Preface to the First Edition

How to preserve and to improve health, how to prevent and to treat sickness, are truly living, vital problems in the medical world today. Never before in the history of the human family have these great questions received the earnest, intensive, scientific study and wide publicity that are being given them at the present hour. Medical science in all its ramifications has made marvelous progress during the last half century. It would require a volume to enumerate and explain the discoveries, the development, and achievement, that have been made in this great department of human interest and welfare. The knowledge that has been gained in the exhaustive study of these fundamental subjects has been given to the public in highly scientific and technical volumes, and in simpler form in books, magazines, newspapers, and lectures.MM v.1

This volume, entitled Medical Ministry, is one more valuable contribution to the world's needs in the domain of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. It is unique in its scope. It recognizes and commends the truly scientific in the causes and treatment of diseases. It places strong emphasis upon the observance of all that relates to the prevention of ailments. And still more, the writer of this volume recognizes that sin, the transgression of divine law, is the primary cause of disease, sickness, and death.MM v.2

Believing that the transgression of moral law leads to the disregard of physical and mental laws, the writer places very great importance upon obedience to moral law as one of the primary conditions necessary for perfect health. And obedience to moral law, it is urged, can be rendered only through the acceptance of, and union with, Christ, the redeemer of man ruined through transgression. Hence it is claimed that the perfect remedy for the ills of mankind is the combination, appreciation, and observance of the spiritual, the mental, and the physical laws of our being.MM v.3

It is this wide, all-inclusive scope of instruction set forth in Medical Ministry that commends it so highly to the public. This instruction is not technical. It can be understood by laymen. The requirements laid down for spiritual, mental, and physical health and happiness are so rational that they can be complied with. That which relates to the prevention of sickness is of especial value; for, as an old adage tells us, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.MM v.4

The writer of this book, Mrs. E. G. White, devoted nearly seventy years of her very earnest, active life to the gospel ministry. In her youth she was an invalid. In her early married life she battled with a weak heart, with cancer, and with other ailments. At the age of thirty-six she experienced a great awakening on the subject of temperance as it relates to health, to physical and mental efficiency, and to Christian living. The rigid application of the knowledge gained regarding the laws of mind and body brought great relief and restoration to her, and from that time on to the close of her arduous labors, a period of nearly fifty years, she was an earnest exponent of the principles of health and temperance.MM vi.1

In 1865 Mrs. E. G. White made an appeal to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, of which she was a member, to establish a medical institution in which the sick should be given rational, drugless treatment for their ills, and also where they should be given instruction regarding the laws of health. In response, such an institution was established in Battle Creek, Michigan. This undertaking met with great success. The institution grew into large proportions, and for nearly a half century it has been favorably and widely known as the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Through subsequent years many similar sister sanitariums have been established in different parts of the United States and in many other countries of the world.MM vi.2

The Trustees of Mrs. White's Estate, having found in her letters and manuscript files many documents heretofore unpublished which contain valuable instruction for physicians, nurses, sanitarium managers, helpers, gospel evangelists, and Christian workers, believe that this valuable counsel should be sent forth to the public. It is our sincere hope that this volume may prove a great blessing to its readers, and through them, to a great multitude to whom they may minister.MM vi.3

A. G. Daniells