- Diet, Health & Drugs -

     The sleeping car conductor spoke to the gentlemen in the seat with us, [asking them] to go to another car, so we have the whole seat to ourselves. We are pleasantly situated. We are delayed--a box is heated, a fire smelling badly--but we are now started again. I shall endure the journey well, I think.

     May 9. Since writing the above we have had some experience. I realized difficulty in breathing and was greatly annoyed by the effluvia of tobacco, but as I had crossed the continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic nineteen times I had found [that] on the northern route there could be secured in the sleeper every convenience without the annoyance of being obliged to inhale tobacco poisoned air.

     Once only was I grievously troubled. My husband and I were situated in the car opposite a gentleman, his wife, and daughter. This gentleman was a steamboat inspector. He smoked in the cars. Others took lenity from him and they smoked. We changed our seat for the smoke room which could be closed. I thought we were safe, but I realized no relief. I used lemon freely but felt the same strange emotion, and the tobacco-poisoned air was the same as in any [other] part of the car. I was determined to endure it and I laid down, but my head felt that a tight band was drawn around it. I was unable to think, and soon went into a spasm. It was one hour before this was overcome and I was relieved, but with a strange sensation of giddiness and weakness which lasted me three months.

     The smoking steamboat inspector was told it was the tobacco smoke which had acted like poison upon me. He threw away his cigar and we had no more smoking on the train. A physician on board stated that he feared it was to me a fatal poison and that I would never become conscious again. He told me never to consent to be in the room or in the car, carriage, or steamboats where I would be obliged to breathe the air poisoned by tobacco, for he had in his practice treated many cases of mothers and children with affection of the heart caused by living in and inhaling constantly tobacco-poisoned air. Notwithstanding he warned the husband and father of the sure result, he thought there could have been no change [in the man's habit], for the afflicted ones lived only a short time and were [as] verily poisoned to death as if a dose of arsenic or strychnine had been administered.

     He further stated that a very large share of these wives and children who die with heart disease are purely the sure result of living in an atmosphere that is charged with tobacco. "Yours is," said he, "a miraculous escape. The twitching of the muscles of the face, the rigidity of the muscles followed with great prostration and relaxed muscles, are the sure tokens of poison. The violent action of the heart followed a feeble, intermittent pulse, I have met it very many times. It is the effect of tobacco poison. Hundreds are falling victims to this plague of men's own creating, and then have to suffer the consequence of their own perverted habits. They sacrifice wife and children and themselves for [an] indulgence which is a curse to themselves and to all around them."

     On this short trip I have suffered great pain in my heart and dullness of the head. I questioned whether it would be safe to lie down and attempt to sleep. I was very weary, but the drawing room opening directly into the car with the door open was devoted to smoking. A party of Germans were on the car, and their habits are to smoke almost constantly.

     I spoke to the ticket conductor. He said he had no control whatever of the passengers of the sleeping cars. He could do nothing. If the passengers wanted to smoke, they would, and no one could control the matter. I spoke to the porter, asking him if there was no place in the so-called palace car where I would be free of tobacco-poisoned air. He said he could not do anything; he was only a servant. I decided to try [to solve] the matter, and went into my berth, drew the curtains as closely as possible about us, and opened the windows; and, as there was no smoking after they took their berths, I [thought I] might sleep. In the morning I had a severe pain in my heart, and breathing was quite difficult.

     I had yet ten hours on the cars. Close by our seats the Germans began their devotion, to offer up their morning sacrifice. To whom--to the Creator or to the devil? I spoke to the conductor. He said he could not hinder them but would speak to them in regard to it. He did, and they desisted from smoking in that locality. They went into the rear department. In order to obtain correct information, [I] inquired of the sleeping car conductor. He says that it is the custom to devote one end of the car to smoking. As the door is either left wide open or continually opening and shutting, the smoke was fully and thoroughly distributed through the car. I knew now what we had to hope for--nothing but poisoned air to breathe the entire journey. I must bear it as best I could.

     In their practice, the physicians should seek more and more to lessen the use of drugs instead of increasing it. When Dr. A came to the health retreat, she laid aside her knowledge and practice of hygiene, and administered the little homeopathic does for almost every aliment. This was against the light God had given. Thus our people who had been taught to avoid drugs in almost every form, were receiving a different education. I was obliged to tell her than this practice of depending upon medicine, whether in large or small doses, was not in accordance with the principles of health reform....If the principles of health reform are carried out, the work will indeed by as closely allied to that of the third angel's message as the hand is to the body.

     Dear Brother Kellogg,

     I have just read your letter. This, with the enclosures, was the only mail I received this month. I am very much better in health. I can accomplish a large amount of writing, and I find there are many things to engage my mind.

     I wish I could see you face to face, but as I cannot, I will write. Thank you for your prescription. I will be careful. The Lord help me, is my prayer, and I pray that the Lord may help you, my brother, that you many not take on too many burdens, and by so doing disqualify yourself for the management of them. Should you be removed by sickness or death, who is there prepared to carry these responsibilities? The physicians under you may have an interest in this large and broad work, but they have not the long experience you have had. While you are in a position to educate, you should select a number of men, and train them to carry the responsibilities. Under your education they may learn to do the work you have been doing by the help God has given you.

