Why Sanitariums?

“The question has arisen in the minds of many, why do Seventh day Adventists as a religious body, who believe in the nearness of the second advent of Christ, invest so much money in the erection and equipment of sanitariums and hospitals? Why do they encourage young men and young women to spend from three to five years in receiving a qualification as nurses and physicians? Why conduct sanitariums and hospitals at all, since there are plenty of good hospitals in the world? To answer these questions, read a few paragraphs from the book Counsels on Health, 469: ‘When the light came that we should begin sanitarium work, the reasons were plainly given. There were many who needed to be educated in regard to healthful living. As the work developed, we were instructed that suitable places were to be provided, to which we could bring the sick and suffering, and there teach them how to regain health by rational methods of treatment without having recourse to poisonous drugs, and at the same time surround them with uplifting spiritual influences. As a part of the treatment, lectures were to be given on right habits of eating and drinking and dressing.’”—The Medical Evangelist, December 1, 1946, page 3.FSG 305.4

“The sanitariums themselves were conducted as medical missionary institutions, whose purpose it was to make use of hydrotherapy and massage and diet as the chief methods of therapeutics, and in addition carry forward a strong educational work through parlor lectures, literature, and personal bedside and office ministry. No treatments were prescribed by outside worldly physicians. The sanitariums stood forth, and were recognized as entirely distinctive from worldly institutions, where the chief therapy employed was drug therapy. Instead of the popular psychotherapy employed by worldly physicians, stress was laid upon Bible methods of mental healing. Physicians with a spiritual knowledge of their patients’ needs were able to carry forward Christ’s methods....FSG 306.1

“Marvelous were the results obtained in some of the cases pronounced incurable by worldly physicians who employed narcotics and hypnotics and drug therapy generally. Prayer at the bedside of patients was a daily procedure of the physicians.”—The Medical Evangelist, January 15, 1947, page 3.FSG 306.2

“I was fortunate to connect with the Battle Creek Sanitarium after graduating in medicine. Nurses and physicians were there taught how to make use of the simple agencies of nature in the treatments of patients and with this combined prayer. As physicians we did not enter offices without first meeting together for a short season of prayer. Never shall I forget the little dark room where Dr. Paulson and I used to meet practically every morning for prayer before taking our seat on the swivel chairs in our offices. We talked with God before we dared to talk with our patients.”—The Medical Evangelist, January 15, 1947, page 3.FSG 306.3

The health program as set forth in the writings of the Spirit of prophecy makes no protest against proper surgery, nor the use of all needful therapeutics. It does, however, strongly emphasize certain things as God’s remedies. It states that the Lord would have you know “how to prevent disease by a wise use of Heaven’s remedies, water, air, and pure diet.”FSG 306.4

“There are many ways of practicing the healing art; but there is only one way that Heaven approves. God’s remedies are the simple agencies of nature, that will not tax or debilitate the system through their powerful properties. Pure air and water, cleanliness, a proper diet, purity of life, and a firm trust in God, are remedies for the want of which thousands are dying; yet these remedies are going out of date because their skillful use requires work that the people do not appreciate. Fresh air, exercise, pure water, and clean, sweet premises, are within the reach of all with but little expense; but drugs are expensive, both in the outlay of means, and the effect produced upon the system.”—Testimonies for the Church 5:443.FSG 307.1

Another phase of the Adventist health program as set forth in the Spirit of prophecy should be mentioned—the relation of health to moral and spiritual excellence. This is clearly instilled by the writings of Mrs. White.FSG 307.2

“How many, even of professed Christians, cling to indulgences that are injurious to health, and that benumb the sensibilities of the soul. When the duty is presented of cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, they are offended.... Multitudes are selling their birthright for sensual indulgence. Health is sacrificed, the mental faculties are enfeebled, and heaven is forfeited; and all for a mere temporary pleasure, an indulgence at once both weakening and debasing in its character.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, 182.FSG 307.3

The influence of our physical habits on mental energy and strength is emphasized strongly. It is taught that health reform includes far more than food or habits of eating Moderation, cheerfulness, faith, and hope, as well as the relation of physical exercise to mental work, are recommended, since religion is a help to health.FSG 307.4

