Contents and links

What 89 - Bath

What 90 - Local Hydrotherapy

What 91 - Temperature

What 92 - When to Bath

What 93 - Tired

What 94 - Sweating

What 95 - Food

What 96 - Room Temperature

What 97 - How to Bath

What 98 - Drying

What 99 - The Head

What 100 - Waterless Bath

IX SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

What 101 - Mental Attitude

What 102 – Cheerfulness

Contents Home Page

Appendix 1

Health & Medical statements found in The Ministry of Healing (M. of H.), 1905 Spiritual Gifts Volume 4 (S. G.), 1864

I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES

What 1 – Laws of Health G 2 A 1 C1 J 1 K 2

M. of H. page 127 - “Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, use of water, trust in divine power - these are the true remedies”.

Page 234 – “Disease never comes without a cause. The way is prepared, and disease invited, by disregard of the laws of health.”

S. G. page 146 - “In order to preserve health, temperance in all things is necessary. Temperance in labor, temperance in eating and drinking.”

Page 140 - “I have been shown that a great amount of suffering might be saved if all would labor to prevent disease, by strictly obeying the laws of health.”

Comment – These eight principles are now used as the basis of the Adventist lifestyle. They are short statements that almost completely encompass all of the What statements found later in The Ministry of Healing.

Even though they are called “remedies” in The Ministry of Healing, there is a shortened group of general principles in Spiritual Gifts that is for “preserving health”. Also in Spiritual Gifts there is an over-riding principle of “temperance”. In The Ministry of Healing, she does extol the virtue of preventing disease. Page 108 – “It is far better to prevent disease than to know how to treat it when contracted.”

Previously she had used “a clear conscience” (Healthful Living, 1897, page 246) rather than “trust in divine power”. This would include our relationship with our fellow man as well as God.

It is now regarded that these eight principles would represent a good summary of a healthy lifestyle. It has always been true that it is better to prevent disease than to cure.

Even though each principle is given an individual score later, I have given an overall score for them as a group, as they represent the fact that lifestyle is important to maintaining health.

Score – Significant (1960 – Minor)

Why 1 – Vital Forces (What 1)

M. of H. page 234 – “God has endowed us with a certain amount of vital force…. If we carefully preserve the life force, and keep the delicate mechanism of the body in order, the result is health; but if the vital force is too rapidly exhausted, the nervous system borrows power for present use from its resources of strength, and when one organ is injured, all are affected. Nature bears much abuse without apparent resistance; she then arouses and makes a determined effort to remove the effects of the ill-treatment she has suffered. Her effort to correct these conditions is often manifest in fever and various other forms of sickness.”

S.G. page 131 – “Efforts should be made to preserve carefully the remaining strength of the vital forces,”

1865, Selected Messages, Book 2, page 414, from How to Live No. 1 - “Hurtful food and drinks are partaken of in such a measure as to greatly tax the organs of digestion. The vital forces are called into unnecessary action in the disposal of it, which produces exhaustion, and greatly disturbs the circulation of the blood, and, as a result, want of vital energy is felt throughout the system.” Comment – There are no vital forces that can be used up. We do have a genetically coded aging system that breaks down our ability to resist disease as we get older, but this is not analogous to the theory of vital forces that was prevalent in the middle of the 19th century.

Score - Unverified

What 2 – Drugs G 7 (A2) C 2 J 2 K 1

M. of H. Page 126 – “A practice that is laying the foundation of a vast amount of disease and of even more serious evils is the free use of poisonous drugs.”

Appendix 1

Health & Medical statements found in The Ministry of Healing (M. of H.), 1905 Spiritual Gifts Volume 4 (S. G.), 1864

Page 127 – “Let physicians teach the people that restorative power is not in drugs, but in nature.” Page 117 – “The life of the patient is in the hands of the physician. One careless diagnosis, one wrong prescription, in a critical case, or one unskillful movement of the hand in an operation, even by so much as a hair's breadth, and a life may be sacrificed,”

S. G. page 134 - “Drugs never cure disease. …. Nature alone is the effectual restorer”

Comment – In the 1860s there were few, if any, drugs available where the benefits out-weighed the dangers. This would be true even at the turn of the century. Since then there has been a massive increase in available useful drugs and in the knowledge of their effects. There is nothing prophetic in these statements that predicted the future dramatic life-saving use of some drugs. Despite this it still is true that no drug is without danger and that every drug needs to be used with care and skill. Ellen White appears to soften her condemnation of drugs in 1905 compared to 1864, by referring to “one wrong prescription” – indicating that there can be a right prescription. This most probably reflects the improvement that occurred in therapeutic drugs over this period.

Also Ellen White in later years advocated other medical procedures.

1901, Medical Ministry, pages. 286, 287, from a letter – “There is one thing that has saved life--an infusion of blood from one person to another; but this would be difficult and perhaps impossible for you to do. I merely suggest it.”