     The influence you have gained in the medical profession is large and broad, and in some respects it has been as God would have it. You have caused the light God has given you to shine forth to others, and this light has influenced others in the medical work. But according to the light the Lord has given me, something of the spirit of Free Masonry exists, and has built a wall about the work. The old regular practice has been exalted as the only true method for the treatment of disease. And to a large degree this feeling has leavened the physicians connected with you. They have resorted to drugs in cases of fever to break it up, as they have thought. This method has in several cases broken up fevers and other diseases, but it has broken up the whole man with it. The Lord has been pleased to present this matter before me in clear lines. Fever cases need not be treated with drugs. The most difficult cases are best and most successfully managed by nature's own resources. This science, fully adopted, will bring the best results, if the practitioner will be thorough. The Lord will bless the physician who depends on natural methods, helping every function of the human machinery to act in its own strength the part the Lord designed it to act in restoring itself to proper action.

     Dr. Kellogg, God has given you favor with the medical fraternity, and he would have you hold that favor. But in no case are you to stand as do the physicians of the world to exalt Allopathy above every other practice, and call all other methods quackery and error; for from the beginning to the present time the results of Allopathy have made a most objectionable showing. There has been loss of life in your Sanitarium because drugs have been administered, and these give no chance for nature to do her work of restoration. Drug medication has broken up the power of the human machinery, and the patients have died. Others have carried the drugs away with them, making less effective the simple remedies nature uses to restore the system. The students in your institution are not to be educated to regard drugs as a necessity. They are to be educated to leave drugs alone.

     The medical fraternity, represented to me as Free Masonry, with their long unintelligible names, which common people cannot understand, would call the Lord's prescription for Hezekiah quackery. Death was pronounced upon the king, but he prayed for life, and his prayer was heard. Those who had the care of him were told to get a bunch of figs and put them on the sore, and the king was restored. This means was taken by God to teach them that all their preparations were only depriving the king of the power to rally and overcome disease. While they pursued their course of treatment, his life could not be saved. The Lord diverted their minds from their wonderful mysteries to a simple remedy of nature. There are lessons for us all in these directions. Young men who are sent to Ann Arbor to obtain an education which they think will exalt them as supreme in their treatment of disease by drugs, will find that it will result in the loss of life rather than restoration to health and strength. These mixtures place a double taxation upon nature, and in the effort to throw off the poisons they contain, thousands of persons lose their lives. We must leave drugs entirely alone, for in using them we introduce an enemy into the system. I write this because we have to meet this drug medication in the physicians in this country, and we do not want this practice as in Battle Creek to steal into our midst as a thief. We want the door closed against the enemy before the lives of human beings are imperilled.

     Dr. Kellogg, I am perplexed to know what to do for means, but I do not ask you to take this burden upon you. God forbid that you should have any unnecessary burdens to bear. One thing I shall do: I shall make appeals to every church, irrespective of any persons in responsible positions. There is a work to be done in this country, and the people who have had the benefit of my husbands's labor and my own in building up the work on the Pacific Coast and in Battle Creek must understand how hard we have labored, and help us. I do not call on the Conference. I come to the people and appeal to them for help. If we can one get established, we shall work without assistance, but we must have help now, we cannot do without it.

     You write that the Conference says that Australia has had more means than any other place. That may be, but as long as the providence of God opens new fields for us, shall we refuse to enter them, and refuse to establish in this new world a working force that will send laborers into other fields? How can the people hear without a preacher and how can he preach except he be sent? We mean by the help of God to warn the world, to carry our testimony to regions beyond.

     We are called upon by the Lord to preach the truth without delay. All the country between the places where interests are already established is calling for the truth. We have the third angel's message, the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and this truth is to encircle cities and towns. We are to carry the message from point to point, establishing in each a little community of missionaries. The workers in Australia are directed to enlarge the sphere of their labors by sending help to the unpromising fields in regions beyond, where the standard of truth has never yet been lifted. We do not propose to colonize, to build up strong centers to the neglect of other fields. But we are to enlarge the circle of our operations, as those who believe they are giving the last message of warning to the world. God's professed people in America should have been awake to do this work. In the place of centering so many interests in Battle Creek, plans should have been made in city after city. If they had been filled with zeal for the truth, they would have let their light shine to others, and would have labored to prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord.

     We may have had more means than some other places, but we have a showing for all this. Progressive work has been done. New fields have been entered, and still there are more openings around us. We are to transverse all parts of Australia. Missionaries are needed who will come to this country to do earnest work for the Master. May the Lord arouse His people who know the truth to impart the knowledge they have. Let us pray each day the prayer so full of meaning that Christ gave his disciples: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" [Matthew 6:9-10].

     Aggressive warfare is before all who believe the truth. We are to make unbounded progress and improvement in carrying forward the work that mortal man is privileged to do under the command of the great General of armies. God sends His angels as ministering spirits to go before the true worker, and unite with him. The truth is to work our hearts by the Holy Spirit's power. We are to call upon those who know the truth to enter into the work of cooperating with the angels of God. We are to be discouraged at nothing. We are to hope for everything in moral advancement, in spreading the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ our Lord. We are to call upon the Lord in every emergency, at every step.

     Living principles are laid down in the word of God. Why do not believers read to a purpose and obey. Why do they not appoint themselves missionaries. We need families in Australia, not men and women who wish to be carried, but workers, wise men who can manage. We want those who can lift with us.

     Our duty to the world is broad and deep. We are to do unto others as we would they should do unto us. The truth must go everywhere, and we want those who can plead with the Lord in prayer, who will bend the knee before God, abolishing the fashion which has come in among our people, and has been transported by our workers to other countries, of standing like the Pharisees, and praying to be heard of men. We want all who know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent to bow low at his footstool, and pray that the world may hear the message of warning, that it may be caught up by those who hear it, and carried to those who know it not. Let us kneel before God with humble hearts, and give expression to our reverence for him. All pride, all pomposity must be laid in the dust. Make known your desires to God. The sincere, truehearted worker will not fail nor be discouraged, for God from His high and holy place looks upon the contrite one, and he will empower him at every step. He will set in action almighty agencies to warn the world to prepare to meet its God.