“Ministers, teachers, and students do not become as intelligent as they should in regard to the necessity of physical exercise in the open air. They neglect this duty, which is most essential for the preservation of health. They closely apply their minds to books, and eat the allowance of a laboring man.”FSG 308.1

“When the minds of ministers, school teachers, and students are continually excited by study, and the body is allowed to be inactive, the nerves of emotion are taxed, while the nerves of motion are inactive. The wear being all upon the mental organs, they become overworked and enfeebled.”—Testimonies for the Church 3:489, 490.FSG 308.2

As one studies the philosophy of health taught in the writings of Mrs. White, and the fruitage of this philosophy among Seventh-day Adventists, he notices that little by little the question of vegetarianism comes to be accepted. There are no extreme statements. It is even recognized that some people might need flesh foods under certain conditions. Nowhere does the Spirit of prophecy teach that it is sin to eat meat when that is the best diet that can be found, but it is clearly stated that there is a better way, if proper substitutes for a meat diet are found and used.FSG 308.3

“Fruits, grains, and vegetables, prepared in a simple way, free from spice and grease of all kinds, make, with milk or cream, the most healthful diet.”—Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 47.FSG 308.4

These messages from the Lord on health teach that at the very last God’s people who are alive at the coming of Jesus will subsist wholly on vegetarian products, and that the nearer we get to the end, flesh meats will be more and more dangerous because of diseased animals.FSG 308.5

“Again and again I have been shown that God is trying to lead us back, step by step, to His original design,—that man should subsist upon the natural products of the earth. Among those who are waiting for the coining of the Lord, meat-eating will eventually be done away; flesh will cease to form a part of their diet. We should ever keep this end in view, and endeavor to work steadily toward it.”—Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 119.FSG 308.6

In 1864, shortly after Mrs. White’s first vision concerning the subject of health, she printed her first long message on that topic. In this she speaks out boldly against flesh meats.FSG 309.1

“There are but a few animals that are free from disease. Disease is conveyed to the liver, and the entire system of the animal is diseased. They are killed, and prepared for the market, and people eat freely of this poisonous animal food. Much disease is caused in this manner. But people cannot be made to believe that it is the meat they have eaten, which has poisoned their blood, and caused their sufferings....FSG 309.2

“Animals are frequently killed that have been driven quite a distance for the slaughter. Their blood has become heated. They are full of flesh and have been deprived of healthy exercise, and when they have to travel far, they become surfeited, and exhausted, and in that condition are killed for market. Their blood is highly inflamed, and those who eat of their meat, eat poison.FSG 309.3

“Some animals that are brought to the slaughter seem to realize by instinct what is to take place, and they become furious, and literally mad. They are killed while in that state, and their flesh prepared for market. Their meat is poison, and has produced, in those who have eaten it, cramp, convulsions, apoplexy, and sudden death. Yet the cause of all this suffering is not attributed to the meat. Some animals are inhumanly treated while being brought to the slaughter. They are literally tortured, and after they have endured many hours of extreme suffering, are butchered.”—Spiritual Gifts 4a:146-148.FSG 309.4

“The table should be abundantly supplied with food of the best quality.... Where plenty of good milk and fruit can be obtained there is rarely an excuse for eating animal food. It has come to be a very serious question whether it is safe to use flesh-food at all in this age of the world.... When I could not obtain the food I needed, I have sometimes eaten a little meat; but I am becoming more and more afraid of it.”—Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 117, 118.FSG 309.5

At first, blind prejudice, old habits, and tastes, and even business strongly opposed the vegetarian way of life. Then something happened. Early in this century, because of constant complaints, governments and various societies began to investigate packing houses and other places where animals were slaughtered and prepared for the market. The results of these investigations were astounding. It was found that diseased animals were constantly killed and sold as food. In many cases dangerous chemicals were used as preservatives and to kill odors. In America at least, about 1906, a tremendous outcry against this terrible abuse was heard. After this, few ridiculed Mrs. White’s statements as quoted above, and vegetarianism began to be considered almost as a measure of national welfare. Leading men and women around the earth accept it. To Adventists it will seem more and more important.FSG 309.6

