Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene

In the early 1870s James and Ellen White had come to the rescue of the Health Reformer, the monthly health journal issued by Seventh-day Adventists, which was suffering a serious decline. In it, over a period of several years, James White published editorials on Bible hygiene. At the special session of the General Conference in the spring of 1876, he proposed preparing the manuscript for a book on the subject (Ibid., April 6, 1876). The General Conference gave hearty support to this, but other tasks and then his death intervened.3BIO 446.2

The idea, however, did not die, but found fruition in a volume issued in 1890, titled Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene. Nine chapters from James White's pen filled the last section of the book, “Bible Hygiene.” The first part of the volume, “Christian Temperance,” was a compilation of a broad spectrum of E. G. White materials on the subject of “Health and the Home”—nineteen chapters in all.3BIO 446.3

Dr. J. H. Kellogg was drawn in to assist in the compilation of this volume. In the preface, which he wrote, he paid high tribute to the major contribution to the world made by Ellen White in leading out in health teachings. Dr. Kellogg stated that up to that time, “nowhere, and by no one, was there presented a systematic and harmonious body of hygienic truths, free from patent errors, and consistent with the Bible and the principles of the Christian religion.”—Page iii. He wrote of the enduring nature of the principles she set forth. His closing paragraphs give the history of the book:3BIO 446.4

This book is not a new presentation of the principles referred to in the above paragraphs, but is simply a compilation, and in some sense an abstract, of the various writings of Mrs. White upon this subject, to which have been added several articles by Elder James White, elucidating the same principles, and the personal experience of Elder J. N. Andrews and Joseph Bates, two of the pioneers in the health movement among Seventh-day Adventists. The work of compilation has been done under the supervision of Mrs. White, by a committee appointed by her for the purpose, and the manuscript has been carefully examined by her.3BIO 446.5

The purpose in the preparation of this volume has been to gather together, in a condensed form, writings which were scattered through various volumes, and some that have never before appeared in print, so that the teachings of Mrs. White upon this subject might reach as large a number as possible of those for whom they were specially intended; and it is confidently believed that the work will receive a cordial reception, and the earnest consideration which its importance demands.—Ibid., iv.3BIO 447.1

Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, with Ellen White's consent, was published in Battle Creek by the Good Health Publishing Company. For a number of years it was the standard E. G. White presentation on health. The “Christian Temperance” portion of the book—the E. G. White section—was in whole or in part issued in several of the languages of Europe. In 1905 The Ministry of Healing took its place as the prime E. G. White book on health written for the church and the world—a book for which no revision has ever been called.3BIO 447.2