     The human instruments through whom God works are not to stand as now in discord and variance. Those who have faith in Christ as their all-sufficient Saviour will be in perfect unison with Him. When self is hid with Christ in God there will be no disunion, no variance, no strife. All will be in perfect sympathy with Christ to save the world in God's appointed way. God calls upon His church to minister for Him and with Him in the saving of perishing souls. Then in the place of drawing away from Christ and from one another, the workers will seek to keep the breath of life in the church. they will trim their lamps with the holy oil which the two olive branches, will through the two golden pipes communicate to them. Light will be imparted by the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

     God will test every church in our world. Those who know the truth, but are not doers of the word are the worst stumbling blocks we could have in our work of advance. God calls upon his people to arouse and trim their lamps. Never till Zion travails for perishing souls can she see the working of the Holy Spirit in sinners born again. Christ is waiting to be gracious to those who will labor with one spirit and one mind to minister the truth for this time. Christ has appointed the Christian ministry and the various means of grace comprehended in the ministry. When unity in Christ is revealed, when Jesus is acknowledged by precept and practice, the Holy Spirit will reveal the willingness of the two anointed ones to empty the golden oil out of themselves into the vessels prepared to receive it.

     This [praying for the sick] is a very delicate question, and to many minds, I fear, will not be satisfactorily settled. I have tried to act upon the light the Lord has given me in the fear of God. I have prayed for several, presenting a very urgent petition, for it seemed to me it would glorify God for them to be raised up to health, and I would not take a denial.

     To all appearances several for whom I have prayed have been in the last moments of their existence. My prayer was very urgent, for it seemed to me that my petition must be answered, and they were raised up to health. Now a number of these cases have resulted in something very different than could be desired; for the course of several has proved that it would have been better had they died. One, after having grown to years, became a notorious thief, another became licentious, and another, though grown to manhood, has no love for God or His truth.

     I have been troubled over these things, and years ago took the position that if I had any duty to pray for the sick, I would come before the Lord with a petition of this kind: "Lord, we cannot read the heart of this sick one; but Thou knowest whether it is for the good of his soul and for the glory of Thy name to raise him to health. In Thy great goodness, compassionate this case, and rebuke disease, and let healthy action take place in the system. The work must be entirely Thine own. We have done all that human skill can do. Now, Lord, we lay this case at Thy feet. Work as only a God can work, and, if it be for his good and Thy glory, arrest the progress of disease and heal this sufferer."

     This, in short, is the way I have prayed for the sick. But I have thought that I might quench the faith of others in their intense earnestness, and for some years I have felt that it was not my duty to engage with others in praying for the sick. This was the way I prayed for Henry N. White. But after I have earnestly prayed for the sick, what then? Do I cease to do all I possibly can for their recovery? No. I work all the more earnestly, with much prayer, that the Lord may bless the means which His own hand has provided, entreating that He may give a sanctified wisdom to cooperate with God in the recovery of the sick.

     This was what I did in the case of my husband. Many, many prayers have been offered in his behalf, but you well know the petitions were not immediately answered. The praying ones became weary because they did not see their prayers answered, and tried to find reasons to explain the delay. But I ceased not my prayers. When I saw that he did not recover, I redoubled my energy. I began to devise ways and means that would aid nature to the very utmost in making healthful changes in the suffering one. Day and night I prayed for wisdom, and if I had ceased my prayers and my efforts, he would have died.

     When Edson and Willie were very sick, we first prayed earnestly to God that He would rebuke the disease and heal them. Then did we feel relieved from doing everything in our power for their recovery? No. We worked most vigorously, using God's own remedies. We applied water in various ways, praying the Lord to accept our efforts and give us strength and wisdom to use (not drug medication) but the simple, natural remedies God had provided. Thus we were cooperating with God.

     In praying for the sick, it is essential to have faith, for it is in accordance with the Word of God. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." So we cannot discard praying for the sick, and we would feel very sad if we could not have the privilege of approaching God, to lay before Him all our weakness and all our infirmities, to tell the compassionate Saviour all about these things, believing that He hears our petitions.

     Sometimes answers to our prayers come immediately; sometimes we have to wait patiently and continue earnestly to plead for the things that we need, our cases illustrated by the case of the importunate solicitor for bread. "Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth."

     This lesson means much more than we imagine. We are to keep on asking, even if we do not realize the immediate response to our prayers. "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

     We need grace, we need divine enlightenment, that through the Spirit we shall know how to ask for such things as we need. If our petitions are indited of the Lord, they will be answered.

     Perilous times are before us. The whole world will be involved in perplexity and distress. Disease of every kind will be upon the human family, and such ignorance as now prevails concerning the laws of health would result in great suffering and the loss of many lives that might be saved.

     While Satan is constantly doing his utmost to take advantage of man's ignorance, and to lay the foundation of disease through improper treatment of the body, it is best for those who claim to be sons and daughters of God to avail themselves, while they can, of the opportunities now presented, to gain a knowledge of the human system and how it may be preserved in health.

     As we approach the close of this earth's history, selfishness and violence and crime will prevail as in the days of Noah....As religious aggression subverts the liberties of our nation, those who would stand for freedom of conscience will be placed in unfavorable positions. For their own sakes, they should, while they have opportunity, become intelligent in regard to disease, its causes, prevention, and cure. And those who do this will find a field of labor anywhere. There will be suffering ones, plenty of them, who need help, not only among those of our own faith, but largely among those who know not the truth.