It should be noted that in the instruction concerning health and the cause of disease, the messenger of the Lord laid down no hard, rigid rules as to how people should eat, sleep, work, or dress. She advocated certain principles, and advised all to study them carefully and then experiment for themselves as to what they found best. She stated explicitly that she did not want her way of living to be a criterion or pattern for others to follow; and she did not urge people to make pledges as to what they would or would not eat.FSG 310.1

“I tell our family, ‘Whatever you do, do not get a poverty stricken diet. Place enough on the table to nourish the system. You must do this. You must invent and invent and study all the time, and get up the very best dishes you can, so as not to have a poverty stricken diet.”—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 489, 490.FSG 310.2

“The other members of my family do not eat the same things that I do. I do not hold myself up as a criterion for them. I leave each one to follow his own ideas as to what is best for him. I bind no one else’s conscience by my own. One person cannot be a criterion for another in the matter of eating. It is impossible to make one rule for all to follow. There are those in my family who are very fond of beans, while to me beans are poison.”—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 491.FSG 310.3

This spirit of personal experiment and freedom was followed even in our institutional work. The old Battle Creek Sanitarium did not cease to serve meat until 1898, and the Saint Helena institution continued to serve it until 1903. But both found it helpful to banish flesh foods, and we are happy to state that many others follow this good example. There may be some countries and conditions where this is yet difficult, or where some of our leaders think it unwise, but we are not to judge one another. Beyond all question, the day is coming when the entire remnant church will be a brotherhood of vegetarians, living wholly on the original diet of man. This will come to pass, as stated so forcibly in the following quotation, because meat eating makes us more liable to disease.FSG 311.1

“The fluids and flesh of these diseased animals are received directly into the blood, and pass into the circulation of the human body, becoming fluids and flesh of the same. Thus humors are introduced into the system. And if the person already has impure blood, it is greatly aggravated by the eating of the flesh of these animals. The liability to take disease is increased tenfold by meat-eating. The intellectual, the moral, and the physical powers are depreciated by the habitual use of flesh-meats. Meat-eating deranges the system, beclouds the intellect, and blunts the moral sensibilities.”—Testimonies for the Church 2:64.FSG 311.2

Another helpful phase of the light given on health reform by the Spirit of prophecy is the warning against extreme positions and practices. On the question of foods, Mrs. White warned earnestly against a poverty-stricken diet and always encouraged all to eat freely of good, healthful food.FSG 311.3

“Investigate your habits of diet. Study from cause to effect but do not bear false witness against health reform by ignorantly pursuing a course that militates against it.” “Narrow ideas, and overstraining of small points have been a great injury to the cause of hygiene.” “These extremists do more harm in a few months than they can undo in a lifetime.... They adopt too meager a diet.... I do not recommend an impoverished diet.... There is real common sense in health reform. People cannot all cat the same things. Some articles of food that are wholesome and palatable to one person may be hurtful to another. Some cannot use milk, while others can subsist upon it. For some dried beans and peas are wholesome while others cannot digest them. Some stomachs have become so sensitive that they cannot make use of the coarser kinds of graham flour. So it is impossible to make an unvarying rule by which to regulate every one’s dietetic habits.”—Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 56-58.FSG 311.4

The Adventist health program is founded on the sound wisdom of genuine physiology. The messages of the Lord’s servant do not teach as do some sects or fanatics here or overseas that it is sin to take animal life or that beasts possess immortality because of a divine life principle in them. With Adventists, vegetarianism is not a religion, nor is it ever made a test of fellowship. We do, however, believe that kindness to animals and other good ethical reasons should have an influence in leading Christians and especially parents to discard a meat diet. Our health work is neither negative nor extreme. We do not believe, for instance, in teaching anyone to leave off meat unless he can get proper substitutes for it. This is the reason for our many and prosperous health food factories and products. We believe that an insufficient diet is one of the greatest dangers to health in modern life. We cannot quote their words here, but it is most instructive to read how eager Elder and Mrs. White were to help and teach people who accepted the health reform and changed their diet. A mere “thou shall not” teaching or an extreme teaching of one’s own petty notions can only do harm. Any health reform that fails to make people healthier and happier is a false reform. But the balanced health teaching of the servant of God has been a priceless boon to humanity, as tens of thousands of Adventists and others all over the world will testify. Her words of caution and warning with reference to an insufficient diet and other extreme ideas have been most salutary.FSG 312.1

