Appendix 1
Personal Experience of Ellen G. White as a Health Reformer
[
In reading the statements from Mrs. White’s pen regarding her
dietetic practices, the thoughtful student will recognize the following
principles:
First: “The diet reform should be progressive.”—
The Ministry of
Healing, 320
. The light was not given in its fullness at the first. It
was bestowed with increasing force from time to time as people were
prepared to understand and act upon it, and it was fitted to the general
practices and customs of eating at the time the instruction was given.
Second: “We do not mark out any precise line to be followed in
diet.”—
Testimonies for the Church 9:159
. Repeated warnings were
given against certain specific injurious foods. But in the main, general
principles were laid down, and detailed application of these broad
principles must sometimes be determined by experimentation, and by
the best scientific conclusions available.
Third: “I make myself a criterion for no one else.”—
Letter 45,
1903
. Having by intelligent experimentation adopted certain rules for
herself, Mrs. White at times described the dietetic regimen of her own
home, but not as a rule by which others must be rigidly governed.—
Compilers.]
The First Health Reform Vision
1. It was at the house of Brother A. Hilliard, at Otsego, Michigan,
June 6, 1863, That the great subject of health Reform was opened
before me in vision.—
The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867
Revealed as Progressive Work
2. In the light given me so long ago (1863), I was shown that
intemperance would prevail in the world to an alarming extent, and
that every one of the people of God must take an elevated stand in
regard to reformation in habits and practices.... The Lord presented
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