     There must be a reform among the medical fraternity or the church will be purged from those who will not be Bible Christians. It is altogether too late in the day for such exhibition of spirit as is revealed among medical drug practitioners. God abhors it.

     I want to say that the third angel's message is the gospel, and that health reform is the wedge by which the truth may enter.

     The Lord has given His people a message in regard to health reform. This light has been shining upon their pathway for thirty years, and the Lord cannot sustain His servants in a course which will counteract it. He is displeased when His servants act in opposition to the message upon this point, which He has given them to give to others. Can He be pleased when half the workers laboring in a place teach that the principles of health reform are as closely allied with the third angel's message as the arm is to the body, while their co-workers, by their practice, teach principles that are entirely opposite? This is regarded as sin in the sight of God, and is one reason why He could not give greater success to the work....

     My brother, you must no longer disparage the messengers and the message God has sent you in regard to the principles of healthful living. Testimony after testimony has been given which should have brought about great reforms, but at home and abroad your life has been a decided witness against the warning which the Lord has sent. And nothing brings such discouragement upon the Lord's watchmen as to be connected with those who have mental capacity, and who understand the reasons of our faith, but by precept and example manifest indifference to moral obligations.

     The light which God has given upon health reform cannot be trifled with without injury to those who attempt it; and no man can hope to succeed in the work of God while by precept and example he acts in opposition to the light God has sent. The voice of duty is the voice of God, an inborn, heaven-sent guide; and the Lord will not be trifled with upon these subjects. He who disregards the light which God has given in regard to the preservation of health revolts against his own good, and refuses to obey the One who is working for his best good.

     It is the duty of every Christian to follow that course of action which the Lord has designated as right for His servants. He is ever to remember that God and eternity are before him, and he should not disregard his spiritual and physical health even though tempted by wife, children, or relatives to do so. "If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him."

     The principles of health reform, right or wrong, which are adopted by him who gives the Word of God to others, will have a molding influence upon his work, and upon those with whom he labors. If his principles are wrong, he can and will misrepresent the truth to others. If he accepts the truth which appeals to reason rather than to perverted appetite, his influence for the right will be decided. The truth will be in his heart as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.

     God's instruction is not "Yea and Nay," but "Yea and Amen" in Christ Jesus, and His workers are called upon to remember that they cannot drift along with unsettled principles which are warped and distorted by impulse, without misrepresenting the truth which they profess, and doing a lasting injury to their own souls....

     Every true servant of God will guard closely the citadel of the soul, lest the things of earth steal his affections from God. God lays no burden upon His servants that they are not able to bear. "He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust." "In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength," and this strength he waits to bestow upon every asking soul.

     It is a very easy thing to talk of the truth with the lips; but if the heart is not true and loyal to God and His requirements, our preaching does no good.

     Your self confidence has been shown in your disregard of the light upon health reform. The Lord has given His servants a special message to bear, that His people may become intelligent upon this subject....And you have not been willing to see that temperance in eating and drinking, and in all things devolve upon you. This in itself was a reason why you should not have been ordained into the ministry. No man should be set apart as a teacher of the people while his own teaching or example contradicts the testimony God has given his servants to bear in regard to diet; for this will bring confusion. And your disregard of health reform is unfitting you to stand as the Lord's messenger. Indulgence in meat eating, and tea drinking, and other forms of self-pleasing, is injurious to the health of the body and the soul.

     The whole heathen world will rise up in judgment against those whom heaven has favored the most, but who have placed themselves on Satan's side, and worked in his lines to bring their soul-destroying narcotics to foreign lands, to pollute and destroy the heathen nations with their defiling and health destroying drugs. For the sake of a revenue, a professedly Christian nation have forced their traffic upon the heathen nations at the point of the sword, and thus compelled them to accept their merchandise, which would in using degrade the people below the level of brute creation.

     In answer to the questions that have recently come to me in regard to resuming the reform dress, I would say that those who have been agitating this subject may be assured that they have not been inspired by the Spirit of God. The Lord has not indicated that it is the duty of our sisters to go back to the reform dress. The difficulties that we once had to meet are not to be brought in again. There must be no branching out now into singular forms of dress. New and strange things will continually arise, to lead God's people into false excitement, religious revivals, and curious developments; but our people should not be subjected to any tests of human invention that will create controversy in any line.

     The advocacy of the old reform dress proved a battle at every step. With some there was no uniformity and taste in the preparation of the costume, and those who refused to adopt it caused dissension and discord. Thus the cause was dishonored. Because that which was given as a blessing was turned into a curse, the burden of advocating the reform dress was removed.

     There were some things that made the reform dress a decided blessing. With it the ridiculous hoops, which were then the fashion, could not possibly be worn; nor the long trailing skirts sweeping up the filth of the streets. But in recent years a more sensible style of dress has been adopted by the world, which does not embrace these objectionable features; and if our sisters wish to make their dresses after these models, simple and plain, the Lord will not be dishonored by their doing so.

     Some have supposed that the skirt and sack mentioned in Testimonies, Vol. IV, page 640, was the pattern that all should adopt. This is not so, but something as simple as this should be used. No one precise style has been given me as the exact rule to guide all in their dress. Should our sisters think they must adopt a uniform style of dress, controversy would arise, and those whose minds should be wholly given to the work of the third angel's message would spend their time making aggressive warfare on the outward dress, to the neglect of that inward piety, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

     The dress question is not to be our present truth. To create an issue on this point now would please the enemy. He would be delighted to have minds diverted to any subject by which he might create division of sentiment and lead our people into controversy.

