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The Spiritual Interests of the Sanitarium

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 19, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 41.

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The Spiritual Interests of the Sanitarium

By G. B. Starr

The sanitarium is God's instrumentality for the saving of souls who could not be reached through the ordinary ministry. Such an institution is a special soul-saving station, in which every employee, physician, nurse, and manager is to act a part.
The religious influence, therefore, should permeate and vitalize every department, and be first in the thought and plans and actual working of the place, so prominent that no guest or visitor could fail to be influenced by it, meeting it at every turn and in every department. Certainly God has not raised up denominational institutions to be foremost in drug methods, surgical methods, or even hydrotherapeutic methods in themselves; but to present Christ as the healerof the body and soul, and to exalt and emphasize the laws of God, physical and spiritual, and the gospel of Jesus as the one remedy for all of man's ills.
God has given to us a treasure of information, a wealth of truth, upon the true relation of sin to sickness, and of salvation to health and happiness. If this treasure were possessed by worldly-wise men, would they not bring it to the forefront and emphasize it as a great asset?
Emphasizing the religious phase of the sanitarium work includes active co-operation on the part of physicians, manager, matron, head nurses, and graduate nurses in all the religious exercises, social services, Sabbath services, tract society meetings, and Sunday night meetings for the patients.
If the physicians absent themselves from any of these, they give a decided impression that other matters are more important, and employees and patients treat them in a similar manner.
At one sanitarium the writer visited, all the physicians attended the patients' morning worship at 8:40. The music was made attractive by having a good player always on hand at 8:30 to begin to draw the patients in by playing and singing.
One of the physicians led the worship, and he told me he spent from two to four hours each day with God and the Bible and the spirit of prophecy, in preparation. This was a great blessing to the physician in his work, as well as to the patients. At these times of study of the Word and of prayer, God can impart to the physician light and wisdom not to be found in any worldly journal or treatise on disease, and thus the God-fearing physician is placed where God can make him a leader in the science of true healing, and lead him above and out of the ranks of the world's medical profession.
And the spiritual interest of the sanitarium cannot be so well served by having a chaplain do all this. While this physician was leading the worship, another physician was out in the hallway meeting the patients as they came from the breakfast, and cheerfully inviting and advising them to spend a few moments in song and the worship of God. The business manager closed his office for these twenty minutes, and, accompanied by his assistants, took part with the patients in their worship. So also did the head bath man and bath woman, and every call boy that could be spared. At the present time this institution is enjoying the largest patronage it has ever had at this time of year.
At another of our largest sanitariums, it was decided to improve the attendance at the Sunday evening service, and so an interesting and attractive song service was arranged, consisting of solos, duets, and a gospel talk of fifteen to twenty minutes sandwiched right in between the songs. The result has been an increase in attendance from about fifteen persons to as many as sixty.
We earnestly entreat that all of God's institutions be conducted according to the pattern which he has given, that his signal blessing and approval may attend them, and that they may be the great power and assistance in the finishing of the gospel of the grace of God in all the earth for this the most important of all times in this earth's history.