The Ministry of Healing

Description

Insightful overview of health – physical, mental and spiritual. Marvelous wide ranging health book. Index. 480 pages. Paperback.

In the twenty first century many people would agree that more fruit and vegetables and less meat is the way to a healthy diet. Scientific studies often publish statistics comparing meat eaters with Seven Day Adventists (SDA) because the Adventists are a group of people who have advocated and practiced vegetarianism for almost 150 years. The reason this lifestyle came about is largely due to an event which occurred in the summer of 1863 in Michigan, USA. In June 1863 Ellen Gould White, one of the co-founders of the SDA has a vision. She was at the home of brother A. Hilliard, at Otsego, Michigan, when (as she puts it in her own words) “the great subject of health reform was opened before me in vision”. Prior to this ‘vision’ physical health and diet was becoming an issue for the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) ministers and a number of them were in poor health. White claimed the vision was from God and that it lasted for 45 minutes, during which God was said by her to have revealed many important principles for a “health reform” movement she was to later institute in the SDA Church. Later that year she wrote her first pamphlet “An Appeal to Mothers” which was published in 1864, in which she asked questions such as; “have you not marked the lack of healthy beauty, of strength, and power of endurance in your dear children?” “Have you not noticed that there was a deficiency in the mental health of your children?” “Have you not been alarmed at their disregard of parental authority, which has bowed down the hearts of their parents with grief and prematurely sprinkled their heads with grey hair?” “It gives you pain to see your children feeble in body and mind; but does it not cause you still greater grief to see them almost dead to spiritual things, so that they have but little desire for goodness, beauty of character, and holy purposes?” White and many of the Adventists regarded her visions as gifts of prophecy and she went on to have many visions and to write many essays and books. According to Wikipedia’s list of the best selling books of all time, her book “Steps to Christ” first published in 1892 has sold 62 million copies and her 5000 articles and 40 published books have been translated into more than 140 languages. In 1905 White’s book The Ministry of Healing was published. In the preface she wrote; It is not the creator’s purpose that mankind shall be weighed down with a burden of pain, that his activities shall be curtailed by illness, that his strength wane, and his life be cut short by disease. But all too frequently the laws established by God to govern the life are flagrantly transgressed; sin enters the heart, and man loses sight of his dependence upon God, the source of life and health. Then follow the penalties of transgression–pain, sickness, and death. The book emphasizes the link between diet and spiritual growth. It’s a diet book, a self -help book, and a Christian spiritual guide all rolled into one, and it continues to be read widely to this day.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

“I’ve used this 19th Century book in a health seminar. It is a pioneering work, and its truths have been adopted with little credit given by the wholistic health movement in general. Ellen G. White was one of wholistic health’s earliest proponents. This book is still modern; nothing in it is out of date. Kloss cites the Author Ellen G. White as a major influence, in his book Back to Eden. Ministry of Healing presents a wholistic approach to health, emphasizing a simple lifestyle and fundamental health habits. Ellen White, the author, is a good wordsmith. She avoids tangents, and sticks to the basics that provide 99 percent of what is necessary to live a healthy, fruitful life. She presents clear discussions of family values, community approaches that preserve community health, exercise, whole vegetarian foods, food preparation that preserves food values, avoidance of vices including alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and stimulating foods like black pepper and mustard, avoidance of unnecessary medicine, simple layman healing methods (she pioneered the use of water, hot and cold and sunlight as an adjunct to healing), and she searches the scriptures to find clear modern-day applications to health issues. You can heal yourself with the truths in this book. There is a health institute, Weimar Institute in California, that is based on the teachings of this book. As you read this book you’ll experience an atmosphere of incredible light, both spiritually and physically. Her writing style is excellent, and very loving. She’s helped me with my health, and I’ve passed on the truths she taught to many others.”

“This book is the most practical layman’s book on health I have ever read. It’s not a silly home remedies book. Nor is it a hard to understand technical manual. It gives plain and simple advice on how to live a healthy life. Everything from how to care for yourself and others when ill to what simple steps you can take to keep from getting ill to what kind of diet is best to how to take care of yourself when you’re pregnant. Examples: Did you know it is best not to mix fruits and vegetables in a single meal? Do you know what differences in the dietary choices that are most beneficial for manual laborers and those best suited for mental laborers who wish to receive optimum results from their labor? Whomever you are, whether a searcher for physical health, mental health, or spiritual health, you will find this book both fascinating and easily applicable to your life. This book even contains practical advice for medical doctors!”

“Like all of Ellen White’s writings the language is that of the Victorian age, and might be difficult for modern readers to understand. However, the scope of the book, and the ideas it presents that apply to physical, mental, and spiritual health are well worth our attention and thought, and to realise the book was written before modern ideas on medical practice and psychological understanding had changed so much, and written by a woman without advanced education and covering so many aspects of health and wellbeing, is cause for wonder. A very useful book that is well worth reading and then thinking about.”