Seventh-Day Adventists and Health Principles by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 23, 1916

Seventh-Day Adventists and Health Principles

By F. M. W.

ARE Seventh-day Adventists observing as faithfully the principles of health and temperance as they did in the early days of their history? This question has been propounded to the editor of the REVIEW many times during the last two or three years.

So far as their relation to the grosser forms of intemperance are concerned, like the use of alcoholic drinks, tobacco, etc., we are convinced that there has been no change on the part of the members of our churches since the early days of our church history. Seventh-day Adventists have always been a temperance people as this word is commonly understood. For long years we have not admitted into our membership those who were engaged in the sale or use of intoxicants in any form. We have gone so far as to make the use of tobacco a condition of church membership, and to discourage in our teachings the use of milder stimulants, like tea and coffee. Our attitude as a church toward these greater evils of intemperance is just as uncompromising today as it ever has been in our history.

Regarding our attitude as a denomination toward the general features of health reform we are not so sanguine. We believe that on the part of many there has been a growing conception of what is comprehended in the term health reform. They have got away from the old idea that healthful living consists alone in discarding flesh foods, and in eating vegetable products without reference to their combination or form or preparation. They have passed in their experience the time when they believed, as some did, that nut butter was a remedy for every ill.

Many, we are glad to believe, have been studying the question of health reform more broadly during the last few years than ever before. They have come to see that the question of healthful living involves not alone the question of diet, but of rest, of exercise, of ventilation, of proper dress, and of general sanitation in their homes and on their premises. They have come to recognize that while from physiological reasons flesh should not be used for food, yet from other physiological reasons equally important they should include in their diet foods containing the same elements of nutrition that are provided in meat; and that a suitable variety in the diet, together with proper food combination and preparation, making the food appetizing and attractive to taste and smell and sight, is quite as essential as a particular class of food products.

There are others, we are sorry to say, who do not seem to have advanced beyond first principles in their relation to this subject. They still feel that one's attitude toward the subject of health reform is determined wholly by whether or not he is a vegetarian.

We believe that vegetarianism is included within the scope of true health reform, but we believe that this is only one of many allied questions embraced in this great subject, and that the one who sees only this detail in it takes indeed a very narrow view of the question.

There is another class who show by their attitude that they do not consider the question of healthful living one worthy of their thought or consideration. They go on still in the old way, with but little idea of or regard for the light which God has given to his people.

It is these two latter classes, regardless of the position they occupy in the church, that bring health reform into disrepute, —one by extreme radicalism, and the other by cold indifference or active opposition.

The Lord desires us to be reasonable and reasoning men and women. He imposes upon us no restrictions, gives us no regulations for our conduct, save such as are based upon reason, and such as he in his infinite wisdom sees will be for our good. It is for us to take the instruction which he has given on this great subject of health, study it broadly and deeply, and in the wisdom which God gives us seek to adapt it to our own personal needs.

And let us avoid making our conception of the question the standard or gauge by which we judge others. It is proper for the church of Christ to take its stand relative to the grosser evils of intemperance, and to say that those who use or sell intoxicants shall not be members of the church; but in the question of the details of eating and drinking, individual conscience must be the judge. In these minor details every man is answerable alone to his God, and must stand or fall by himself, reaping in his own experience the result of his obedience or disobedience. Let us apply to ourselves as strictly and as literally as we may desire, every principle of health reform as we understand it, but let us be exceedingly generous toward our brethren, who doubtless are quite as honestly endeavoring in their experience to apply the principles from their viewpoint. At best, we are only fallible mortals. We know nothing as we ought to know it. We have made many mistakes in the past; we are learning continually by our experience. In view of this, it behooves us to be charitable.

The principle stated by the apostle Paul, in his epistle to the church at Rome, is worthy of careful consideration in this connection:—

“Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make himstand. . . . But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.”

Let us be careful neither to judge our brother nor to place before him, in our example, an occasion for stumbling. We can do this only as we walk humbly with God, and reasonably and consistently seek to carry out in our lives the light and instruction which has come to us.

F. M. W.