Whatever Is Best

The principle of what is best under all circumstances, not merely what is good, should be the Christian’s benchmark. Too often, the good is the enemy of the best.MOL 96.8

In other areas of healthful living also, Ellen White’s counsel has been beneficial for millions. Why? Because of her principle of common sense—for example, in the area of food combinations ^{23“In the use of foods we should exercise good judgment, and sound sense. When we find that something does not agree with us, we need not write letters of inquiry [to Ellen White] to learn the cause of the disturbance. We are to use our reason. Change the diet; use less of some of the foods; try other preparations. Soon we shall know the effect that certain combinations have on us. We are not machines; we are intelligent human beings; and we are to exercise our common sense. We can experiment with different combinations of foods.” The Kress Collection, 144.} or recommending the same health practices for everyone. ^{24“There is real common sense in dietetic reform. The subject should be studied broadly and deeply, and no one should criticize others because their practice is not, in all things, in harmony with his own. It is impossible to make an unvarying rule to regulate everyone’s habits, and no one should think himself a criterion for all. Not all can eat the same things. Foods that are palatable and wholesome to one person may be distasteful, and even harmful, to another. Some cannot use milk, while others thrive on it. Some persons cannot digest peas and beans; others find them wholesome. For some the coarser grain preparations are good food, while others cannot use them.” The Ministry of Healing, 319. “We don’t make the health reform an iron bedstead, cutting people off or stretching them out to fit it. One person cannot be a standard for everybody else. What we want is a little sprinkling of good common sense. Don’t be extremists. If you err, it would be better to err on the side of the people than on the side where you cannot reach them. Do not be peculiar for the sake of being peculiar. Away with cake. Persons may kill themselves with sweets. More harm is done to children by sweets than by anything else.” Sermons and Talks, 12.} Beyond most people of her time she saw the close connection between vitality, good health generally, and exercise. Not only exercise but having the right attitude when one exercises! It was all a matter of common sense. ^{25“The world is full of women with but little vitality and less common sense. Society is in great need of healthful, sensible young women who are not afraid to work and soil their hands. God gave them hands to employ in useful labor. God did not give us the wonderful human machinery of the body to become paralyzed by inaction. The living machinery God designed should be in daily activity, and in this activity or motion of the machinery is its preserving power. Manual labor quickens the circulation of the blood. The more active the circulation the more free will be the blood from obstructions and impurities. The blood nourishes the body. The health of the body depends upon the healthful circulation of the blood. If work is performed without the heart being in it, it is simply drudgery, and the benefit which should result from the exercise is not gained.” The Signs of the Times, April 29, 1885.}MOL 96.9

In conducting public work, especially in our health institutions, Ellen White admonished: “Act so that the patients will see that Seventh-day Adventists are a people who have common sense.” ^{26Evangelism, 540.}MOL 96.10

Further, Adventist ministerial and medical workers must not create the impression, as some other Christian groups were doing, that the sick could be healed by prayer alone. Again, Ellen White appealed to common sense. ^{27“Do not let the idea prevail that the Health Retreat is a place where the sick are healed by the prayer of faith. There are instances when this will be done, and we need to have faith in God constantly. Let no one think that those who have abused themselves and taken no intelligent care of themselves can come to the Health Retreat and be healed by the prayer of faith, for this is presumption. I see so little wisdom, so little common sense exercised by some of our brethren, that my heart is sick, sore, and distressed. They do not have sensible ideas and do not honor God. They have need of a divine touch. If the idea should once prevail that the sick can come to the Institute to be cured by the prayer of faith, you will have such a state of things there that youcannot now discern even if I should point it out to you in the best English language I could command.” Manuscript Releases 7:370 (1886).}MOL 96.11

In every area, it seemed, she had common-sense counsel. Some ministers were falling victim to the prevailing elocution fashion of preaching in an unnatural voice pitch, far from a conversational style that would best reflect calm reason. She appealed to ministers to study the “wisest manner” of using their vocal organs “by the exercise of a little common sense.” ^{28“I was shown that our ministers were doing themselves great injury by carelessness in the use of their vocal organs. Their attention was called to this important matter, and cautions and instructions were given them by the Spirit of God. It was their duty to learn the wisest manner of using these organs. The voice, this gift of heaven, is a powerful faculty for good, and if not perverted, would glorify God. All that was essential was to study and conscientiously follow a few simple rules. But instead of educating themselves, as they might have done by the exercise of a little common sense, they employed a professor of elocution.” Testimonies for the Church 4:604. See also Medical Ministry, 264, 265.}MOL 96.12