“I have spoken of the importance of the quantity and quality of food being in strict accordance with the laws of health.... I have been shown that many take a wrong view of the health reform, and adopt too poor a diet. They subsist upon a cheap, poor quality of food....FSG 313.1

“There are some who go to extremes. They must eat just such an amount and just such a quality, and confine themselves to two or three things.... Poor food cannot be converted into good blood. An impoverished diet will impoverish the blood.”—Testimonies for the Church 2:366, 367.FSG 313.2

The fact is that the notional or extreme ideas of some well-meaning people have hindered others in adopting a rational, practical, and helpful diet and manner of living.FSG 313.3

One most cheerful characteristic of the health teaching of the Lord’s messenger was the relation of health to religion. It was taught by many in her time, as it is now, that Christianity is detrimental to good health. Mrs. White taught that faith in God and communion with Christ were most conducive to good health and happiness. “I saw that the view that spirituality is a detriment to health ... is but a sophistry of the devil.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:565. She encouraged the sick to be hopeful and trust in their loving heavenly Father.FSG 313.4

We cannot even mention all the many health questions presented and answered in the messages on health from the servant of the Lord, but one most important subject in her writings was dress. She urged that people dress modestly and healthfully, even though by so doing they find themselves somewhat out of fashion. She did not want them to change their dress just to be like the world; but on the other hand, she said that “Christians should not take pains to make themselves gazing stocks by dressing differently from the world.”—Health: or How to Live, Volume 6, page 61. She urged that members who had recently come to the faith be given instruction on the question of healthful dress. She stressed the need of cleanliness and good taste in dress and warned against extremes. On the other hand, she set forth the danger of modern fashion to both health and morals.FSG 313.5

“While you are devoting precious time to the study of dress, thee inward adorning is neglected; there is no growth in grace. Instead of becoming more heavenly-minded, you are becoming more and more earthly-minded. Foolish and hurtful lusts, groveling appetites, becloud your sense of sacred things. Why will not every one who professes to love Jesus flee from these soul-destroying indulgences! The world is crazy after show and fashion and pleasure. Licentiousness is steadily and fearfully on the increase.”—Ibid., Volume 4, page 647.FSG 314.1

In all this helpful instruction on the advantages of good health, there is a religious consideration which separated the Adventist health program from much that is called healthful living in the world. Mrs. White taught that our ways of living and the health we enjoy are definitely related to our religious experience. All through her life she spent much time to further the cause of temperance. Again and again she protested against the use of tobacco and liquor and urged that every child of God leave off completely the use of those harmful things.FSG 314.2

It scarcely seems necessary at this late day to study the fruitage of all the health instruction given by the messenger of the Lord. We see the value of it in her own life. As a child she had been more or less in ill health; in fact, all through her life, with the prodigious amount of work she did, her health was never robust; yet she was cheerful and sensible, and by her habits of life and the grace of God was able to live until she was 87. Thousands of people today bear witness to the excellent result of the health instruction of Mrs. White.FSG 314.3

Our many health institutions in America and in almost all countries of the earth are with us because of her instruction. She personally encouraged the establishment of many of our sanitariums in America. She even bought land and raised money in her own name to get them under way. The largest sanitarium Adventists have in the world is the Skodsborg institution near Copenhagen, Denmark. When this sanitarium in its early years of poverty and struggle was in great peril, Mrs. White wrote a letter of encouragement to the sanitarium family, addressing it to the head physician. “Be of good courage, Dr. Ottosen. I have seen angels of God walking through the Skodsborg sanitarium and laying their healing hands on the sick.” In like manner she encouraged and helped many other medical institutions. It is not to be wondered at that the Adventist Church, that has benefited so marvelously from this light, should love and believe in the prophetic gift of God’s messenger.FSG 315.1