     I beg of our people to walk carefully and circumspectly before God. Follow the customs in dress as 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. Our sisters should dress with simplicity. They should clothe themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety. Give to the world a living illustration of the inward adorning of the grace of God. Place yourselves under the discipline of the living oracles of God, subjecting the mind to influences which form the character aright.

     We are nearing the close of this world's history. We are face to face with tremendous conflicts, storms of dissension of which few dream; and all our time and power of thought are to be centered on the living issues before us. God has tests for this age, and they are to stand out plain and unmistakable. It is too late now to become enthusiastic over any man-made tests. The great test for this time is on the commandments of God, especially the Sabbath, and nothing is to be brought in to draw the mind and heart from the preparation needed to meet it. The people of God will have all the test that they can bear. The Sabbath question is a test that will come to the whole world. We need nothing to come in now as a test for God's people, that shall make more severe for them the test they already have....

     Let our sisters conscientiously heed the Word of God for themselves. Do not begin the work of reform until you do. You cannot possibly change the heart. To get up a different style of dress will not do it. The difficulty is the church needs converting daily. There are many things that will come to try and test these poor, deluded, spiritually dwarfed, world-loving souls. They will have deep trials. Let there be no man-made tests, for God has prepared to prove and try them. If they will heed His admonitions and warnings...He will receive them graciously.

     The working of the Spirit of God will show a change outwardly. Those who venture to disobey the plainest statement of Inspiration will not heed any human efforts made to induce them to wear plain, neat, unadorned, proper dress that will not in any way make them odd or singular. They will continue to expose themselves by hanging out their colors to the world.

     There are those who will never return to their first love. They will never cease to make an idol of self. With all the light of the Word of God shining on their pathway, they will not obey His directions. They will follow their own tastes, and do as they please. These sisters give a wrong example to the youth, and to those who have newly come to the faith, for they see little difference between their apparel and that of the worldling.

     To those who are making self their idol nothing in the line of human tests should be presented, for it would only give them an excuse for making the final plunge into apostasy. Such do not know whom they are serving. Knowledge and power belong to God. The ignorantly guilty must learn their condition. We must wait patiently and not fail or be discouraged, for God has His plans all arranged. While we are burdened and distressed, but waiting in patient submission, our invisible Helper will be doing the work we do not see, and will bring to pass in His providence events which will either work reformations, or will separate these halfhearted, world-loving members from the believers. The Lord knows about every case and how to deal with each. Our wisdom is limited to a point, while infinite wisdom comprehends the end from the beginning. Our whole term of probation is very brief. A short work will be done in the earth. God's own tests will come; His proving will be sharp and decisive. Let every soul humble himself before God and prepare for what is awaiting us.

     Let these conscientious sisters who would enter upon the work of dress reform walk circumspectly and work in a manner that will correspond with the burden of the message for this time. The surrender of heart, soul, and mind in obedience to the commandments of God is as a thread of gold, binding up the precious things of God and revealing their value in the time of trial.

     Therefore I say to my sisters, Enter into no controversy in regard to outward apparel, but be sure you have the inward adorning of a meek and quiet spirit. Let all who accept the truth show their true colors. We are a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. False prudence, mock modesty, may be shown by the outward apparel, while the heart is in great need of the inward adorning. Stand ever committed to the right.

     Do not look around to see if there are not tests that can be brought upon God's people. God has given a test--the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment. "Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you....Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed" [Exodus 31:13-17].

     All who bring to the observance of the Sabbath a heart consecrated to God will find that the day God has sanctified is more to them than they had any idea of. "I am the Lord that doth sanctify you" [Verse 13]. "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" [Isaiah 58:13, 14].

     It is the variety and mixture of meat, vegetables, fruit, wines, tea, coffee, sweet cakes, and rich pies that ruin the stomach and place human beings in the position where they become invalids, with all the disagreeable effects of sickness upon the disposition. The character becomes perverted, a depraved appetite is established, and a diseased religious experience is the result. The words of the apostle to the Romans should be repeated to all the churches and to all families: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" [Romans 12:1, 2].

     The perfection of Christian character is attainable. As we approach the close of this earth's history, we will find that the whole world is becoming a lazar house of disease, and transgression of the law of God is bringing the sure result.

     [Deuteronomy 4:1-9 quoted].

     In the fifth chapter of this book, the commandments of God are repeated. (Verses 6-21 quoted). The whole chapter is very definite. Read verses 29-33. Again, the requirements of God are given in the eighth chapter, verses 1-15.

     These requirements were to be framed into song, and sung in the congregations of Israel, lest they should forget them. [Deuteronomy 10:12-22, 11:26-32 quoted]. The entire chapter contains the expressed will of God.

     I present the word of the Lord God of Israel. Because of transgression, the curse of God has come upon the earth itself, upon the cattle, and upon all flesh. Human beings are suffering the result of their own course of action in departing from the commandments of God. The beasts also suffer under the curse.

     Meat eating should not come into prescriptions for any invalids from any physician from among those who understand things. Disease in cattle is making meat eating a dangerous matter. The Lord's curse is upon the earth, upon man, upon beasts, upon fish in the sea; and as transgression becomes almost universal, the curse will be permitted to become as broad and as deep as the transgression. Disease is contracted by the use of meat. The diseased flesh of these dead carcasses are sold in the market places, and disease among men is the sure result.

     The Lord would bring His people into a position where they will not touch nor taste the flesh of dead animals. Then let not these things be prescribed by any physician who has a knowledge of the truth for this time. There is no safety in eating the flesh of dead animals, and in a short time the milk of the cow will also be excluded from the diet of God's commandment-keeping people. In a short time it will not be safe to use anything that comes from the animal creation. Those who take God at His word and obey His commandments with the whole heart will be blessed. He will be their shield of protection. But the Lord will not be trifled with. Distrust, disobedience, and alienation from God's will and way will place the sinner in a position where the Lord cannot give him His divine favor.

