Ask Ellen

Question:

Dear Ellen,

Someone told me that you got addicted to vinegar, and it almost killed you. How can that be? I told them I did not believe it, and that they must have read that rumor at one of those anti-Ellen White websites. If you did have an addiction, how many letters and testimonies were written while you were "under the influence" of vinegar? Could the alcohol content of your vinegar have affected your judgment and discernment? I need to know the truth.

Signed, Shocked

Answer:

Dear Shocked,

Well, first of all we are each human. That is why I wrote:

I do not say that I am perfect, but I am trying to be perfect. I do not expect others to be perfect; and if I could not associate with my brothers and sisters who are not perfect, I do not know what I should do. No one is perfect. If one were perfect, he would be prepared for heaven. As long as we are not perfect, we have a work to do to get ready to be perfect. (Pacific Union Recorder, April 29, 1915, paragraph 7-8)

Those who accept the Saviour, however sincere their conversion, should never be taught to say or to feel that they are saved. This is misleading. (Christ Object Lessons, page 155)

As long as man is full of weakness–for of himself he cannot save his soul–he should never dare to say, "I am saved." (Selected Messages, vol 1, page 314)

It could have happened to you, too! I am just happy to be alive.

I had indulged the desire for vinegar. But I resolved with the help of God to overcome this appetite. I fought the temptation, determined not to be mastered by this habit. For weeks I was very sick; but I kept saying over and over, The Lord knows all about it. If I die, I die; but I will not yield to this desire. The struggle continued, and I was sorely afflicted for many weeks. All thought that it was impossible for me to live. You may be sure we sought the Lord very earnestly. The most fervent prayers were offered for my recovery. I continued to resist the desire for vinegar, and at last I conquered. Now I have no inclination to taste anything of the kind. This experience has been of great value to me in many ways. I obtained a complete victory." (Letter 70, 1911, reproduced in Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 485)

Those were hard times. You have to understand how we made vinegar in the mid-1800s. Here are two recipes for homemade vinegar taken from Miss Leslie’s Directions for Cookery, published in 1851:

CIDER VINEGAR: Take six quarts of rye meal; stir and mix it well into a barrel of strong hard cider of the best kind; and then add a gallon of whiskey. Cover the cask, (leaving the bung loosely in it,) set it in the part of your yard that is most exposed to the air; and in the course of four weeks (if the weather is warm and dry) you will have good vinegar fit for use.

WHITE VINEGAR: Put into a cask a mixture composed of five gallons of water, two gallons of whiskey, and a quart of strong yeast, stirring in two pounds of powdered charcoal. Place it where it will ferment properly, leaving the bung loose till the fermentation is over.

As you can see from these recipes, vinegar in the mid-1800s was made with ingredients such as "strong hard cider" and "whiskey." In your grocery stores today the alcohol content of vinegar is much lower — around .5% alcohol, which is quite small. The vinegar addiction I had almost killed me. I don’t like to dwell on these "human imperfections". In regard to my judgment and discernment while writing, I have been instructed to say the following:

In these letters which I write, in the testimonies I bear, I am presenting to you that which the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision–the precious rays of light shining from the throne. (Testimonies, vol 5, page 67)

The Spirit of God works upon my mind and gives me appropriate words with which to express the truth. I am also greatly strengthened when I stand before large congregations.– (Selected Messages, vol 3, page 51, Letter 90, 1907)

I am trying to catch the very words and expressions that were made in reference to this matter, and as my pen hesitates a moment, the appropriate words come to my mind. (Selected Messages, vol 3, page 51, Letter 123, 1904)

Although I am dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in writing my views as I am in receiving them, yet the words I employ in describing what I have seen are my own. (Review and Herald, Oct. 8, 1867)

Believe me. Stick with Soy Milk, Fri-Chik and Big Franks. I have been shown that you will be much better off!

Ellen White