There are some other points in the health instruction of Mrs. White that should be mentioned. One of these is her strong protest against the immoral sex teaching on the part of some modern advocates of better health. This wicked instruction is more in evidence in certain countries overseas than in America, but there is too much of it here. It is often a form of that “behaviorism” which would banish all inhibitions. It degrades man to be an animal that should find health and happiness by yielding to his lower nature and lusts. These ideas do immense harm, as we have seen, especially since the beginning of this last war. Mrs. White strongly emphasized the most beautiful and practical ideals of purity for both men and women in wedlock and without. Again and again she stated that the peace of Jesus in our hearts and the morality of the Bible in our manner of living would be not a detriment but a help to good health.FSG 315.2

The Spirit of prophecy taught clearly that the children of Christ should take a strong stand by both voice and vote in opposition to both liquor and tobacco. The necessity of this is seen when we observe how the liquor curse is growing in all lands and how the cigarette has become almost universal even among mothers and young girls. We saw this in France after World War I, when smoking had become so common everywhere that it was impossible in any train to find a corner or seat where there was no smoking. There is reason to think that this universal tobacco habit was one cause of the collapse of France in 1940.FSG 316.1

Mrs. White declared:FSG 316.2

“The use of tobacco is working untold harm.... Mental inability, physical weakness, disordered nerves, and unnatural cravings are transmitted as a legacy from parents to children.... To this cause in no small degree is owing the physical, mental, and moral deterioration, which is becoming such a cause of alarm.”—The Ministry of Healing, 328, 329.FSG 316.3

There is danger that this thing is being repeated today. Warned by the instruction of Mrs. White, the Adventist Church took the stand that no member can use liquor or tobacco in any form. Anyone that persistently transgresses this rule is disfellowshiped. We are almost the only church that follows this rule. The Catholic priests all seem to smoke, and we have often been on boats with other Protestant missionaries, including even their women missionaries, who smoked every day, and in public. The remnant church is grateful to God for light on the temperance question.FSG 316.4

Another factor in the health work of Mrs. White that must not be forgotten is her labors and influence in favor of our medical school at Loma Linda and Los Angeles, California. This is by far the largest institutional enterprise of the Adventist Church. Many thought it would never prosper. They claimed that our resources were too limited to conduct a class A medical college. The final decision on this question came at an Autumn Council in Loma Linda in 1915. It was there that the General Conference, guided by the instruction of the Spirit of prophecy, settled for all time that we were to conduct a full-fledged medical college. The General Conference took this decision to have the school and support it to the utmost of its ability, as it has so generously done, because of faith in the Spirit of prophecy.FSG 316.5

There are other phases of the health teaching of Mrs. White that must not be passed by. One of these is the relation of health to holiness of life and to the high hope and goal of translation at the second advent. Another is the health literature she and others produced as a result of her health messages. Her first writings on health appeared in a series of six pamphlets, printed in the sixties. Each pamphlet contained one of her articles on health, and all were later put out in book form, entitled Health: or How to Live. Those first six articles set forth very clearly, though briefly, the great principles of health which she taught. Later, other books were produced on the question of temperance and health. Of these we would mention an old book first printed in 1890, entitled Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene by Mrs. E. G. White and Elder James White. This book had not only a large circulation in America but was very generally sold in many places in Europe.FSG 317.1

The best-known book on health written by Mrs. White is Ministry of Healing. This, too, has been translated into many languages and has had a large circulation. Overseas it met with such marvelous response that a queen in one of the smaller countries of Europe and as an author she is well known, paid to have it translated and printed in her own language so that it might be circulated among her people other books on health questions written by Mrs. White are Counsels on Health and Counsels on Diet and Foods. The health activities of Adventists have been a blessing to multitudes in many, many lands. However, though they have been of untold value to society, the primary purpose of this light is not simply to give us stronger bodies and longer lives but greater power to render noble service to our fellow men. It is not selfishness that leads God’s children to seek a sound mind in a sound body.FSG 317.2