Love and Sexuality in the Human Experience
175
All animal propensities are to be subjected to the higher powers of
the soul.—
Manuscript 1, 1888.
(
The Adventist Home, 127
.)
In the same context in which some of the strong terms referred
to above are used, she urges that the passions are to be controlled by
what she called “higher, nobler powers,” “reason,” “moral restraint,”
and “moral faculties.” She writes of temperance and moderation and
avoiding excess. In marriage those passions common to all human
beings are to be subject to control, they are to be governed. Note again:
Those who regard the marriage relation as one of God’s sacred
ordinances, guarded by His holy precept, will be controlled by the
dictates of reason.—
Healthful Living, 48
.
Very few feel it to be a religious duty to govern their passions....
The marriage covenant covers sin of the darkest hue.... Health and life
are sacrificed upon the altar of base passion. The higher, nobler powers
are brought into subjection to the animal propensities.... Love is a pure
and holy principle; but lustful passion will not admit of restraint and
will not be dictated to or controlled by reason.—
Testimonies for the
Church 2:472, 473
(1870).
She writes of the marriage relation as a “sacred institution” which
may be “perverted.” She speaks of “sexual privileges” which “are
abused.” Again, it is not passion that is condemned, but “base” and
“lustful” passion. And it is worth observing that Ellen White pictures
the intimacy of marriage as a “privilege.” Though she warned against
gross sexual behavior in marriage, she wrote of a time when affections
held in proper restraint can be “unfettered.” Another enlightening
statement is worthy of close examination:
In regard to marriage, I would say, read the word of God. Even
in this time, the last days of this world’s history, marriages take place
among Seventh-day Adventists....We have, as a people, never forbid-
den marriage, except in cases where there were obvious reasons that
marriage would be misery to both parties. And even then, we have
only advised and counseled.—
Letter 60, 1900
.
At one time when because of the demands of the work in which
she and her husband were engaged a half a continent separated them,
she confided in a letter to James:
We feel every day a most earnest desire for a more sacred nearness
to God. This is my prayer when I lie down, when I awake in the night,