Another indication of Ellen White's views on sexual frequency is seen in the following statement:
Very many women submit to become slaves to lustful passion. They do not possess their bodies in sanctification and honor. The wife does not retain the dignity and self-respect she possessed previous to marriage. This holy institution should have preserved and increased her womanly respect and holy dignity. Her chaste, dignified, godlike womanhood, has been consumed upon the altar of base passion. It has been sacrificed to please her husband. She soon loses respect for her husband, who does not regard the laws to which the brute creation yields obedience.
EGW, Solemn Appeal.
Here the comparison is to human and animal sexual practice.
Animals tend to mate only when the female is ready for reproduction. Ellen White indicates that some men do not follow this practice.
Notice the parallels to the following selections from the book of fellow Adventist Kellog, "Plain Facts for Old and Young"
Kellog is here quoting other authorities of the day. For more info check out the full text at project Gutenberg.
The Sexual Function in Lower Animals. -- Then if we wish to ascertain, with certainty, the true function of the reproductive organs in man, we must pursue the course above indicated; in other words, study the function of reproduction in lower animals.
"The ovaries, as well as the eggs which they contain, undergo, at particular seasons, a periodical development, or increase in growth. . . . At the approach of the generative season, in all the lower animals, a certain number of the eggs, which were previously in an imperfect and inactive condition, begin to increase in size, and become somewhat altered in structure." "In most fish and reptiles, as well as in birds, this regular process of maturation and discharge of eggs takes place but once in a year. In different species of quadrupeds, it may take place annually, semi-annually, bi-monthly, or even monthly; but in every instance, it recurs at regular intervals, and exhibits accordingly, in a marked degree, the periodic character which we have seen to belong to most of the other vital phenomena."
A Lesson from Instinct. -- "It is a remarkable fact, in this connection, that the female of these animals will allow the approaches of the male only during and immediately after the oestral period; that is, just when the egg is recently discharged, and ready for impregnation. At other times, when sexual intercourse would be necessarily fruitless, the instinct of the animal leads her to avoid it; and the concourse of the sexes is accordingly made to correspond in time with the maturity of the egg and its aptitude for fecundation."
The law of periodicity, as it affects the sexual activity of males of the human species, is indicated in the following remarks by the same author:
"The same correspondence between the periods of sexual excitement in the male and female, is visible in many of the animals [higher mammals], as well as in fish and reptiles. This is the case in most species which produce young but once a year, and at a fixed period, as the deer and the wild hog. In other species, on the contrary, such as the dog, the rabbit, the guinea-pig, etc., where several broods of young are produced during the year, or where, as in the human subject, the generative epochs of the female recur at short intervals, so that the particular period of impregnation is comparatively indefinite, the generative apparatus of the male is almost always in a state of full development, and is excited to action at particular periods, apparently by some influence derived from the condition of the female."a
Summary of Important Facts. -- The facts presented in the foregoing quotations from Dr. Dalton may be summarized as follows: --
1. The sexual function is for the purpose of producing new individuals to take the place of those who die, and thus preserve the species from becoming extinct.
2. In the animal kingdom generally, the reproductive function is necessarily a periodical act, dependent upon the development of the reproductive organs of both the male and the female at stated periods.
3. In those exceptional cases in which the organs of the male are in a state of constant development, sexual congress occurs, in lower animals, only at those times when the periodical development occurs in the female.
4. Fecundation of the female element can only take place about the time of periodical development in the female.
5. The desire for sexual congress naturally exists in the female only at or immediately after the time of periodical development.
6. The constant development of the sexual organs in human males is a condition common to all animals in which development occurs in the female at short intervals, and is a provision of nature to secure a fruitful union when the female is in readiness, but not an indication for constant or frequent use.
7. The time of sexual congress is always determined by the condition and desires of the female.
A Hint from Nature. -- An additional fact, as stated by physiologists, is that, under normal conditions, the human female experiences sexual desire immediately after menstruation more than at any other time. It has, indeed, been claimed that at this period only does she experience the true sexual instinct, unless it is abnormally excited by disease or otherwise.
From these facts the following conclusions must evidently be drawn: -- 1. The fact that in all animals but the human species the act can be performed only when reproduction is possible, proves that in the animal kingdom in general the sole object of the function is reproduction. Whether man is an exception, must be determined from other considerations.
2. The fact that the males of other animals besides man, in which the sexual organs are in a state of constant development, do not exercise those organs except for the purpose of reproduction, is proof of the position that the constant development in man is not a warrant for their constant use.
3. The general law that the reproductive act is performed only when desired by the female, is sufficient ground for supposing that such should be the case with the human species also.
It is but fair to say that there is a wide diversity of opinion among medical men on this subject. A very few hold that the sexual act should never be indulged except for the purpose of reproduction, and then only at periods when reproduction will be possible. Others, while equally opposed to the excesses, the effects of which have been described, limit indulgence to the number of months in the year. Read, reflect, weigh well the matter, then fix upon a plan of action, and, if it be in accordance with the dictates of better judgment, do not swerve from it.
If the suggestion made near the outset of these remarks, in comparing the reproductive function in man and animals—viz., that the seasons of sexual approach should be governed by the inclination of the female—were conscientiously followed, it would undoubtedly do away with at least three-fourths of the excesses which have been under consideration.
The thrust of Kellog's quotes is that female animals only feel need or allow sex during the time when they are capable of reproduction.
It also references the belief that human females are only really excited during this time of fertility.
It draws from the habits of animals that the only time for sex should be when the female desires it.
This is quite different than Paul's advice that both should meet the needs of each other.
1Co 7:2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
1Co 7:3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.
1Co 7:4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
