Relating to Others What She was Shown

What Ellen White had been shown in the vision at the Hilliard home was so different from concepts commonly held at the time that it was with hesitancy she faced the bidding in the vision to take the lead in guiding Seventh-day Adventists and others to a way of life in harmony with nature's laws. When she was in the home of Dr. H. S. Lay, he pressed her to tell him what she had been shown. Reluctantly she acceded, explaining that much of what was presented to her was so different from the ordinarily accepted views that she feared she could not relate it so that it could be understood. She protested that she was not familiar with medical language and hardly knew how to present it. In the conversation that followed, she set forth in simple language what she later reduced to writing in the extended chapter entitled “Health” now found in Spiritual Gifts,, Volume IV.2BIO 21.2

She was shown the contrast between what was so painfully visible in the human race today, on the one hand, and Adam and Eve in Eden; they were noble in stature, perfect in symmetry and beauty, sinless, and in perfect health. “I inquired,” she stated, “the cause of this wonderful degeneracy, and was pointed back to Eden.”—4SGg 120. It was the disobedience of our first parents, leading to intemperate desires and violation of the laws of health, that had led to degeneracy and disease. She began with eating habits; these included the use of meat—she referred to the risks incurred of contracting disease thereby, because of the increasing prevalence of disease among animals. She also detailed the harmful effects of overeating and of eating too frequently.2BIO 21.3

She mentioned the use of stimulants and narcotics, speaking particularly of alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee. She emphasized the importance of cleanliness of person and of the home and its premises, the importance of physical exercise and of the proper exercise of the will. She told of what she was shown concerning the value of water in the treatment of disease, and the value of pure air and sunshine. She spoke of how those who looked only to God to keep them from sickness, without doing what was in their power to maintain good health, would be disappointed, for God intended they should do their part. She emphasized that in order to preserve health, temperance in all things is necessary—in labor, in eating and drinking, and in the exercise of the privileges of the marriage relation. It was a broad vision. She wrote it out as she was able, first in the article entitled “Health” in Spiritual Gifts,, Volume IV, and shortly thereafter in the six How to Live pamphlets. She expanded the subject still more in later articles and books.2BIO 21.4