1911, letter to her son J E White - “For several weeks I took treatment with the X-ray for the black spot that was on my forehead. In all I took twenty-three treatments, and these succeeded in entirely removing the mark. For this I am very grateful.”

1931, letter from D E Robinson, a secretary of Ellen White. – “ You will be interested to know, however, that at a time when there was an epidemic of smallpox in the vicinity, she herself was vaccinated and urged her helpers, those connected with her, to be vaccinated.”

She also used tea and coffee for medicinal purposes.

1882, Selected Messages, Book 2, pages 302, from letter to a friend – “I have not knowingly drunk a cup of genuine coffee for twenty years, only, as I stated, during my sickness—for a medicine—I drank a cup of coffee, very strong, with a raw egg broken into it.”

1882, Selected Messages, Book 2, page 302, from letter to a minister – “Knowing its (tea) influence I would not dare to use it, except in cases of severe vomiting when I take it as a medicine, but not as a beverage”

Score – Significant

Why 2 – Drugs (What 2)

M. of H. page 126 – “A practice that is laying the foundation of a vast amount of disease and of even more serious evils is the free use of poisonous drugs…. People need to be taught that drugs do not cure disease. It is true that they sometimes afford present relief.”

S. G. page 133 - “I was shown that more deaths have been caused by drug-taking than from all other causes combined.”

“Strychnine has no antidote. “It produced heat, and seemed to act particularly on the spinal column.” “If taken immoderately, convulsions, paralysis, insanity, and death, are often the results. Many use this deadly evil in small quantities.”

“Opium is a slow poison, when taken in small quantities. In large doses it produces lethargy and death.” Those who use it “are in a worse condition when deprived of it than the rum-drinker without his rum, or the tobacco-user deprived of his tobacco. The opium slave is in a pitiful condition.” “….mercury, calomel, quinine and other poisonous preparations. Miserable sufferers, with disease in almost every form, mis-shapen by suffering, with dreadful ulcers, and pains in the bones, loss of teeth, loss of memory, and impaired sight, are to be seen almost every where.

Appendix 1

Health & Medical statements found in The Ministry of Healing (M. of H.), 1905 Spiritual Gifts Volume 4 (S. G.), 1864

“The endless variety of medicines in the market, the numerous advertisements of new drugs and mixtures, all of which, as they say, do wonderful cures, kill hundreds where they benefit one.” Comment -In 1863 there were virtually no drugs that had any benefit, and most were extremely dangerous. The above statements are basically true and they reflect accurately the knowledge of that time. Quinine, however, for over a hundred years was known to help the fever of malaria even though the cause of malaria was not known until 1880. On the other hand, quinine is a dangerous drug and it was being used in large doses for any fever.

Score – Verified

M. of H. page 126 – “The poisons contained in many so-called remedies create habits and appetites that mean ruin to both soul and body. Many of the popular nostrums called patent medicines, and even some of the drugs dispensed by physicians,

S. G. page 139 – “The endless variety of medicines in the market, the numerous advertisements of new drugs and mixtures, all of which, as they say, do wonderful cures, kill”

Comment – It was not only conventional medicine that was using dangerous drugs, so were the many alternative medical treatments that abounded at this time.

Ellen White herself used some cures such as herbal teas, poultices, eucalyptus for a cough. See Selected Messages Book 2, pages 300-303: “but I don't want any of you again to make the remark that ‘Sister White uses tea.’ If you will come to my house I will show you the bag that contains my herb drink. I send to Michigan, across the mountains, and get the red-clover top” (Selected Messages, Book 2, page 301).

Score – Significant

What 4 - Temperature of a Sick Room (A 87)

M. of H. page 221 – “So far as possible an even temperature should be maintained in the sickroom. The thermometer should be consulted. Those who have the care of the sick, being often deprived of sleep or awakened in the night to attend to the patient, are liable to chilliness and are not good judges of a healthful temperature.”

1865, Selected Messages, Book 2, page 455, from “How to Live” No. 4 – “ It is of great value to the sick to have an even temperature in the room. This cannot always be correctly determined, if left to the judgment of attendants, for they may not be the best judges of a right temperature. And some persons require more heat than others, and would be only comfortable in a room which to another would be uncomfortably warm. …. Sometimes it will be distressingly warm for the patient; at another time too cold, which will have a most injurious effect upon the sick. …. In many instances life has been periled by extreme changes of the temperature of the sick-room..”

Comment – Initially I did not consider this as worthy of a score, but when I read Alcott on the temperature of the sick room I included it to demonstrate how Ellen White did not always follow those she studied.

Score - Minor

What 5 – Hypnotism

M. of H. Page 242 – “There is, however, a form of mind cure that is one of the most effective agencies for evil. Through this so-called science, one mind is brought under the control of another so that the individuality of the weaker is merged in that of the stronger mind. One person acts out the will of another. Thus it is claimed that the tenor of the thoughts may be changed, that healthgiving impulses may be imparted, and patients may be enabled to resist and overcome disease.