day, and I eat nothing that would create a disturbance in the stomach. I do not eat between meals for this would place on the digestive organs a burden that they should not have. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 9
You are in danger, through the reckless, imprudent treatment that you give your stomach, of a breakdown in health. Your lungs also are in danger, through your speaking too long and too often. The Lord will preserve your life, if you will obey the principles of health reform, but He will not work a miracle to prevent suffering and death if you disregard the laws of your being. If we disobey these laws, we must pay the penalty. When we find that all our life we have been placing ourselves in peril by abusing the life-giving principles, establishing disorder, and creating inharmonious action in the wonderful machinery of the human organism, we should change our habits of eating. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 10
You need to be careful also in regard to your habits of speaking. Do not speak lengthily. Do not put undue strain on the vocal organs. Keep these organs in as perfect condition as possible. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 11
In a large congregation the atmosphere is very often poisoned by the exhalations from the bodies of those present, therefore I am charged to tell our ministers not to imperil their life and health by speaking lengthily. Many die prematurely by following wrong habits of speaking and eating, when the Lord would have had them live. Many wonder at the dispensation of Providence which takes away the able workers. But the death of these workers was not a dispensation of Providence, but the result of their own course of action. The wonder is that many live so long. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 12
When evening meetings are held in a tent, the tent should the next day be thoroughly aired and the inside of it, as far as possible, exposed to the sunlight that it may be cleansed from the impurities coming from the bodies of a large number of people. In a large congregation there are always those who seldom bathe. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 13
Not one-hundredth part of the common sense that should be exercised is shown in regard to cleansing and ventilating a tent or room after meetings have been held. Some one who has studied the needs of the human system and who could reason from cause to effect should take this matter in charge and see that the tent or meetinghouse is thoroughly ventilated after each service. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 14
The Lord is good and full of compassion. He desires us to understand that we cannot violate the laws of nature without doing injury to our physical and mental powers—injury from which there may be no recovery. Do not venture to live in contradiction of God’s will. God would have each one of His servants bear the impress of the Divine. He would have each one capable of acting his part in the great work for this time. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 15
No part of the living structure should be overburdened or another part left inactive. It is God’s will that every part of the body shall be properly developed, that the whole being may obey the regulations of the divine mind. If we expect the faculties of the body to act their part in the perfection of the whole being, these faculties must be given the proper treatment. The harmonious development of every part of the being, physical, mental, and spiritual, will place man in such a relation to God that he will not be overcome by the perverting influences of the world. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 16
God desires His people to stand where they will give a representation of what He designs man to be. Satan brought sin into the world and set up a will that is a contradiction of God’s will. This makes it highly essential for man to search carefully for the right and carefully to regulate his habits of life in accordance with the law of God, that he may carry out God’s purpose for him, as set forth in this law. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 17
God will help us, if we commit our ways to Him, if we submit ourselves to Him, to be guided by His wisdom. The evil comes when man follows his own principles, regardless of a plain “Thus saith the Lord.” This results in inconsistencies of spirit, of speech, of action, and these dishonor Him who gave us light and knowledge. Those who profess godliness should not be inconsistent. If they close their minds to knowledge, they deprive the world of the light that should shine forth from them in good works. Let those who live in these last days open the windows of the soul heavenward and let the sunshine of heaven in. Do not talk of clouds and darkness. God calls upon us “to let our light so shine before men,” that they beholding our good works shall glorify Him. [Matthew 5:16.] He calls upon His ministers to arise and shine. The religion of Christ will bless wherever it is received into the life. By it the life will be softened and subdued and sweetened. Every detail of the character is to reveal the sanctification that comes from a daily practice of the principles of heaven. Position or profession is nothing in the sight of God. He calls for lives that reveal the fruits of the Spirit. 19LtMs, Lt 310, 1904, par. 18