Worn with the labors of writing and publishing, and of looking after many interests connected with the general work, Elder White and his wife were nevertheless given no rest. Immediately after the conference session, they were called to Wisconsin and Iowa, where they endured many hardships. Soon after their return to Michigan, he was stricken with partial paralysis. An account of this affliction, and of the impetus it indirectly brought to the health reform movement a few months later, is given by Mrs. White in the The Review and Herald, February 20 and 27, 1866, a portion of which forms the text of this chapter.]
(LS 168.1)
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One morning, as we were taking our usual walk before breakfast, we stepped into Brother Lunt’s garden, and while my husband attempted to open an ear of corn, I heard a strange noise. Looking up, I saw his face flushed, and his right arm hanging helpless at his side. His attempt to raise his right arm was ineffectual—the muscles refused to obey his will.
(LS 168.2)
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I helped him into the house, but he could not speak to me until in the house he indistinctly uttered the words, “Pray, pray.” We dropped on our knees and cried to God, who had ever been to us a present help in time of trouble. My husband soon uttered words of praise and gratitude to God, because he could use his arm. His hand was partially restored, but not fully.
(LS 168.3)
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My husband and myself felt the need of drawing near to God. And as by confession and prayer we drew near to God, we had the blessed assurance that He drew near to us. Precious, exceedingly precious, were these seasons of communion with God.
(LS 169.1)
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The first five weeks of our affliction we spent at our own home. For wise purposes our heavenly Father did not see fit to raise my husband to immediate health in answer to our earnest prayers, although He seemed preciously near to comfort and sustain us by His Holy Spirit.
(LS 169.2)
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We had confidence in the use of water as one of God’s appointed remedies, but no confidence in drugs. But my own vital energies were too much exhausted for me to attempt to use hydropathic remedies in my husband’s case; and we felt that it might be duty to take him to Dansville, N. Y., where he could rest, and where we could have the care of those well skilled as hydropathic physicians. We dared not follow our own judgment, but asked counsel of God, and after prayerful consideration of the matter, decided to go. My husband endured the journey well.
(LS 169.3)
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We remained in Dansville about three months. We obtained rooms a short distance from the institution, and were both able to walk out and be in the open air much of the time. Every day, excepting Sabbath and first day, we took treatment.
(LS 169.4)
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Some may have thought that when we went to Dansville and placed ourselves under the care of physicians, we had given up our faith that God would raise my husband to health in answer to prayer. But not so. While we did not feel like despising the means that God had placed in our reach for the recovery of health, we felt that God was above all, and that He who had provided remedial agencies would have us use them to assist abused nature to recover her exhausted energies. We believed that God would bless the efforts we were making in the direction of health.
(LS 169.5)
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