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A Critique of the Book Prophetess of Health

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    The Length of the Skirt

    Page 136 of Prophetess of Health discusses several E. G. White statements concerning the desirable length of the woman’s skirt. Insinuation is made that Ellen White was not consistent in her counsels about the length of the reform dress. The facts show that Ellen White was very consistent in this matter. It should be noted that her burden was to get them up off the floor or the street. There is some variation to the precise length mentioned in one statement and another. Note her wording carefully. In 1864 she wrote: “If women would wear their dresses so as to clear the filth of the streets an inch or two, their dresses would be modest, and they could be kept clean much more easily, and would wear longer” (Testimonies for the Church 1:424).CBPH 66.11

    Prophetess of Health, in referring to this statement mentions that “alert readers were not slow in pointing out that ‘the top of the boot’ was a great deal higher than ‘an inch or two’ from the street” (p. 136). But Ellen White did not say “an inch or two from the street.” Hers was a functional, not a static definition. The dress was to be short enough so as to “clear the filth of the streets” by an inch or two. A year later she said that “The dress should reach somewhat below the top of the boot; but should be short enough to clear the filth of the sidewalk and street, without being raised by the hand” (How to Live #6, pp. 63-64. Quoted in Selected Messages 2:478). And she added that “a still shorter dress than this would be proper and convenient and ‘healthful’ for women doing housework and outside labor.” (Selected Messages 2:64).CBPH 66.12

    In 1867, in a description of the 1863 vision, Ellen White declared:CBPH 66.13

    A third class passed before me with cheerful countenances, and free, elastic step. Their dress was the length I have described as proper, modest and healthful.CBPH 66.14

    It cleared the filth of the street and sidewalk a few inches under all circumstances, such as ascending and descending steps.—The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867.CBPH 67.1

    To meet these specifications the reform dress was prepared with a hemline “about nine inches from the floor” (Testimonies for the Church 1:521). Ellen White did not alter the thrust of her counsel or contradict herself with respect to the principle involved in the length of the reform dress. Her various expressions all mean the same thing—for health and convenience women should shorten their skirts. We should remember that those were the days of horse-drawn vehicles, when many city streets had to be cleaned every night. A dress nine inches from the floor would be about right to clear the filth of the street an inch or two under all circumstances.CBPH 67.2

    On page 136 of Prophetess of Health Ellen White is said to have postponed “month after month” the “dreadful moment” of putting on the reform dress. In fact, a period of only three months elapsed from the date of her first appeal for a reform dress until the time she actually wore such a dress in public. In June, 1865, she published the How to Live pamphlet #6, in which she wrote for the first time, “My sisters, there is need of dress reform among us” (Selected Messages 2:473). In September, 1865, she for the first time wore the reform dress in public.CBPH 67.3

    During the three months from June to September Ellen White and her husband could hardly have been busier. From June 8 to July 16 they were on a very arduous journey, with many preaching assignments. After returning home, extremely worn, they were thrown into very heavy labor in correspondence dealing with a critical situation in Ohio. Then they filled two weekend appointments, after which James White was stricken with paralysis on August 18. This illness called for Ellen White’s full time in attending him for the next sixteen months. Under these circumstances the marvel is that she was able to think of the reform dress at all. She could hardly have developed it and worn it sooner than she did.CBPH 67.4

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