The Health And Temperance Society

The American Health and Temperance Association had been formed in Battle Creek in January, with the intention of drawing Seventh-day Adventists together in an effective organization promoting both health and temperance. The Kansas camp meeting offered the first opportunity to launch the program in the field.WV 196.1

James and Ellen White had vowed to avoid camp meetings, but having attended two, they now had the camp meeting fever in their systems. They postponed their trip to Colorado and left to others the business of disposing of the teams of horses, mules, and ponies in Colorado. To James White it was an easy and quick switch, and to Ellen White the end of a perplexing experience.WV 196.2

Wednesday afternoon, June 4, 1879, James and Ellen White lighted from the train in Battle Creek, having made the trip overnight from Missouri. The note in the Review announcing their arrival remarked on the good degree of health and strength James White evidenced. He spoke in the tabernacle at the commencement of the Sabbath, June 6, and again Sabbath morning and afternoon.WV 196.3

Sunday evening both James and Ellen White spoke to a large congregation at a temperance rally in the tabernacle, and the “teetotal pledge” was circulated and signed. On Wednesday evening they held another temperance meeting. The next morning they were off for camp meetings in the West (The Review and Herald, June 19, 1879). These included meetings in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Dakota. The latter, their sixth camp meeting of the season, was followed with the long-looked-forward-to break, a quick visit to the nearby mountains of Colorado. This gave opportunity for nearly four weeks’ change.WV 196.4