     All heaven is working to resist Satan's power, to bind the strong man. The angels of God are working to put restrictions upon the power of the enemy until man shall be fully tested and tried. Hear the gracious invitation made to every soul: "He that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." This is not a bodily movement, but the submitting of the human will to the will of supreme wisdom. The human agent does not have to go into heaven to bring God down, or into the deep to bring Him up. He is not far from every one of us. "In Him we live, move, and have our being."

     The Lord invites every human agent to meet Him on the ground of the great atoning Sacrifice. A man is required to give a cordial assent to the terms of salvation, and be reconciled to the will of God, to do all His commandments, and walk in obedience and fellowship with God. The word of God gives the conditions, testifying, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

     The invitation is gracious, full, and free to all who receive Christ as their personal Saviour. To all such He gives power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name. Christ's dying love is the pledge we bring to the Father for reconciliation with Him, and to all who advance toward Him He gives a hearty welcome. We may take God at His word. There is a oneness between man and his God. Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour. Fallen man may place himself under his Father's protection. The prodigal may be covered with the robe of Christ's righteousness, and given a place at His table.

     Again I will refer to the diet question. We cannot now do as we have ventured to do in the past in regard to meat eating. It has always been a curse to the human family, but now it is made particularly so in the curse which God has pronounced upon the herds of the field, because of man's transgression and sin. The disease upon animals is becoming more and more common, and our only safety is in leaving meat entirely alone. The most aggravated diseases are now prevalent, and the very last thing that physicians who are enlightened should do is to advise patients to eat meat. It is in eating meat so largely in this country that men and women are becoming demoralized, their blood corrupted, and disease planted in the system. Because of meat eating many die, and they do not understand the cause. If the truth were known, it would bear testimony it was the flesh of animals that have passed through death. The thought of feeding on dead flesh is repulsive, but there is something besides this. In eating meat we partake of diseased dead flesh, and this sows its seed of corruption in the human organism.

     I write to you, my brother, that the giving of prescriptions for the eating of the flesh of animals shall no more be practiced in our sanitarium. There is no excuse for this. There is no safety in the after influence and results upon the human mind. Let us be health reformers in every sense of the term. Let us make known in our institutions that there is no longer a meat table even for the boarders, and then the education given upon the discharging of a meat diet will not be only saying but doing. If patronage is less, so let it be. The principles will be a far greater value when they are understood, when it is known that the life of no living thing shall be taken to sustain the life of the Christian.

     In this country we see the necessity of our words and deeds harmonizing. I had a decided talk with the physicians just at the right time, and I think now the question will be settled with them.

     I spoke Sabbath upon this subject, and the church was full of believers and unbelievers, so these will now know our position without mistake. Of course, there must be an abundance of fruit and well-cooked grains. We are setting the example of making out-of-door ovens, and baking our own bread. Three families use our brick oven, and it is a great blessing to us all. I continue my two-meal system, and I eat very sparingly, and seldom ever know what it means to be hungry. Although at times circumstances compel us to be unable to eat our meals at regular periods, yet I am never hungry.

     The influence you [Dr. Kellogg] have gained in the medical profession is large and broad, and in some respects it has been as God would have it. You have caused the light God has given you to shine forth to others, and this light has influenced others to labor in the different lines in the medical work. But according to the light the Lord has given me, something of the spirit of Free Masonry exists, and has built a wall about the work. The old regular practice has been exalted as the only true method for the treatment of disease. And to a large degree this feeling has leavened the physicians connected with you. They have resorted to drugs in cases of fever to break it up, as they have thought. This method has broken up fevers and other disease, but it has in some cases broken up the whole man with it. The Lord has been pleased to present this matter before me in clear lines. Fever cases need not be treated with drugs. The most difficult cases are best and most successfully managed by nature's own resources. This science, fully adopted, will bring the best results, if the practitioners will be thorough. The Lord will bless the physician who depends on natural methods, helping every function of the human machinery to act in its own strength the part the Lord designed it to act in restoring itself to proper action.

     Dr. Kellogg, God has given you favor with the medical fraternity, and he would have you hold that favor. But in no case are you to stand as do the physicians of the world to exalt quackery and error; for from the beginning to the present time the results of Allopathy have made a most objectionable showing. There has been loss of life in your sanitarium because drugs have been administered, and these give no chance for nature to do her work of restoration. Drug medication has broken up the power of the human machinery, and the patients have died. Others have carried the drugs away with them, making less effective the simple remedies nature uses to restore the system. The students in your institution are not to be educated to regard drugs as a necessity. They are to be educated to leave drugs alone.

     The medical fraternity, represented to me as Free Masonry, with their long unintelligible names, which common people cannot understand, would call the Lord's prescription for Hezekiah quackery. Death was pronounced upon the king, but he prayed for life, and his prayer was heard. Those who had the care of him were told to get a bunch of figs and put them on the sore, and the king was restored. This means was taken by God to teach them that all their preparations were only depriving the king of the power to rally and overcome disease. While they pursued their course of treatment, his life could not be saved. The Lord diverted their minds from their wonderful mysteries to a simple remedy of nature. There are lessons for us all in these directions. Young men who are sent to Ann Arbor to obtain an education which they think will exalt them as supreme in their treatment by drugs of disease, will find that it will result in the loss of life rather than restoration of health and strength. These mixtures place a double taxation upon nature, and in the effort to throw off the poisons they contain, thousands of persons lose their lives. We must leave drugs entirely alone, for in using them we introduce an enemy into the system. I write this because we have to meet this drug medication in the physicians in this country, and we do not want this practice as in Battle Creek to steal into our midst as a thief. We want the door closed against the enemy before the lives of human beings are imperilled.

