We need to take the time and place of Ellen White's various counsels into
consideration. She did not write them in a vacuum. Most of them met problems
faced by specific individuals or groups in quite specific historic contexts.
For example, in the 1860s Ellen White suggested that women should shorten
their skirts. Why? Because in her day skirts dragged on the ground. In the
process they picked up the filth of a horse-and-buggy culture among other
things. Such skirts also had other problems that Ellen White and contemporary
reformers of her day repeatedly pointed out. Thus she could write that "one
of fashion's wasteful and mischievous devices is the skirt that sweeps the
ground. Uncleanly, uncomfortable, inconvenient, unhealthful--all this and more
is true of the trailing skirt" (The Ministry of Healing, p. 291).
But what was true of her day is generally not true of ours. Of course, one
can think of some traditional cultures that still mirror the conditions of the
nineteenth century. In those cultures the counsel fits without adaptation. But
we must adapt it for most cultures today.
Part of the needed adaptation is reflected in The Ministry of Healing
quotation we read above. If the problem with trailing skirts was that they were
unclean, uncomfortable, inconvenient, and unhealthful, then it seems safe to
assume that some of the principles of correct dress in this case would be that
it is clean, comfortable, convenient, and healthful. Such principles are
universal, even though the idea of shortening one's skirt has roots in time and
place. Further reading in the Bible and Ellen White furnishes other principles
of dress that we can apply to our day. Modesty, for example, comes to mind.
It can't be too heavily emphasized that time and place are crucial factors
for our understanding as we read Ellen White's writings. One way to use her
writings improperly is to ignore the implications of time and place and thus
seek to apply the letter of each and every counsel universally.
In Ellen White's writings such counsels as those urging schools to teach
girls "to harness and drive a horse" so "they would be better
fitted to meet the emergencies of life" (Education, pp. 216, 217);
warning both young and old in 1894 to avoid the "bewitching influence"
of the "bicycle craze" (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8,
pp. 51, 52); and counseling an administrator in 1902 not to buy an automobile to
transport patients from the railroad station to the sanitarium because it was a
needless expense and would prove to be "a temptation to others to do the
same thing" (Letter 158, 1902) are clearly conditioned by time and place.
Other statements that may also be conditioned by time and place are not so
obvious (especially in those areas we tend to feel strongly about), but we need
to keep our eyes and mind open to the possibility.
Another aspect of the time and place issue in Ellen White's writing is that
for many of her counsels the historical context is quite personal, since she
wrote to an individual in his or her specific setting. Always remember that
behind every counsel lies a specific situation with its own peculiarities and
for an individual with his or her personal possibilities and problems. Their
situation may or may not be parallel to ours. Thus the counsel may or may not be
applicable to us in a given circumstance.