A Time of General Ignorance

This formative period of the body of Seventh-day Adventists may be roughly stated to have been from 1844 to 1855. It was still a time of general ignorance and carelessness regarding hygiene and medical practice among many physicians and practitioners. Yet, as we have pointed out, there were definite, decided movements in health reform; and the way was being prepared for the inclusion of the progressive laws of life in the faith and practice of the believers when the time should be propitious.SHM 61.4

There were, however, other reforms to be adopted before the Sabbathkeeping Adventists were ready to accept the health reform principles. It is a well-known proclivity of human nature to rise up against any interference with self-indulgent habits. Had the health message, with its call to self-denial, been introduced prematurely, it might have caused distraction and brought in confusion. It seems to have been in the providence of God, therefore, that the great fundamental spiritual truths should be presented first. By these the body of believers was unified and knit together before it was to be tested by the introduction of the health reform message, which, though a matter of great importance, was nevertheless secondary.SHM 61.5

In fact, it was with difficulty that the pioneers among Sabbathkeeping Adventists prevented zealous men of unbalanced judgment from urging unduly that which, though perhaps good in itself, was not opportune.SHM 62.1

“In those days,” wrote Elder James White, “there were trials, and these trials generally arose in consequence of a disposition to draw off from the great truths connected with the third message, to points of no vital importance. It has been impossible to make some see that present truth is present truth, and not future truth, and that the Word as a lamp shines brightly where we stand, and not so plainly on the path in the distance.”—The Review and Herald, December 31, 1857.SHM 62.2