     Those who know the truth, but are not doers of the word are the worst stumbling blocks we could have in our work of advance. God calls upon his people to arouse and trim their lamps. Never till Zion travails for perishing souls can she see the working of the Holy Spirit in sinners born again. Christ is waiting to be gracious to those who will labor with one spirit and one mind to minister the truth for this time.

     God does not give a man a monopoly of His goods in any line of work. Experiments will be made and tests made by men to whom the Lord has given wisdom. They will prepare food to take the place of that which is injurious that the poor may have a benefit of His good to support themselves and their families. This is the Lord's order, and no one is permitted to close the door to that which will sustain life. God can set a table in the wilderness, and this will be more properly understood in the future.

     Those in the synagogue of Satan will profess to be converted, and unless God's servants have keen eyesight, they will not discern the working of the power of darkness....God calls for a reform in His institutions, for they have become permeated with the spirit of the world. He calls upon all to bear testimony in favor of health reform.

     We have no right to tax nerve and muscle so severely that we readily become excited, speaking words that dishonor God. This is not in the Lord's order. He wants to be always calm and forebearing. However inconsiderate a course others may pursue, we are to represent Christ, doing as He would do under similar circumstances. We are to obey the words, 'Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves.' We are to keep our nerves in such a healthy condition that we shall ever be calm in speech and righteous in action....

     God has been giving me instructions to the effect that He will give men in various countries ability to produce healthful foods, so that the human machinery can be kept in good order without the use of any food which contains injurious properties. By His Holy Spirit the Lord will guide His workers in the preparation of health foods.

     To many in different places the Lord will give intelligence in regard to health foods. He can spread a table in the wilderness....In simple inexpensive ways, our people are to experiment with the fruits and grains and roots in the country in which they live. In different countries inexpensive health foods are to be manufactured for the benefit of the poor, and for the benefit of the families of our people.

     The message God has given me is that His people in foreign lands are not to depend for their supply of health foods on the importation of health foods from America....

     When the message comes to those who have not heard the truth for this time, they see that a great reformation must take place in their diet. They see that they must put away fleshfood, because it creates an appetite for liquor and fills the system with disease. By meat-eating, the physical, mental, and moral powers are weakened. Man is built up from that which he eats. Animal passions bear sway as the result of meat-eating, tobacco-using, and liquor-drinking. The Lord will give His people wisdom to prepare from that which the earth yields, foods that will take the place of flesh-meat. Simple combinations of nuts and grains and fruits, manufactured with taste and skill, will commend themselves to unbelievers. But as a usual thing, too many nuts are used in the combinations made.

     Seventh-day Adventists are handling momentous truths. On the subject of temperance they should be in advance of any other people.

     None can be fully aroused to see the evils resulting from an improper diet, until they have an intelligent understanding of the principles of health reform. And even if, after seeing their mistakes, they have courage to change their habits, they will find that the reformatory process requires a struggle and much perseverance. But when correct tastes are formed, men will realize that the articles of food concerning which they once said, "Oh, those things do not hurt me," were establishing in the stomach a condition that was laying the foundation for dyspepsia and other diseases.

     Parents, in giving food to children, should use good, common sense. It is usually in the early years that the appetite is perverted. Children fail on the same point on which Adam and Eve failed in Eden. Many have educated their taste to relish certain foods that are injurious and that cannot make the best quality of blood.

     Too great a variety of food at one meal causes a disturbance in the digestive organs. Weakly children who eat vegetables and fruit at the same meal often become fretful and peevish.

     These children are regarded as having a very bad dispositions, when the real cause of their irritability is the food that is provided for them by their parents.

     We should be careful in regard to soul-culture. If we use all provisions made for us by heavenly agencies, we shall be co-laborers with God.

     The Lord has given us moral susceptibilities. He has given us Jesus, who came into the world to show us in His life what our lives should be. He has given to us the same principles of truth that He gave to ancient Israel. These principles we are to follow in the formation of character.

     In order to be made whole, we must connect with the Source of our strength. If the Lord in His mercy heals our infirmities and diseases, we are not to be presumptuous or to think that we can indulge perverted appetite, heedless of His message to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. Let us not mock God by perversity of spirit. When He works a miracle in our behalf to give us health, it is that we may devote our restored powers to His service.

     Christ lived not to please Himself, but to glorify His Father. And this was God's purpose in delivering the Israelites. Moses declared: "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth" [Deuteronomy 14:2]. If the Lord's ways had always been kept by His ancient people, in the history of nations there would never have been a record of the destruction of Jerusalem.

     The Lord has a message for us at this time. The truths that have been given to us, we are to receive into the heart and reveal in the life-practice. We are to be indeed channels of light to the world....

     Men and women, by their ingratitude to God, reveal that their attachment and devotion to Him, in acknowledgment of His goodness and mercy, is less than that of the beasts of the field. The dumb animals possess more gratitude to God than do many of the beings who have been endowed with reason and capabilities. What a reproach to man is the superiority of the service of the beasts over the service of men!

     Through Jeremiah the prophet the Lord says: "Yea, the stork in heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgment of the Lord. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made He it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?" [Jeremiah 8:7-9]. The entire chapter is a presentation of things as they are.

     "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord" [Jeremiah 9:23, 24].

