The great world is sick, and wherever the children of men dwell, sin and suffering abound.
Notwithstanding the advancement of medical and surgical science; notwithstanding the great army of trained nurses, who, like white armed hosts, go forth with great skill to battle against disease and death, yet in all civilized lands sickness and disease are rapidly increasing. The “great white plague” slays his millions, and a score of minor complaints are well known to be his skirmishers and sappers and miners.
All sickness and pain, all suffering and sorrow, are the results of law transgressed. The wonderful human machinery has been tampered with, and its delicate mechanism has been made to run counter to the law of its life and persistency; disease and death are the result.
What is the remedy? Having transgressed law, how may we recover from the transgression and its results?
The Great Physician
Our Lord Jesus Christ came to this world as the unwearied servant of man's necessity. He “took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matt. 8: 17), that he might minister to every need of humanity. The burden of disease and wretchedness and sin he came to remove. It was his mission to bring to men complete restoration; he came to give them health and peace and perfection of character.
During his ministry, Jesus devoted more time to healing the sick than to preaching. His miracles testified to the truth of his words, that he came not to destroy, but to save. Wherever he went, the tidings of his mercy preceded him. Where he had passed, the objects of his compassion were rejoicing in health, and making trial of their new-found powers. Crowds were collecting around them to hear from their lips the works that the Lord had wrought. His voice was the first sound that many had ever heard, his name the first word they had ever spoken, his face the first they had ever looked upon. Why should they not love Jesus, and sound his praise?
What a busy life he led! Day by day he might have been seen entering the humble abodes of want and sorrow, speaking hope to the downcast, and peace to the distressed. Gracious, tender-hearted, pitiful, he went about lifting up the bowed-down and comforting the sorrowful. Wherever he went, he carried blessing.
The Christian Physician a Coworker with Christ
In the ministry of healing, the physician is to be a coworker with Christ. The Saviour ministered to both the soul and the body. The gospel which he taught was a message of spiritual life and of physical restoration. Deliverance from sin and the healing of disease were linked together. The same ministry is committed to the Christian physician. He is to unite with Christ in relieving both the physical and spiritual needs of his fellow men. He is to be to the sick a messenger of mercy, bringing to them a remedy for the diseased body and for the sin-sick soul.
Christ is the true head of the medical profession. The chief Physician, he is at the side of every God-fearing practitioner who works to relieve human suffering. While the physician uses nature's remedies for physical disease, he should point his patients to him who can relieve the maladies of both the soul and the body. That which physicians can only aid in doing, Christ accomplishes. They endeavor to assist nature's work of healing; Christ himself is the healer. The physician seeks to preserve life; Christ imparts life.
The Source of Healing
The Saviour in his miracles revealed the power that is continually at work in man's behalf, to sustain and to heal him. Through the agencies of nature, God is working, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, to keep us alive, to build up and restore us. When any part of the body sustains injury, a healing process is at once begun; nature's agencies are set at work to restore soundness.
*Paragraph selected from “Ministry of Healing,” Review and Herald Publishing Association, publishers, Washington, D. C.
But the power working through these agencies is the power of God. All life-giving power is from him. When one recovers from disease, it is God who restores him.
Sickness, suffering, and death are the work of an antagonistic power. Satan is the destroyer; God is the restorer.
The words spoken by Israel are true today of those who recover health of body or health of soul. “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Ex. 15: 26.
IF WE WOULD HAVE HEALTH, WE MUST LIVE FOR IT.
The desire of God for every human being is expressed in the words, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” 3 John 2.
He it is who “forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies.” Ps. 103: 3, 4.
Sin the Cause of Disease
When Christ healed disease, he warned many of the afflicted ones, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” John 5: 14. Thus he taught that they had brought disease upon themselves by transgressing the laws of God, and that health could be preserved only by obedience.
The physician should teach his patients that they are to cooperate with God in the work of restoration. The physician has a continually increasing realization of the fact that disease is the result of sin. He knows that the laws of nature, as truly as the precepts of the decalogue, are divine, and that only in obedience to them can health be recovered or preserved. He sees many suffering as the result of hurtful practices who might be restored to health if they would do what they might for their own restoration. They need to be taught that every practice which destroys the physical, mental, or spiritual energies is sin, and that health is to be secured through obedience to the laws that God has established for the good of all mankind.
Need of Education in Health Principles
Education in health principles was never more needed than now. Notwithstanding the wonderful progress in so many lines relating to the comforts and conveniences of life, even to sanitary matters and to the treatment of disease, the decline in physical vigor and power of endurance is alarming. It demands the attention of all who have at heart the well-being of their fellow men.
Our artificial civilization is encouraging evils destructive of sound principles. Custom and fashion are at war with nature. The practices they enjoin, and the indulgences they foster, are steadily lessening both physical and mental strength, and bringing upon the race an intolerable burden. Intemperance and crime, disease and wretchedness, are everywhere.
