Points to Note in Health Food Ministry
1. Good judgment must be exercised in employing persons to do this special work—persons who love God and who walk before Him in all humility, persons who will be effective agencies in God’s hand for the accomplishment of the object He has in view—the uplifting and saving of human beings.
2. Medical missionary evangelists will be able to do excellent pioneer work. The work of the minister should blend fully with that of the medical missionary evangelist.
3. The physician and the minister should realize that they are engaged in the same work. They should labor in perfect harmony. They should counsel together.
4. Physicians whose professional abilities are above those of the ordinary doctor should engage in the service of God in the large cities. They should seek to reach the higher classes.
5. Medical missionaries who labor in evangelistic lines are doing a work of as high an order as are their ministerial fellow workers.
6. Interested workers will be led to offer themselves for various lines of missionary effort. Hygienic restaurants will be established. But with what carefulness should this work be done!
7. Every hygienic restaurant should be a school.
8. The workers connected with it should be constantly studying and experimenting, that they may make improvement in the preparation of healthful foods.
9. In every place where there is a church, instruction should be given in regard to the preparation of simple, healthful foods for the use of those who wish to live in accordance with the principles of health reform.
10. The students in our schools should be taught how to cook. To teach them the science of healthful living is to do missionary work for the Master.
11. Cooking schools are to be established in many places. This work may begin in a humble way, but as intelligent cooks do their best to enlighten others, the Lord will give them skill and understanding.
12. He (God) will work with those who carry out His plans, teaching the people how to bring about reformation in their diet by the preparation of healthful, inexpensive foods.
13. Every inducement to lead the people to reform must be held out before them. Let as much light as possible shine upon them. Teach them to make every improvement that they can in the preparation of food, and encourage them to impart to others that which they learn.
14. The health food business is one of the Lord’s own instrumentalities to supply a necessity. The heavenly Provider of all foods will not leave His people in ignorance in regard to the preparation of the best foods for all times and occasions.
15. We are not to erect large buildings in the cities, but over and over again the light has been given me that we should establish in all our cities small plants which shall be centers of influence.
16. Hygienic restaurants are to be established in the cities, and by them the message of temperance is to be proclaimed.
17. Arrangements should be made to hold meetings in connection with our restaurants.
18. There should be in the meetings nothing of a theatrical nature.
19. There are those who have a special gift of song, and there are times when a special message is borne by one singing alone or by several uniting in song. But the singing is seldom to be done by a few. The ability to sing is a talent of influence, which God desires all to cultivate and use to His name’s glory.
20. Those who come to our restaurants should be supplied with reading matter.
21. The workers in our restaurants should live in such close connection with God that they will recognize the promptings of His Spirit to talk personally about spiritual things to such and such a one who comes to the restaurant.
22. The pressure and rush of business must not lead to a neglect of the work of soul saving.
23. As in our restaurants people are supplied with temporal food, let not the workers forget that they themselves and those whom they serve need to be constantly supplied with the bread of heaven.
24. The managers of our restaurants are to work for the salvation of the employees. They must not overwork, because by so doing they will place themselves where they have neither strength nor inclination to help the workers spiritually.
25. The managers of our restaurants must do more to save the young people in their employ. They must put forth greater efforts to keep them alive spiritually, so that their young minds will not be swayed by the worldly spirit with which they are constantly brought in contact.
26. With every restaurant there should be connected a man and his wife who can act as guardians of the helpers, a man and woman who love the Saviour and the souls for whom He died, and who keep the way of the Lord.
27. The young women should be under the care of a wise, judicious matron, a woman who is thoroughly converted, who will carefully guard the workers, especially the younger ones.
28. The workers are to feel that they have a home. They are God’s helping hand, and they are to be treated as carefully and tenderly as Christ declared that the little child whom He set in the midst of His disciples was to be treated.
29. Our restaurants should not be opened on the Sabbath.
30. When thinking men find that our restaurants are closed on the Sabbath, they will make inquiries in regard to the principles that lead us to close our doors on Saturday. In answering their questions, we shall have opportunity to acquaint them with the reasons for our faith. We can give them copies of our periodicals and tracts, so that they may be able to understand the difference between “him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.”
31. Those who have never seen the recipes for making the health foods now on the market will work intelligently, experimenting with the food productions of the earth, and will be given light regarding the use of these productions.
32. It is our wisdom to prepare simple, inexpensive, healthful foods. Many of our people are poor, and healthful foods are to be provided that can be supplied at prices that the poor can afford to pay.
33. Cooking schools, conducted by wise instructors, are to be held in ____ and in other lands. Everything that we can do should be done to show the people the value of the reform diet.
34. Not one is forgotten by Him. He will impress businessmen who are Sabbathkeepers to establish industries that will provide employment for His people. He will teach His servants to prepare less expensive health foods which can be bought by the poor.
35. In all our plans we should remember that the health food work is the property of God and that it is not to be made a financial speculation for personal gain.
36. In the use of foods we should exercise good, sound common sense. When we find that a certain food does not agree with us, we need not write letters of inquiry to learn the cause of the disturbance. Change the diet; use less of some foods; try other preparations. Soon we shall know the effect that certain combinations have on us.
37. Let the diet reform be progressive. Let the people be taught how to prepare food without the use of milk or butter. Tell them that the time will soon come when there will be no safety in using eggs, milk, cream, or butter, because disease in animals is increasing in proportion to the increase of wickedness among men. The time is near when, because of the iniquity of the fallen race, the whole animal creation will groan under the diseases that curse our earth.
38. God will give His people ability and tact to prepare wholesome food without these things.
39. Those who teach the principles of health reform should be intelligent in regard to disease and its causes, understanding that every action of the human agent should be in perfect harmony with the laws of life.
40. The youth who connect with them (institutions) are to see in them characters that are fragrant with good works. They are to hear from their lips peaceable words, which do not stir up strife. They are to see in them men who look upon all human beings as the purchase of the blood of the Son of God, who will speak to them with affection, tenderness, and love.
41. The food business is to be made the subject of earnest prayer. Let the people ask God for wisdom to prepare wholesome foods.
42. The one who is placed in charge of the food business should be a careful, economical man, who will move forward steadily and yet carefully, binding off the edges, and making sure that the business is producing as well as consuming.
Excerpts from the book Health Food Ministry