Ellen White was concerned about how the youth were educated for the real world. No one seemed to be more optimistic about the possibilities open to industrious, dedicated young people. At the same time, she was troubled with those who “are merely useless creatures, only good to breathe, eat, wear, chat, and talk nonsense.... But few of the youth show real sound judgment and good common sense. They lead a butterfly life with no special object in view.” ^{29Testimonies for the Church 1:394.}MOL 97.1

She often wrote that manual training as a practical preparation for life must be part of Christian education. Such training would make a person preparing for the various scientific and academic professions even more fit for his or her duties: “An education derived chiefly from books leads to superficial thinking. Practical work encourages close observation and independent thought. Rightly performed, it tends to develop that practical wisdom which we call common sense.” ^{30Education, 220.}MOL 97.2

After seeing worship services in some churches, Mrs. White observed: “It is sometimes more difficult to discipline the singers and keep them in working order, than to improve the habits of praying and exhorting. Many want to do things after their own style; they object to consultation, and are impatient under leadership. Well-matured plans are needed in the service of God. Common sense is an excellent thing in the worship of the Lord.” ^{31Evangelism, 505.}MOL 97.3

This principle of common sense should be applied in all areas of Christian living, such as in the kind of clothing one wears. ^{32“Christians should not take pains to make themselves a gazing stock by dressing differently from the world. But if, when following out their convictions of duty in respect to dressing modestly and healthfully, they find themselves out of fashion, they should not change their dress in order to be like the world; but they should manifest a noble independence and moral courage to be right, if all the world differ from them. If the world introduce a modest, convenient, and healthful mode of dress, which is in accordance with the Bible, it will not change our relation to God or to the world to adopt such a style of dress. Christians should follow Christ and make their dress conform to God’s Word. They should shun extremes. They should humbly pursue a straightforward course, irrespective of applause or of censure, and should cling to the right because of its own merits.” Testimonies for the Church 1:458, 459 (1864).}MOL 97.4

From time to time, people would push the dress question into a church controversy. Here again, Ellen White used common sense and gave practical advice: “The dress question is not to be our present truth.... Follow the customs in dress so far as they conform to health principles. Let our sisters dress plainly, as many do, having the dress of good, durable material, appropriate for this age, and let not the dress question fill the mind.” ^{33Testimonies for the Church 1:333. For the full Manuscript 167, 1897 wherein Ellen White stated guiding principles in dress reform, see the Appendix in D. E. Robinson, The Story of Our Health Message (Nashville: Southern Publishing Association, 1965, Third edition), pp. 441-445.}MOL 97.5

At Christiana (Oslo), Norway, in 1885, Ellen White counseled about 120 new Adventists, some needing guidance pertaining to children attending public schools on Sabbath, and Sabbath business operations. Some, however, were over-conscientious “in making the matter of dress of first importance, criticizing articles of dress worn by others, and standing ready to condemn everyone who did not exactly meet their ideas. A few condemned pictures, urging that they are prohibited by the second commandment, and that everything of this kind should be destroyed.” ^{34Selected Messages 2:319.}MOL 97.6

What problem did she see? She feared that “unbelievers” would get the impression that Adventists “were a set of fanatics and extremists, and that their peculiar faith rendered them unkind, uncourteous, and really unchristian in character.” Further, “one fanatic, with his strong spirit and radical ideas, who will oppress the conscience of those who want to do right, will do great harm.” ^{35Selected Messages 2:318.} As time went on, she was pleased that common sense prevailed.MOL 97.7

In her sermons and in many letters to young people she knew well, Mrs. White emphasized the need for common sense in choosing a life mate. ^{36“The youth trust altogether too much to impulse. They should not give themselves away too easily nor be captivated too readily by the winning exterior of the lover.... Common sense is needed here if anywhere; but the fact is, it has little to do in the matter.” The Review and Herald, January 26, 1886. See Messages to Young People, 450.}MOL 97.8

Her far-ranging counsel included direct and candid guidance to married church members. She pointed out that home tensions often were caused by spousal irresponsibility and the lack of common sense. ^{37In appealing to a self-centered wife, Ellen White wrote: “Do you think it is no disappointment to your husband that he finds you what God has shown me you are? Did he marry you with the expectation that you would bear no burdens, share no perplexities, exercise no self-denial? Did he think that you would feel under no obligation to control self, to be cheerful, kind, and forbearing, and to exercise common sense?” Manuscript Releases 16:310.}MOL 97.9