     While we desire to stand on the right platform and to be in unity in regard to the medical missionary work, we also desire to understand individually what true medical missionary work is, as outlined in the Word of God. We desire to understand the length, breadth, height, and depth of this work. It is an unselfish work. Some things that are said to be medical missionary work are not rightly named. The medical missionary work is a most exalted work. It is one of the principal means of preparing a people to stand as God's family in the last days. It is not merely something that will gain for us a round of applause from the world.

     True medical missionary work is in accordance with pure gospel religion. Those who study its principles are learning of Christ. His methods of teaching are to be brought into the training of helpers who are to engage in this branch of our work. "Whoso eateth My flesh," He says, "and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life." How can we eat His flesh and drink His blood? His answer is, "The flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." The Word of God is to underlie everything....

     Let the helpers in the institution fully understand that in their daily work they are gaining an education more valuable than anything which they could gain merely in a schoolroom. A practical training is worth far more than theoretical knowledge. The common words by which we know simple remedies are as useful as are the technical terms used by physicians for these same remedies. To request a nurse to prepare some catnip tea, answers the purpose fully as well as would directions given to her in language understood only after long study.

     The Lord does not use words that are meaningless to the ordinary person. When Hezekiah was sick, the prophet Isaiah said, "Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover." The Lord speaks in a language so plain that everyone can understand Him. In order to become a competent nurse, it is not necessary to learn so many technical terms that are understood by comparatively few. To acquire a familiarity with these long words, students use much precious time that they could use otherwise to better profit. These difficult names are a device to cover up the nature of poisonous drugs.

     Christ is our great Physician. He is ready to come into our medical missionary training schools to work for the students, and to heal them.

     During Christ's ministry on the earth, His great heart of love struck a sympathetic cord of tenderness in the hearts of the people. When He told the sick that they were whole, they believed Him. His very words seemed to be accompanied by the power of conviction, and the people believed that He spoke the truth.

     Unbelievers have inquired, "Why are not miracles wrought among those who claim to be God's people?" Brethren, the greatest miracle that can be wrought is the conversion of the human heart. We need to be reconverted, losing sight of self and human ideas, and beholding Christ, that we may be transformed into His likeness. When this, the greatest of all miracles, is wrought within our hearts, we shall see the working of other miracles.

     God cannot work through us miraculously while we are unconverted. It would spoil us, for we would take it as an evidence that we were perfect before Him. Our first work is to become perfect in His sight, by living faith claiming His promise of forgiveness. "Ask what ye will," Christ declared to His disciples, "and it shall be done unto you."

     Let us remember that He also said, "He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me. And he that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness" [John 12:44-46]. "Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also" [John 14:19]. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me" [John 15:4]. Those who see Christ by living faith, those who abide in Him, will have power to work miracles for His glory.

     This is why the physicians and nurses in our medical institutions should be those who abide in Christ; for through their connection with the heavenly Physician their patients will be blessed. Those God-fearing workers will have no use for poisonous drugs. They will use the natural agencies that God has given for the restoration of the sick. Time and again I have told the workers in our sanitariums that from the light that God has given me I know that they need not lose one patient suffering from a fever, if they take the case in hand in time and use rational methods of treatment instead of drugs.

     My husband and I were neither doctors nor the children of doctors, but we had success in the treatment of disease. In a time when many of the people--even the children of physicians--were dying all around us, we went from house to house to treat the sick, using water and giving them healthful food. Through the blessing of God, we did not lose a single case.

     At another time I carried my two sons through the typhoid fever. God was my helper. My husband would have died if I had not by faith laid hold on God. I knew that God did not want him to die, because He did not want His name dishonored. My husband's life was spared. Years afterward, when He died, my friends said, "Oh, Sister White, do pray that he may be raised up!" I replied, "The Lord says, 'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.' I do not desire the old warrior to come back to life, to die again; let him rest till the morning of the resurrection."

     The Lord will cut His work short in righteousness. The earth is corrupt under the inhabitants thereof. Disease of every kind is now afflicting the human family. The misery created by the corruption that is in the world through lust is developing in a startling manner in the commission of crime of every description. Robbery, murder, sensuality, and the cruelty of satanic powers, these and many other evils are seen on every hand. We are surrounded by unseen dangers....

     I am instructed to say that, if meat-eating ever was safe, it is not safe now. Diseased animals are taken to the large cities, and to the villages, and sold for food....Such a diet contaminates the blood and stimulates the lower passions....

     To parents who are living in the cities, the Lord is sending the warning cry, Gather your children into your own houses; gather them away from those who are disregarding the commandments of God, who are teaching and practicing evil. Get out of the cities as fast as possible.

     Parents can secure small homes in the country with land for cultivation, where they can have orchards, and where they can raise vegetables and small fruits, to take the place of flesh-meat, which is so corrupting to the life blood coursing through the veins....God will help His people to find such homes outside the cities.

     Those who are agitating this subject [a new style of reform dress] have not been inspired by the Spirit of God. We are very near the great crisis. The Lord would have every action performed with an eye single to the glory of God. To create a new issue on the dress question would be the very thing that would please the enemy. There would be much talk, much burden for one another, because all do not dress exactly alike.

     The agitation on this subject [dress] is not demanded. Tests are not to be manufactured. We have a test for this time,--the Sabbath of the fourth commandment,--and nothing is to be brought in to draw the mind and heart [away] from the great work of preparation for this time. The dress question is not to be our present truth....No one precise style has been given me as the exact rule to guide all in their dress....

     God's tests are now to stand out plain and unmistakable. There are storms before us, conflicts of which few dream. There is no need now for any special alteration in our dress. The plain, simple style of dress now worn, made in the most healthful way, demanding no hoops and no long trails, is presentable anywhere. These things should not come in to divert our minds from the grand test that is to decide the eternal destiny of a world--the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.