Many transgress the laws of health through ignorance, and they need instruction. But the greater number know better than they do. They need to be impressed with the importance of making their knowledge a guide of life. The physician has many opportunities both of imparting a knowledge of health principles and of showing the importance of putting them in practice. By right instruction he can do much to correct evils that are working untold harm.
The Use of Drugs
A practice that is laying the foundation of a vast amount of disease and of even more serious evils, is the free use of poisonous drugs. When attacked by disease, many will not take the trouble to search out the cause of their illness. Their chief anxiety is to rid themselves of pain and inconvenience. So they resort to patent nostrums, of whose real properties they know little, or they apply to a physician for some remedy to counteract the result of their misdoing, but with no thought of making a change in their unhealthful habits. If immediate benefit is not realized, another medicine is tried, and then another. Thus the evil continues.
By the use of poisonous drugs, many bring upon themselves lifelong illness, and many lives are lost that might be saved by the use of natural methods of healing. The poisons contained in many so-called remedies create habits and appetites that mean ruin to both soul and body. Many of the popular nostrums called patent medicines, and even some of the drugs dispensed by physicians, act a part in laying the foundation of the liquor habit, the opium habit, the morphine habit, that are so terrible a curse to society.
Restorative Power of Nature
The only hope of better things is in the education of the people in right principles. Let physicians teach the people that restorative power is not in drugs, but in nature. Disease is an effort of nature to free the system from conditions that result from a violation of the laws of health. In case of sickness, the cause should be ascertained. Unhealthful conditions should be changed, wrong habits corrected. Then nature is to be assisted in her effort to expel impurities and to reestablish right conditions in the system.
Natural Remedies
Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power,—these are the true remedies. Every person should have a knowledge of nature's remedial agencies and how to apply them. It is essential both to understand the principles involved in the treatment of the sick and to have a practical training that will enable one rightly to use this knowledge.
The use of natural remedies requires an amount of care and effort that many are not willing to give. Nature's process of healing and upbuilding is gradual, and to the impatient it seems slow. The surrender of hurtful indulgences requires sacrifice. But in the end it will be found that nature, untrammeled, does her work wisely and well. Those who persevere in obedience to her laws will reap the reward in health of body and health of mind.
Preservation of Health
Too little attention is generally given to the preservation of health. It is far better to prevent disease than to know how to treat it when contracted.
It is the duty of every person, for his own sake and for the sake of humanity, to inform himself in regard to the laws of life, and conscientiously to obey them. All need to become acquainted with that most powerful of all organisms, the human body. They should understand the functions of the various organs and the dependence of one upon another for the healthy action of all. They should study the influence of the mind upon the body, and of the body upon the mind, and the laws by which they are governed.
Training for Life's Conflict
We cannot be too often reminded that health does not depend on chance. It is the result of obedience to law. This is recognized by the contestants in athletic games and trials of strength. These men make the most careful preparation. They submit to thorough training and strict discipline. Every physical habit is carefully regulated. They know that neglect, excess, or carelessness, which weakens or cripples any organ or function of the body, would insure defeat.
How much more important is such carefulness to insure success in the conflict of life. It is not mimic battles in which we are engaged. We are waging a warfare upon which hang eternal results. We have unseen enemies to meet. Evil angels are striving for the dominion of every human being. Whatever injures the health, not only lessens physical vigor, but tends to weaken the mental and moral powers. Indulgence in any unhealthful practice makes it more difficult for one to discriminate between right and wrong, and hence more difficult to resist evil. It increases the danger of failure and defeat.
Pointing to the self-denial practiced by the contestants in the ancient Greek games, the apostle Paul writes: “Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 1 Cor. 9: 25-27.
The Basis of Reform
One of the most deplorable effects of the original apostasy was the loss of man's power of self-control. Only as this power is regained, can there be real progress. The body is the only medium through which the mind and the soul are developed for2the upbuilding of character. Hence it is that the adversary of souls directs his temptations to the enfeebling and degrading of the physical powers. His success here means the surrender to evil of the whole being. The tendencies of our physical nature, unless under the dominion of a higher power, will surely work ruin and death.
The body is to be brought into subjection. The higher powers of the being are to rule. The passions are to be controlled by the will, which is itself to be under the control of God. The kingly power of reason, sanctified by divine grace, is to bear sway in our lives.
The requirements of God must be brought home to the conscience. Men and women must be awakened to the duty of self-mastery, the need of purity, freedom from every demeaning appetite and defiling habit. They need to be impressed with the fact that all their powers of mind and body are the gift of God, and are to be preserved in the best possible condition for his service.
Teaching in the Home
In no place is such instruction as this more needed, and nowhere will it be productive of greater good, than in the home. Parents have to do with the very foundation of habit and character. They are giving to their children an example either of obedience or of transgression. By their example and teaching, the destiny of their households is decided. The children will be what their parents make them.
If parents could be led to trace the result of their action, and could see how, by their example and teaching, they perpetuate and increase the power of sin or the power of righteousness, a change would certainly be made. Many would turn away from tradition and custom, and accept the divine principles of life.
THE FOUNDATION OF TEMPERANCE IS LAID AT OUR TABLES
