Relation of Our Sanitariums to the Third Angel’s Message
By D. H. Kress
The sanitarium idea is the outgrowth of the health principles which have been associated with the proclamation of the third angel’s message from its beginning. In 1821 Joseph Bates, then a sea captain, witnessing the evils resulting from strong drink, gave up the use of alcoholic liquors. Wine and cider were then regarded as household necessities by the majority because of their supposedly strengthening properties. In fact, about that time a Quaker in England who applied for a policy in a life-insurance company was rejected when it was ascertained that he was a total abstainer, although he was considered a good risk in other respects. Later the company consented to take the risk, provided an extra payment of ten per cent was made for his policy. It is now established that the total abstainer lives longer, and has fewer days off on account of illness during each year, than the moderate user of these milder alcoholic drinks; and total abstainers are considered much better risks by all insurance companies. That which it has taken years for science to establish, Captain Joseph Bates advocated in his day. He abandoned all5alcoholic drinks about the year 1823. This was not the end of reforms with him. A few years later tobacco was given up for the same reason that alcoholic beverages were abandoned; and, still later, in 1832, he gave up the use of tea and coffee. In 1843 flesh foods were added to the list of undesirables; and from that date to the time of his death, which occurred thirty years later, Captain Bates remained an abstainer from flesh food. Science to-day upholds every one of the steps in reform taken by Captain Bates. So strong is the feeling against alcohol, even by medical men, that it is seldom prescribed as a remedial agency. Its supposedly beneficial effects are known to be due to its paralyzing influence. Alcohol renders the patient unconscious of his real condition, just as it makes a man exposed to cold unconscious of the fact that he is cold, and perhaps in serious danger. Thus the science of the Bible now stands vindicated — “wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” The search-light of science is now being turned on tobacco, tea, and coffee. These, too, are narcotics, and lessen the feeling of fatigue, sorrow, and business or home perplexities, by deadening the sense of consciousness. Flesh foods have concealed within their fibers subtle poisons which exert a similar influence. No man can afford to be made unconscious of his real condition, either physical or moral; he can not, therefore, afford to introduce into his body, poisons which benumb the only medium through which God, by his Spirit, can communicate with man, and convict of sin and of righteousness; for such an act may result in the loss of the soul. After the bitter disappointment of 1844, many forsook the advent doctrine altogether, giving no further thought to it. But not so Captain Bates. God had prepared this man, unconsciously to himself, to start a still greater reform. His mind was directed to the latter part of Revelation 10, “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings;” to the temple of God in heaven, as mentioned in Rev. 11:1, 2; and to the ark and its contents — the ten commandments. Light came into his mind especially upon the fourth commandment, which was then ignored; and this light he at once proceeded to communicate to the world. This great health and temperance reformer was the man whom God selected to call attention to the Sabbath reform, as connected with the heralding of the second coming of Christ. Captain Bates was the first Seventh-day Adventist. So, in the providence of God, our sanitariums have been established to give special prominence to, and to teach, these reforms, and thus prepare minds (as God prepared the mind of Joseph Bates) for the reception of the Sabbath truth and other truths connected with the proclamation of the second coming of Christ. A little over forty years ago, at Battle Creek, Mich., our first sanitarium was established. It was an unpretentious beginning. Our facilities for doing sanitarium work were very meager. We had no physicians, no nurses. The ministers of the gospel were the chief advocates of these reforms. Articles on health were written by them; and, in fact, they are responsible for the impetus given to this great reform movement, which has resulted in the establishment of over eighty sanitariums, with an investment of more than three million dollars. At present two thousand workers are engaged in sanitarium work, and we have more than one hundred physicians. In these institutions a thousand earnest young people are in training as medical missionaries for foreign and home fields. Foreign missionary work can not be carried on without missionaries, and missionaries can not be developed without schools of training. To the medical missionary, doors will open which remain forever closed to the ordinary missionary. In our sanitariums, young men and women have an opportunity to receive a training for this double ministry, at little or no expense to themselves. Twenty-five thousand persons pass through our sanitariums as patients or guests each year, remaining, on an average, five weeks each. The good accomplished by their stay, the far-reaching effect of their being brought under these influences even for this brief time, the books of heaven alone will reveal. But there is another side to the picture. Many of our sanitariums have their usefulness crippled because of their burden of debt. The managers find it impossible to keep up the service, equipment, and repairs of the institutions, because of lack of means. Unfavorable impressions may thus be made of those who should in every respect be models of neatness and order. Our sanitariums also desire to do much more for a class that have none to help them, especially for our own sick poor; but here again the burden of debt prevents. The plan of relief proposed — that each member of our denomination sell two copies of “Ministry of Healing” and five copies of Life and Health each year for three years — will, if carried out, do much to place our sanitariums in a position to do the work which at present they are unable to perform. The plan itself does not call for an impossible effort on the part of any one (to sell two books and five magazines a year is not a great task); but if it is faithfully carried out, it will mean much to our sanitariums, enabling them to reduce their indebtedness one half in three years. The world needs the truths found in “Ministry of Healing;” and few who read it will be led astray by Christian Science, the Emmanuel Movement, the hypnotic-suggestion theory, or other false mind-cures, which are at present deceiving multitudes: our people need the experience they will gain in this work: and our sanitariums greatly need the help that can come to them in this way.